Al-Qaeda (62 page)

23
. Statement at press conference at Holiday Inn, Islamabad, 22 August 1998.

24
. Behroz Khan, ‘Remains of the Day’,
Newsline
, September 1998; interview with Bakht Zamin, HUM commander, Mansehra, Pakistan, October 1998.

25
. A useful commentary is by Brigadier (retd) Shaukat Kadir, ‘An Analysis of the Kargil Conflict’,
RUSI Journal
, April 2002, who spoke to the author in June 2002.

26
. The best analysis of Central Asian Islamic militancy can be found in Rashid,
Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia
.

27
. Multiple interviews with Taliban ministers, officials, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, 1998–2000.

28
. Benjamin and Simon,
The Age of Sacred Terror
, pp. 272–3.

29
. Multiple interviews with Taliban officials and opium farmers in Afghanistan, Western diplomats, UNDCP and British Customs and Excise officials in Islamabad, autumn 1999.

30
. Interview with senior United Nations education specialist, Jalalabad, October 2002; Burke,
India Today
, November 1999.

31
. Interview with Amir ul Momineen by Nazir Leghari and Mufti Jamil Khan, published in
Taliban, an Exemplary Rule of an Exemplary State
, by the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jama’at. The exact date of the interview and publication are unclear from the document, in the author’s collection, but from the text can be inferred to have taken place some time in early 1996.

32
.
Islamic Emirate Magazine
, first issue, July 2000, p. 14.

33
.
Newsline
, January 1999.

34
.
Islamic Emirate Magazine
, p. 3.

35
. Tim Judah, ‘The Taliban Papers’,
Survival
, vol. 44, no. 1, Spring 2002.

36
. Timothy Roche, Brian Bennett, Anne Berryman, Hilary Hylton, Siobhan Morrissey and Amany Radwan, ‘The Making of John Walker Lindh’,
Time
, 29 September 2002.

37
. Ibid.

38
. John Walker Lindh indictment, 5 February 2002, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, USA
v
. John Philip Walker Lindh.

39
. Ibid.

40
. Interview with senior Taliban foreign ministry official, Peshawar, September 2001.

41
. Janine di Giovanni, ‘Radicals Abroad Urged Destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas’,
The Times
, 24 November 2001; fatwa of Sheikh Ali Bin Khodeir al-Khodeir, dated February 2001, reproduced in Jacquard,
Les Archives Secrètes d’al-Qaida
, p. 312.

42
. Tim Judah, ‘The Taliban Papers’,
Survival
, vol. 44, no. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 68–80.

43
. Interviews with arms dealers, Peshawar, September 2001; see Burke, in ‘War on Terrorism: Special Edition – The Afghan Connection’,
The Observer
, 23 September 2001. Bin Laden’s efforts may not have been too productive. A recently declassified Defense Intelligence Agency cable of 2 October 2001 predicted, ‘Eventually the Taliban and al-Qaeda will wage war with each other… al-Qaeda have not integrated with Afghans in the Taliban.’

44
. Cullison and Higgins, ‘Computer in Kabul Holds Chilling Memos’.

45
. Anderson,
The Lion’s Grave
, p. 187; ‘Massoud conscious, stable after attack’,
Associated Press
, 10 September 2001. I spent time with Massoud in the summer of 1999 in the Panjshir and found him to be one of the most charismatic people I had ever met. I was genuinely saddened by his death.

13: The Millennium Plot

1
. Complaint filed against Ahmed Ressam in US District Court in Seattle, case no. 99–547M. Application for arrest warrant of Samir Ait Mohammed, by Adam S. Cohen, FBI, 26.10.2001, Southern District, New York.

2
. Judith Miller, ‘Holy Warriors: Dissecting a Terror Plot from Boston to Amman’,
New York Times
, 15 January 2001.

3
. Hal Bernton, Mike Carter, David Heath and James Neff, ‘The Terrorist Within’,
Seattle Times
, 23 June–7 July 2002.

4
. General Paul Aussaresses,
Service Speciaux
, Perrin, Paris, 2001.

5
. Scott Johnson, ‘Tale of the Wayward Son’,
Newsweek
, 8 May 2000.

6
. Bernton, Carter, Heath and Neff, ‘The Terrorist Within’; Scott Johnson, ‘Tale of the Wayward Son’.

7
. Kepel,
Jihad
, p. 160.

