Al-Qaeda (63 page)

14: The Holy War Foundation

1
. Jason Burke, ‘Bin Laden and Son: The Grooming of a Dynasty’,
The Observer
, 23 September 2001; interview with Ahmed Zaidan, al-Jazeera journalist present at wedding, Islamabad, June 2002. Bin Laden’s mother and two brothers flew into Kandahar from Saudi Arabia for the occasion.

2
. US State Department,
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999 Middle East Overview
, April 2000.

3
. In December 1998, an armed group calling itself the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan had kidnapped sixteen Western tourists, including twelve Britons, two Australians and two Americans, in southern Yemen. Four of the tourists died during a rescue attempt by security forces. The Yemeni government linked the group, who had been running a training camp in the Yemen for several years, to bin Laden but provided no evidence to substantiate the claim. One link, however, might have been Osama al-Masri, the deputy commander of the kidnappers, who was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He was, however, killed in the shoot-out. In fact, the man that the leader of the group, Abu Hassan al-Midhar, phoned barely an hour after seizing the tourists to discuss the successful attack was not bin Laden but Abu Hamza al-Masri, a preacher at Finsbury Park mosque in north London. As well as linking him to the kidnapping, Yemen also accused Abu Hamza of having sent ten young men from Britain, including his son and a stepson, to attack British and American targets in Aden. (He denies both charges.) Six of the men were arrested in December 1998, before any attacks took place. According to the Yemenis, the Islamic Army then kidnapped the tourists in the hope of securing the men’s release. Abu Hassan was executed in late 2000. Brian Whitaker, ‘Al-Qaida Link to Tourists’ Kidnap’,
The Guardian
, 13 October 2001; Brian Whitaker, ‘War in Afghanistan: Violence Dominates Lawless Province’,
The Guardian
, 19 December 2001; Bergen,
Holy War, Inc.
, p. 201.

4
. ‘US Finds Link between bin Laden and
Cole
Bombing’, CNN, 8 December 2001.

5
. Bergen,
Holy War, Inc.
, p. 208.

6
. Mark Hosenball and Daniel Klaidman,
Newsweek
, 25 February 2002.

7
. John Miller, ‘Yemen Probe Uncovers bin Laden Links and Missteps by
Cole
Bombers’, ABC News, 8 December 2001.

8
. Brian Whitaker, ‘Yemen Bombers Hit UK Embassy’,
The Guardian
, 14 October 2000.

9
. ‘Bin Laden Watches over Yemen Flock’,
Intelligence newsletter
(online), no. 366, 23 September 1999.

10
. Bergen,
Holy War, Inc.
, p. 197.

11
. Saudi Arabian security sources in Islamabad; author telephone interviews, January 2001.

12
. Cullison and Higgins, ‘Computer in Kabul Holds Chilling Memos’.

13
. Jason Burke, ‘Algeria Tries to Forget its Dark, Tortured Past’,
The Observer
, 12 August 2001.

14
. Florence Beaugé, ‘En Algérie, les islamistes armés se sont restructurésen trois formations’,
Le Monde
, 30 October 2002.

15
. Interview with Algerian security source, London, 2002.

16
. ‘Saudi Terrorist Mastermind Behind Algerian Group’, AFP, 15 February 1999.

17
. Interviews with senior Algerian security officers, London and Algiers, 2001.

18
. ‘Ben Laden au secours de Hattab’,
Le Matin
, 26 November 2002;
El Watan
, ‘Un dirigeant d’al-Qaïda tombe en Algérie’,
Mounir B
, 26 November 2002; interviews with
al-Hayat
journalists, London, August 2002; interviews with Algerian security officers, Algiers, August 2001; Jason Burke, Ed Vulliamy, James Astill and Nick Pelham, ‘Terror that Haunts Africa’,
The Observer
, 30 November 2002; author interview, Algerian diplomats, London, 2004.

19
. Jonathan Schanzer, ‘ALGERIA’S GSPC AND AMERICA’S “WAR ON TERROR”’,
Washington Institute, POLICYWATCH
, Number 666, 2 October 2002.

20
. Indictment of Marouf, Essid Sami
et al
., case number 13016/99, Public Prosecutor’s Office, Milan, author collection; Frances Kennedy, ‘Two Men Suspected of Recruiting Islamic Militants are Arrested in Milan’,
Independent
, 30 November 2001.

21
. Bruce Hoffman, Rand Corporation, testimony to House and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 8 October 2002, p.15.

22
. Paul Harris, Burhan Wazir and Kate Connolly, ‘British Plotter Planned al-Qaeda Bomb Massacre’,
The Observer
, 21 April 2002.

