58 made the case: Milton Bearden, “Afghanistan: Graveyard of Empires,” Foreign Affairs (November/December 2001), www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57411/milton-bearden/afghanistan-graveyard-of-empires.
59 At this stage: At that time, three soldiers had been killed, while on November 19, 2001, four journalists were killed. On U.S. casualties, see www.icasualties.org/OEF/Fatalities.aspx; on journalist deaths, see Claire Cozens, “Swedish TV Cameraman Killed in Afghanistan,” Guardian, November 27, 2001, www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/27/terrorismandthemedia.afghanistan.
60 not a single American had died in combat: Patrick T. Reardon, “As Bodies Pile Up, Support Can Slip,” Chicago Tribune, March 30, 2003, www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030330-public-opinion01.htm.
61 “look for options in Iraq”: Tommy Franks, American Soldier (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), p.315.
62 “What the fuck are they talking about?”: Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), p. 8.
63 an eight-hundred-page document: Ibid.
64 Franks then rebriefed: Franks, American Soldier, pp. 329–42.
65 explained why he did not send more U.S. soldiers: Tommy Franks, e-mail to author, November 24, 2009.
66 “There was no question”: Dell Dailey, interview by author, Washington, DC, October 2011.
67 “No fucking way”: Ibid.
68 traveled up to Bagram Air Base: Ibid.
69 Susan Glasser … recalled: Susan Glasser, e-mail to author, December 9, 2008.
70 about two thousand American troops: Drew Brown, “U.S. Lost Its Best Chance to Decimate al-Qaida in Tora Bora,” Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau, October 14, 2002; U.S. Special Operations Command History, p. 98, which describes a reinforced company of the Tenth Mountain being at Bagram and Mazar-e-Sharif. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, on page 17, explains that it was the Fifteenth and Twenty-sixth Marine Expeditionary Units; foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Tora_Bora_Report.pdf.
71 less than a week: Peter Krause, “The Last Good Chance: A Reassessment of U.S. Operations at Tora Bora,” Security Studies 17, no. 4 (October 2008): 657; Stanley McChrystal interview.
72 logistically difficult: Donald P. Wright, James R. Bird, Steven E. Clay, Peter W. Connors, Lieutenant Colonel Scott C. Farquhar, Lynn Chandler Garcia, and Dennis Van Wey, A Different Kind of War: The United States Army in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), October 2001–September 2005 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2005), p. 128.
73 President Bush was never asked: Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Time in Washington (New York: Crown Publishers, 2011), p. 119. In former vice president Dick Cheney’s lengthy autobiography, In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011), there is no discussion at all of Tora Bora.
74 Bush confirms: Bush, Decision Points, p. 202.
75 only some three hundred: Henry A. Crumpton, speech at CSIS Smart Power Series, Washington, DC, January 14, 2008, csis.org/files/media/csis/press/080114_smart_crumpton.pdf.
76 a group of more than two dozen: This group of bodyguards came to be known as the “dirty thirty.” See, for instance, JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Muazhamza al-Alawi, ISN US9YM-000028DP, March 14, 2008.
77 one of bin Laden’s sons: “Moroccan Security Source Views Danger of Moroccans Released from Guantánamo,” Asharq Al-Awsat, August 20, 2004.
78 Bin Laden went to say good-bye: “Al-Qaida Head Recalls ‘Human Side’ of Bin Laden,” Associated Press, November 15, 2011, www.cbsnews.com/8301-501713_162-57325424/al-qaida-head-recalls-human-side-of-bin-laden/.
79 Accompanied by some of his guards: “Moroccan Security Source Views Danger of Moroccans Released from Guantánamo.”
80 a final testament: Osama bin Laden, “The Will of One Seeking the Support of Allah Almighty, Usama Bin Laden,” Al-Majallah (a Saudi magazine), December 14, 2001, www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ubl-fbis.pdf, p. 222.
81 to rest: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Awal Gul, ISN US9AF-000782DP, February 15, 2008.
82 went by horse: Ibid.
83 bin Laden released a video: Osama bin Laden videotape, Al Jazeera, December 27, 2001.
84 bemoaning the fate: Muhammad al-Shafey, “A Site Close to al-Qaeda Posts a Poem by bin Laden in Which He Responds to His Son Hamzah,” Asharq Al-Awsat, June 16, 2002.
