20. The interview was published in 1991 in Al-Umma Al-Islamiyya and is cited in Wright, The Looming Tower, p. 78. “I recall, with pride, that I was the only family member who succeeded in combining work and doing excellently in school,” Bin Laden said. “I decided to drop out of school to achieve my goals and dreams. I was surprised at the major opposition to this idea, especially from my mother, who cried and begged me to change my mind. In the end, there was no way out. I couldn’t resist my mother’s tears. I had to go back and finish my education.” The 1996 résumé was published in connection with his interview with Nida’ul Islam, op. cit.
21. Mecca project work: Abbas, Story of the Great Expansion, pp. 262–63. “He liked…by himself”: Sunday Times, op. cit.
15. WIRED
1. Interview with Francis Hunnewell, August 9, 2006. Interview with Michael Pochna, August 31, 2006.
2. Interview with Hunnewell, op. cit.
3. All quotations: Interview with Pochna, op. cit.
4. “Do you see me?”: Interview with Dave Whitney, February 20, 2006. “Randa!…Do you believe this?”: Interview with Thomas Dietrich, April 12, 2006. Also, interview with Peter Blum, May 5, 2006; interview with George Harrington, February 23, 2006.
5. All quotations: Interview with Dietrich, op. cit.
6. Rome nightclub, son of Lord Carrington: Interview with Rupert Armitage, September 19, 2006. Also, interviews with Hunnewell and Pochna, op. cit.
7. All quotations: Interview with Hunnewell, op. cit.
8. “There must have…by tomorrow”: Interview with Armitage, op. cit.
9. All quotations: Ibid.
10. “They found…opened”: Interview with Hunnewell, op. cit.
11. “one of the…pilots”: Interview with Pochna, op. cit.
12. Ibid.
13. The initial $6.7 billion contract, Fahd’s commission, European consultants’ estimate: Surtees, Pa Bell, pp. 218–38; Holden and Johns, The House of Saud, p. 412. Salem’s flight logs examined by the author.
14. “this was one of the contracts” and scene with Walter Light: Interview with Pochna, op. cit.
15. The size of the Bell Canada portion of the contract is difficult to determine precisely. Pochna and Hunnewell, and documents from their litigation, suggest they were owed about $21 million for their 1.5 percent commission during the first five years, which would place the contract value in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion. The total announced value of the contract, including all equipment sales, was more than $3 billion. That there was $400 million in construction contracts in addition: Surtees, Pa Bell, p. 231; that these went to Bin Laden interests in the main: Interviews with Pochna and Hunnewell, op. cit. Mohammed bin Fahd’s $500 million commission: House of Saud, op. cit., p. 414.
16. Juhaiman’s origins in Sajir: Al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia, p. 145; House of Saud, op. cit., pp. 514–15.
17. House of Saud, op. cit., pp. 515–26.
18. “Rules of Allegiance”: Ibid. “drunkards…the state’s money”: Vassiliev, A History of Saudi Arabia, pp. 395–96; Teitelbaum, Holier Than Thou, pp. 20–21. Quoted also in Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 28.
19. Flight logs examined by the author.
20. Mahdi divined in a dream: House of Saud, op. cit., p. 520.
21. “was frantic…unhinged”: Carmen Bin Laden, Inside the Kingdom, pp. 123–25. “Everyone was saying…steel there was”: Interview with the Bin Laden employee, who asked to not be further identified.
22. Gained access with Bin Laden vehicles: Inside the Kingdom, op. cit., p. 123. “Where is Bin Laden…Jackhammer it”: Interview with the Bin Laden employee, op. cit.
23. “They bored…in the hole”: Telephone interview with Tim Barger, March 7, 2006. “we were slipping”: Interview with the Bin Laden employee, op. cit.
24. Binladin International initial filings in Panama, dates, directors, successor corporation names: Documents collected and provided to the author by Douglas Farah and the Nine/Eleven Finding Answers Foundation. In other court documents, the Bin Ladens acknowledged moving money offshore quickly in August 1990, following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. See chapter 27.
25. Interview with the employee, op. cit. He did not recall the identity of the second brother. Wright, The Looming Tower, p. 94, reports that Osama was with Mahrouz, citing an interview with Jamal Khalifa. Inside the Kingdom, pp. 123–24, describes Mahrouz’s arrest but does not mention a second brother; it reports that Mahrouz had a pistol in his car.
26. Interview with the employee, op. cit.
27. Lawrence (ed.), Messages to the World, p. 266.
28. Osama would also have been able to borrow or obtain much larger sums to make purchases such as the apartment he bought for his expanding family. The apartment building: Interview with Khaled Batarfi, February 19, 2005. According to Nasir Al-Bahri, Osama’s later bodyguard, two of the wives Osama took before he moved to Afghanistan had earned doctoral degrees either in Islamic law or in Arabic. Osama seems to have married one of these wives from the Al-Sharif family during the 1980s.
29. “especially effective…problems”: Randal, Osama, p. 64, where Al-Khatib also describes the demolition work and Osama’s interaction with Europeans and Americans.
30. “I knew it meant…like him anymore”: Al-Khatib interview in the Sunday Times (London), January 6, 2002.
16. THE AMUSEMENT PARK
1. Heart surgeon: Interview with Gail and Robert Freeman, April 27, 2006. Polaroid: Interview with Jack Hinson, May 10, 2005. Showed it to royalty: Interview with Mohamed Ashmawi, November 26, 2005 (RS.)
2. Saudin Inc. filings and directors: Documents provided to the author by Douglas Farah and the Nine/Eleven Finding Answers Foundation. “should there…Saudi Arabia”: Robert Freeman, “The Saudi Connection” (unpublished manuscript).
3. “was having some cash flow problems”: Telephone interview with Aaron Dowd, February 13, 2006. Price of the property, sale terms: Freeman, “The Saudi Connection,” ibid. Book of flowers, who received the first houses: Interview with Gail and Robert Freeman, op. cit.
4. Wine prank: Interview with Anwar Khan, May 6, 2006 (RS).
5. Winter Garden and Desert Bear history: Telephone interview with Rod Reeves, former director of Winter Garden Heritage Museum, February 7, 2006; interview Julie Butler, Heritage Museum director, February 6, 2006. Also, Desert Bear history, McCarthy purchase and restoration: telephone interview with Miller McCarthy, February 10, 2006.
6. Salem told McCarthy: Telephone interview with McCarthy, ibid. “the Prince…from Saudi Arabia”: “The Saudi Connection,” op. cit.
7. Telephone interview with McCarthy, ibid. Closing date: Orange County property records. These show the purchase price as $1.61 million. McCarthy’s recollection of a higher price may include other contiguous land. The Deed for 17920 West Colonial, the address of the main estate, was purchased by Desert Bear Limited, “a Liberian corporation,” according to the Orange County records. That Price Waterhouse arranged the company: Interview with Robert Freeman, op. cit.
8. Interviews with four longtime neighbors who asked not to be otherwise identified. “they liked…openly”: Telephone interview with McCarthy, ibid.