“Just after the American air strike on Khowst [Afghanistan] in August [20] 1998, according to Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, ‘three men financed by the Saudi government’ were arrested by the Taleban before they could attack bin Laden. From his talks with bin Laden and [Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman] al-Zawahiri, Yusufzai learned that the team’s leader was a man named Siddiq Ahmed, a member of a Turkestani family that had immigrated to Saudi Arabia. Ahmed’s family had not been granted citizenship, and Saudi intelligence offered him that status, and a million riyals, if he would kill bin Laden. Bin Laden told Yusufzai that Siddiq confessed that the attempt was ordered by Saudi Prince Salman bin Abdula Aziz, Riyad’s governor and King Fahd’s brother.”
– Michael Scheuer, Osama Bin Laden, Page 109