85 Bush was incensed: Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.
86 “wild claim”: “Candidates Bid for Voter Turnout,” CNN.com, October 26, 2004, articles.cnn.com/2004-10-25/politics/election.main_1_tora-bora-bin-afghan-forces?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS.
87 “absolute garbage”: “Richard B. Cheney Delivers Remarks at a Town Hall Meeting,” CQ Transcriptions, October 19, 2004.
CHAPTER 3: AL-QAEDA IN THE WILDERNESS
1 The group’s bylaws: Translated by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center, April 18, 2002, AFGP-2002-600849, www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/AFGP-2002-600849-Trans.pdf.
2 “I was very upset”: Sebastian Rotella, “Al Qaeda Crosses the Ts in Terrorist,” Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2008, articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/16/world/fg-qaedaculture16.
3 splurged on an expensive fax machine: Cullison, “Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive.”
4 a letter to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Letter from Abd al-Halim Adl to “Mukhtar,” translation from Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, Harmony Program, www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Al-Adl-Letter_Translation.pdf.
5 Abu Musab al-Suri: Abu Musab al-Suri’s real name is Mustafa Setmariam Nasar.
6 “We are passing through”: Jim Lacey, A Terrorist’s Call to Global Jihad: Deciphering Abu Musab Al-Suri’s Islamic Jihad Manifesto (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008), pp. 29 and 40.
7 Suri wrote that: Ibid., p. 100.
8 “America destroyed”: Abu Musab al-Suri, “The Call to Global Islamic Resistance,” published on jihadist websites, 2004.
9 “Targeting America”: “Document Contains Al-Qaeda Review of the 9/11 Attacks on the United States One Year Later,” undated (circa September 2002), AQ-SHPD-D-001-285, The Conflict Records Research Center, National Defense University, www.ndu.edu/inss/docUploaded/AQ-SHPD-D-001-285.pdf.
10 “The giant American media”: Ibid.
11 “Our ultimate objective”: Fu’ad Husayn, “Al-Zarqawi: The Second al-Qa’ida Generation,” Al-Quds Al-Arabi, May 21–22, 2005. Husayn is a Jordanian journalist who received information from three people close to al-Zarqawi, including Saif al-Adel.
12 Greystone: “Dana Priest: Top Secret America ‘Is Here to Stay,’ ” PBS Frontline, September 6, 2011, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/topsecretamerica/dana-priest-top-secret-america-is-here-to-stay/.
13 dozens of whom: Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, “Disappearing Act: Rendition by the Numbers,” Mother Jones, March 3, 2008, motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/disappearing-act-rendition-numbers.
14 “The consensus of the experts”: “John Rizzo: The Lawyer Who Approved CIA’s Most Controversial Programs,” PBS Frontline, September 6, 2011, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/topsecretamerica/john-rizzo-the-lawyer-who-approved-cias-most-controversial-programs/.
15 when the CIA discovered: Douglas A. Frantz, “Nuclear Secrets: Pakistan Frees 2 Scientists Linked to Bin Laden Network,” New York Times, December 17, 2001, www.nytimes.com/2001/12/17/world/nation-challenged-nuclear-secrets-pakistan-frees-2-scientists-linked-bin-laden.html.
16 six weeks after 9/11: Richard Myers, Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security (New York: Threshold Editions, 2009), p. 193.
17 drawer of his desk: Dave Montgomery, “For Bush, Getting Bin Laden Was ‘Unfinished Business,’ ” McClatchy Newspapers, May 2, 2011, www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/02/113562/for-bush-getting-bin-laden-was.html.
18 in the form of a pyramid: Ari Fleischer interview.
19 call on his cell: Ahmed Zaidan, interview by author, Islamabad, Pak
istan, July 15, 2011.
20 On the tape: “Bin Laden’s Message,” Al Jazeera, November 12, 2002, translated by BBC Monitoring, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2455845.stm.
21 Chitral … length of time it seemed to take: Author interview with U.S. military intelligence official, 2006.
22 living in Karachi: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abdul Rabbani Abu Rahman, ISN US9PK-001460DP, June 9, 2008.
23 Adel authorized: Author interviews with senior Saudi counterterrorism officials, 2009.
24 laid out in detail: This interview formed the basis for Yosri Fouda and Nick Fielding, Masterminds of Terror: The Truth Behind the Most Devastating Terrorist Attack the World Has Ever Seen (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2003).
25 twenty packages of passports: See JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abdul Rabbani Abu Rahman.
26 routinely handling: See JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Ammar al-Baluchi, ISN USSPK 010018D, December 8, 2006.
