Calls to Heckler & Koch’s offices in Virginia and in Alabama were not returned.

Among other revelations, the book says that Jalaluddin Haqqani, an Afghan fighter against the Soviets and now a Taliban leader in Pakistan, received tens of thousands of dollars from the CIA as a “unilateral” asset of the intelligence agency in 1988 and 1989.

It also says that US intelligence installed a listening device in a desk presented in the late 1970s to Saudi Prince Nayef when he became interior minister. Nayef’s discovery of the bug, it says, negatively coloured his views of the United States and inhibited his cooperation with US counterterrorism efforts following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The Bin Ladens, published by Penguin, traces the extended bin Laden family from Osama’s great-great-grandfather through Osama’s children and other members of the youngest generation. According to the book and many previous accounts, few of Osama’s far-flung relatives had any contact with him during the growth of al-Qaida and rejected his turn to violence. Those living in or visiting the US at the time of the 2001 attacks left the country about a week later on flights arranged by the Saudi government and with the approval of the FBI and the White House.