23
. Patricia Tourancheau, ‘Une filière tombe en France, Sa cible probable: l’ambassade des Etats-Unis’,
Liberation
, 26 September 2001; Marie-France Etchegoin, ‘Düsseldorf, Londres, Kaboul, l’itinéraire d’une conversion à la guerre sainte’,
Le Monde
, 19 October 2001; ‘Qui est Djamel Beghal?’
Nouvel Observateur
, no. 1928, 18 October 2001; interrogation report of Djamal Beghal, M. Jean-Louis Brugiere, premier vice-président chargé de l’instruction au tribunal de grande instance de Paris, September 2001, author collection.

24
. Interrogation report of Djamal Beghal, author collection.

25
. Ibid.

26
. Interviews with British and French intelligence officers, London and (by phone) Paris, October 2002.

27
. Hiro,
Dictionary of the Middle East
, pp. 135–6; interviews in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, August 2002; interviews with PUK officials in London, December 2002.

28
. Krekar was born in 1956 in an outlying district of Sulaimaniyah. In 1978 he went to university in Arbil and went on to take a master’s in Modern Science in Pakistan. Assad Mohammed Ameen Herki, who is also known as Mullah Aso and is a science graduate from Mosul University, was born around 1957 and went to Afghanistan in 1988, as did Satbun Mahmud Abdul Latif al-Aiai, a.k.a. Abu Wa’el, an Arab law graduate from Ramadi, 100 miles west of Baghdad. Profiles compiled from interviews with Islamist prisoners and intelligence documents in Sulaimaniyah, August 2002.

29
. Interview with senior PUK intelligence officer, Sulaimaniyah, August 2002.

30
. Interview with former student at Arbil University, Chamchamal, August 2002.

31
. Interview with Fawzi Hariri, senior KDP official, Salahaddin, August 2002.

32
. Interview with senior PUK official, Sulaimaniyah, August 2002.

33
. Interview with Mullah Majjed Ismail Mohammed, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, August 2002.

34
. Interview with PUK intelligence official and Islamist prisoners, Sulaimaniyah, August 2002.

35
. The IMK already had a strong presence in the city, partly because of Mullah Uthman Ali Aziz and his family’s roots nearby, but largely because of the strong Iranian religious influence on the area. Ali Aziz also wanted an enclave close to the Iranian border so he and his allies within the IMK would have an escape route should the PUK and the KDP decide to renew its military attack on the movement. Halabja was thus perfect. The PUK, embroiled in a vicious and bloody armed struggle with the KDP, was in no position to resist the Iranian and IMK demands.

36
. Interviews with senior KDP and PUK officials in Sulaimaniya, Dohuk, Salahaddin, August 2002; Hiro,
Dictionary of the Middle East
, pp. 135–6.

37
. Author collection.

38
. Multiple interviews with Ansar ul Islam militants, IMK activists, PUK security officials, Sulaimaniyah, August 2002.

39
. Multiple interviews with Ansar ul Islam militants, PUK security officials, Sulaimaniyah, August 2002.

40
. Multiple interviews with Ansar ul Islam militants, PUK security officials, Sulaimaniyah, August 2002.

41
. According to some, al-Shami brought a substantial amount of money with him. I was, however, unable to confirm this.

42
. Rohan Gunaratna, ‘The Singapore Connection’,
Jane’s Intelligence Review
, March 2002, pp. 8–11.

43
. Interview with senior officer Banden Intelligens Nasional, Jakarta, October 2002; Raymond Bonner, ‘Indonesian Cleric Is Suspected of Being a Terrorist Leader’,
New York Times
, 3 February 2002.

44
. Terry McDermott, ‘How Terrorists Hatched a Simple Plot to Use Planes as Bombs’,
Los Angeles Times
, 1 September 2002.

45
. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, ‘Clerics Groomed Students for Terrorism’,
Washington Post
, 7 February 2002.

46
. Daniel Klaidman and Melinda Liu, ‘A Good Place to Lie Low’,
New-sweek
, 4 February 2002.

47
. Romesh Ratnesar, ‘Confessions Of An Al-Qaeda Terrorist’,
Time
, 15 September 2002.

48
. Interview with senior officer Banden Intelligens Nasional, Jakarta, October 2002; Derwin Pereira, ‘Jakarta Team in Pakistan to Track Hambali’,
Straits Times
, 22 March 2002.

49
. I am indebted to
The Guardian
’s southeast Asia correspondent John Aglionby for much of this analysis. Also Seth Mydans, ‘Islam Grows Rigid’,
New York Times
, 29 December 2001; Government of Australia,
Current Issues Brief
6, 2001–2; Indonesia and Transnational Terrorism, Chris Wilson, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Group, Australian Parliament; R. C. Paddock, ‘Indonesian Extremist Backs Terror Southeast Asia’,
Los Angeles Times
, 23 September 2001.

50
. Moroccan ministry of justice, interrogation report of al-Tubaiti, Casablanca, 19 June 2001, author collection.

15: 11 September

1
. Statement of FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence website, 26 September 2002,
http://intelligence.senate.gov/0209hrg/020926/witness.htm
.