27 KSM planned a second wave: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, ISN US9KU-010024DP, December 8, 2006.
28 “I am with KSM”: Scott Shane, “Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation,” New York Times, June 22, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/washington/22ksm.html.
29 addressed to family members in Iran: Asad Munir, interview by author, Islamabad, Pakistan, July 19, 2011.
30 20-gigabyte hard drive: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad Arbaysh, ISN US9SA-000192D, November 30, 2005.
31 passport photos of operatives: U.S. Department of Defense, Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Trial, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, March 10, 2007, www.defenselink.mil/news/transcript_ISN10024.pdf.
32 called for attacks against Western countries: “Robertson: Purported Bin Laden Tapes a ‘Two Pronged Attack,’ ” CNN.com, October 20, 2003, www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/18/otsc.robertson/.
33 British consulate in Turkey: “Istanbul Rocked by Double Bombing,” BBC News, November 20, 2003, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3222608.stm.
34 on their way to work in Madrid: “Madrid Train Attacks,” BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/457000/457031/html/.
35 “If that were true”: Gilles Kepel, Jean-Pierre Milelli, and Pascale Ghazaleh, trans., Al Qaeda in Its Own Words (Boston: President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2008), pp. 71 and 75.
36 called for attacks on Saudi oil facilities: Craig Whitlock and Susan Glasser, “On Tape, Bin Laden Tries New Approach,” Washington Post, December 17, 2004, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3927-2004Dec16.html.
37 rash of attacks: Joel Roberts, “Al Qaeda Threatens More Oil Attacks,” CBS News, February 25, 2006, www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/world/main1346541_page2.shtml.
38 few al-Qaeda operatives threw away: Interview with General Michael Hayden by Tresha Mabile for National Geographic’s Last Days of Osama bin Laden, September 6, 2011.
39 newly emerging geolocation technologies: Robert Dannenberg, interview by author, New York, December 17, 2009.
40 Swiss cell phone SIM cards: Don Van Natta Jr. and Desmond Butler, “How Tiny Swiss Cellphone Chips Helped Track Global Terror Web,” New York Times, March 4, 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/world/how-tiny-swiss-cellphone-chips-helped-track-global-terror-web.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
41 Silicon Valley outfit: Ashlee Vance and Brad Stone, “Palantir, the War on Terror’s Secret Weapon,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, November 22, 2011, www.businessweek.com/magazine/palantir-the-vanguard-of-cyberterror-security-11222011.html.
42 “targeter”: Joby Warrick, The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA (New York: Doubleday, 2011), pp. 106 and 68.
43 “digital exhaust”: Phil Mudd, interview by author, Washington, DC, June 2, 2011.
44 mushroomed from 340 to 1,500: Ronald Kessler, The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003), p. 263.
45 two serious assassination attempts: Salman Masood, “Pakistani Leader Escapes Attempt at Assassination,” New York Times, December 26, 2003, www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/world/pakistani-leader-escapes-attempt-at-assassination.html.
46 “We had so much trust”: Asad Munir interview.
47 handed over 369 suspected militants: Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir (New York: Free Press, 2008), p. 237.
CHAPTER 4: THE RESURGENCE OF AL-QAEDA
1 Omar Khyam: For more on Khyam’s radicalization in Britain and the 2004 bomb plot, see Elaine Sciolino and Stephen Grey, “British Terror Trial Centers on Alleged Homegrown Plot,” International Herald Tribune, November 26, 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/world/europe/26iht-web.1026crevice.3665748.html?pagewanted=1.
2 “had enough people”: Mitchell Silber, The Al Qaeda Factor: Plots Against the West (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), p. 96.
3 inert material: For a description of the “Operation Crevice” arrests, as the plot was dubbed by UK authorities, see ibid., pp. 83–107.
4 enjoying his honeymoon: Jane Perlez, “U.S. Seeks Closing of Visa Loophole for Britons,” New York Times, May 2, 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/world/europe/02britain.html?pagewanted=all.
5 three-month visit to Pakistan: “Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on July 7, 2005,” Intelligence and Security Committee, May 2006, www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/isc_7july_report.pdf, pp. 12 and 15.
6 tasked him with launching an attack: Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” New York Police Department, 2007, www.nypdshield.org/public/…/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf, pp. 48–49.
7 “today’s heroes”: “London Bomber: Text in Full,” BBC, September 1, 2005, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4206800.stm.