8
. Cooley,
Unholy Wars
, pp. 197–8.

9
. Kepel,
Jihad
, p. 161.

10
. Testimony of Ahmed Ressam, USA
v
. Mokhtar Houari, 3 July 2001.

11
. Roy,
The Failure of Political Islam
, p. 24.

12
. Omar Belhouchet, editor of
El Watan
, quoted in Bernton, Carter, Heath and Neff, ‘The Terrorist Within’.

13
. Interview with Algerian former mujahideen, Algiers, August 2001.

14
. Interview with senior security official, Algiers, August 2001.

15
. Bernton, Carter, Heath and Neff, ‘The Terrorist Within’.

16
. Testimony of Ahmed Ressam, USA
v
. Mokhtar Houari, 3 July 2001.

17
. Website at
www.assuna-annabawiyah.org
.

18
. Multiple interviews with former AIS fighters in Algiers, August 2001.

19
. Al-Fadl testimony, USA
v
. Usama bin Laden, 2001, transcript day 2.

20
. Conversations with activists conducted by senior Arab journalist and relayed to the author, October 2002.

21
. Interview with senior member of Libyan Fighting Group, London, February 2003. The activist also related how ibn Khattab, the Chechnyan commander, attempted to make contact with the GIA. They told him they would be pleased to see him – if he signed up as a foot soldier. This was confirmed by Algerian diplomatic sources in 2004.

22
. GIA videos circulated 1994–5, author collection. See also Jason Burke, David Leppard and Tim Kelsey, ‘Islamic Terror Videos Sold in Britain’,
Sunday Times
: ‘Insight’, 29 December 1996.

23
. Testimony of Judge Jean-Louis Brugiere, trial of Ahmed Ressam, Los Angeles, 2 April 2001.

24
. Bruce Crumley, ‘Fighting Terror: Lessons from France’,
Time
, 24 September 2001; Patricia Tourancheau, ‘A Paris, faux papiers au cœur d’un réseau islamiste’,
Libération
, 28 September 2001.

25
. ‘Bin Laden linked to Paris plot’, CNN, 3 October 2001.

26
. Testimony of Ahmed Ressam, USA
v
. Mokhtar Houari, 3 July 2001.

27
. USA
v.
Abu Doha sealed complaint, US Southern District Court, New York, 2 July 2001; testimony of Ahmed Ressam, USA
v.
Mokhtar Houari, 5 July 2001.

28
. I am grateful to Ben Brown for showing me the notebook in Jalalabad, November 2001.

29
. Testimony of Ahmed Ressam, USA
v
. Mokhtar Houari, 5 July 2001; Judith Miller, ‘Holy Warriors: Killing for the Glory of God, in a Land Far From Home’,
New York Times
, 16 January 2001.

30
. ‘Terror suspect: an interview with Osama bin Laden’, ABC news, transcript at
www.abcnews.go.com
.

31
. USA
v.
Abu Doha, indictment, sealed complaint, US Southern District Court, New York, 2 July 2001.

32
. Testimony of Ahmed Ressam, USA
v
. Mokhtar Houari, 5 July 2001. Further funds were allegedly provided by Abu Qutada, the cleric in London. See Burke, Amman and Bright, ‘Cleric Hits Back over Bomb Plot Claims’,
The Observer
, 19 December 1999.

33
. Judith Miller, ‘Holy Warriors: Dissecting a Terror Plot from Boston to Amman’,
New York Times
, 15 January 2001.

34
. First supplemental affidavit, Frederick W. Humphries II, special agent FBI, 8 August 2001, Seattle, Washington, author collection.

35
. Testimony of Judge Jean-Louis Brugiere, trial of Ahmed Ressam, Los Angeles, 2 April 2001.

36
. USA
v.
Abu Doha sealed complaint, US Southern District Court, New York, 2 July 2001.

37
. Judith Miller, ‘Holy Warriors: Dissecting a Terror Plot from Boston to Amman’; ‘Death Sentence for Jordan Terror Suspect’, BBC News, 11 February 2002. The tip-off came from Khalil Deek, a Jordanian computer expert who had got close to Abu Zubaydah but who was in fact an agent for the Jordanian secret services. He was arrested in Pakistan in November 1999, extradited to Jordan and then released. He then disappeared.

38
. Ambassador Michael Sheehan, Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Testimony Before the House International Relations Committee, Washington, DC, 12 July 2000.