8 Zawahiri himself then made an appearance: “U.S., UK Investigate ‘Bomber Tape,’ ” CNN.com, September 2, 2005, articles.cnn.com/2005-09-02/world/london.claim_1_al-jazeera-london-attacks-qaeda?_s=PM:WORLD.
9 The strike killed only local villagers: Carlotta Gall et al., “Airstrike by US Draws Protests from Pakistanis,” New York Times, January 15, 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/international/asia/15pakistan.html?pagewanted=all.
10 disparaging comments: Hassan Fattah, “Qaeda Deputy Taunts Bush for ‘Failure’ in Airstrike,” New York Times, January 31, 2006.
11 “Sheikh Osama warned”: “Suicide Videos: What They Said,” BBC, April 4, 2008, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7330367.stm.
12 “would have rivaled 9/11”: Richard Greenberg, Paul Cruickshank, and Chris Hansen, “Inside the Terror Plot That ‘Rivaled 9/11,’ ” Dateline NBC, September 14, 2009, www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26726987#.Tw9Q2V1AIj8.
13 called for attacks on the Pakistani state: “Bin Laden Tape Encourages Pakistanis to Rebel,” Associated Press, September 20, 2007, www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-20-al-qaeda-video_N.htm.
14 more than fifty suicide attacks: “Bomb Hits Pakistan Danish Embassy,” BBC, June 2, 2008, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7430721.stm.
15 Saudi government surveyed: Author discussions with Saudi officials, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2009.
16 secret PowerPoint briefing: Evan Thomas, “Into Thin Air,” Newsweek, September 3, 2007, www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/09/02/into-thin-air.html.
17 “Is that all there are?”: Ibid.
18 “excellent idea”: “CIA Chief Has ‘Excellent Idea’ Where Bin Laden Is,” CNN.com, June 22, 2005, articles.cnn.com/2005-06-20/us/goss.bin.laden_1_bin-ayman-sense-of-international-obligation?_s=PM:US.
19 “A great deal of the resources”: Art Keller, interview by author, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 13, 2007.
20 “big surge”: Robert Grenier, interview by author, Washington, DC, February 18, 2009.
21 “they were just all Iraq all the time”: David Kilcullen, interview by author, New York, November 20, 2009.
22 “I couldn’t go out myself”: Craig Whitlock, “In Hunt for bin Laden, a New Approach,” Washington Post, Septemb
er, 10 2008, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090903404_3.html?nav=emailpage&sid=ST2008090903480.
23 “We are zero for ’07”: Warrick, The Triple Agent, p. 13.
24 small, “compartmented”: Michael Leiter, interview by author, Washington, DC, August 29, 2011.
25 stopped seeking Pakistani officials’ concurrence: Author interview with Bush administration official, Washington, DC, 2009.
26 from many hours to forty-five minutes: Ibid.
27 Hellfire missiles or JDAM … bombs: “Reaper: A New Way to Wage War,” Time, June 1, 2009, www.time.com/time/magazine/pdf/20090601drone.pdf.
28 killed Abu Khabab al-Masri: “Al-Qaeda Chemical Expert ‘Killed,’ ” BBC, July 28, 2008, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7529419.stm.
29 a fivefold increase: See Katherine Tiedemann and Peter Bergen, “The Year of the Drone,” New America Foundation, February 24, 2010, counterterrorism.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/bergentiedemann2.pdf.
30 killed in the drone strikes: See “Guard: Al Qaeda Chief in Pakistan Killed,” CNN.com, September 9, 2011, edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/09/09/pakistan.alqaeda.killed/index.html; Pir Zubair Shah, “U.S Strike Is Said to Kill Qaeda Figure in Pakistan,” New York Times, October 17, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/world/asia/18pstan.html; Ismail Khan and Jane Perlez, “Airstrike Kills Qaeda-Linked Militant in Pakistan,” New York Times, November 22, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/world/asia/23rauf.html; Eric Schmitt, “2 Qaeda Leaders Killed in U.S. Strike in Pakistan,” New York Times, January 8, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/asia/09pstan.html.
31 “The whole time along”: Ari Fleischer interview.
32 ground assaults in the tribal regions: Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, “Bush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan,” New York Times, September 10, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11policy.html?pagewanted=all.
33 attack a compound … housing militants: Pir Zubair Shah, Eric Schmitt, and Jane Perlez, “American Forces Attack Militants on Pakistani Soil,” New York Times, September 4, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/world/asia/04attack.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.
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