34 “territorial integrity”: Stephen Graham, “Pakistan Army Chief Criticizes U.S. Raid,” Associated Press, September 10, 2008, www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9346IB00&show_article=1.
CHAPTER 5: A WORKING THEORY OF THE CASE
1 engraved on a wall: Author observation.
2 added to the honor roll: Author observation.
3 long oversaw: The CIA’s Alec Station was initially set up in December 1995 to keep track of bin Laden. It was disbanded in 2005. See Warrick, The Triple Agent, p. 94.
4 disappeared at the Battle of Tora Bora: Accounts from two Guantánamo Bay detainees indicate that, after the battle, bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, escaped toward Jalalabad, where they stayed with Awal Gul. Gul died at Guantánamo in February 2011. See JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Awal Gul, ISN US9AF-000782DP, February 15, 2008.
5 “Elvis sightings”: Michael Scheuer, interview by author, Washington, DC, October 1, 2011.
6 principal author of the highly classified President’s Daily Brief: Peter Bergen, The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and al-Qaeda (New York: Free Press, 2011), p. 48.
7 identified as its author: Ibid.
8 Sude had the reputation: David Low interview.
9 “He was so weird looking”: Barbara Sude, interview by author, Washington, DC, October 20, 2011.
10 kill bin Laden or to capture him: Ibid.
11 “We wanted to make sure”: Robert Dannenberg interview. 77 “They seem to have”: Michael Scheuer interview.
12 critical to the spring 2002 arrest: Warrick, The Triple Agent, p. 26.
13 “If she bites your ankle”: Michael Scheuer interview.
14 first strategic warning: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), “The Wandering Mujahidin: Armed and Dangerous,” August 21–22, 1993.
15 a prescient analysis: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), “Terrorism? Usama bin Ladin: Who’s Chasing Whom?” July 18, 1996.
16 balancing the demands: Cindy Storer, interview by author, Washington, DC, September 13, 2011.
17 “She is really fast”: David Low, interview by author, Washington, DC, August 20, 2011.
18 “You guys are crazy”: Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2008), p. 170.
19 Clarke says three times: Richard Clarke, “The Dark Side,” PBS Frontline, January 23, 2006, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/clarke.html
20 as many as ten opportunities: “CIA Insider Says Osama Hunt Flawed,” CBS News, September 15, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/10/terror/main635038.shtml.
21 the best chance to capture or kill: “9/11 Commission Report,” op. cit., p. 137.
22 because of the concerns about the Emiratis: John Diamond, The CIA and the Culture of Failure: U. S. Intelligence from the End of the Cold War to the Invasion of Iraq (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), pp. 316–318.
23 In 1997, when I was a producer: Author observations, near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, March 1997.
24 the scanner wasn’t working: Ali Soufan, The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), p. 99.
25 “working theory of the case”: Author interviews with U.S. intelligence officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
26 too dangerous: Ibid.
27 Bin Laden had known the patriarch: Journalist and bin Laden chronicler Steve Coll recounts how Haqqani organized Arab volunteers for the anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s, and operated in many of the same areas as bin Laden. See Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin, 2004), p. 157.
28 less and less likely: Author interviews with U.S. officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
29 welcomed back to Afghanistan: When bin Laden arrived in Jalalabad (then controlled by Haji Qadir, a member of a Khalis faction) in 1996 from Sudan, he was quickly escorted to meet with Khalis himself. See Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, pp. 158–59.
30 believed by Pakistani intelligence: Author interviews with U.S. counterterrorism officials.
31 “Message to the American People”: “Bin Laden: ‘Your Security Is in Your Own Hands,’ ” CNN.com, October 29, 2004, articles.cnn.com/2004-10-29/world/bin.laden.transcript_1_lebanon-george-w-bush-arab?_s=PM:WORLD.
32 “I can still see the picture of bin Laden”: Frances Townsend, interview by author.
33 “When there were videos”: Michael Scheuer interview.
34 If plants were visible: Author interview with senior counterterrorism official, Washington, DC, December 2011.
35 a sequence in Fahrenheit 9/11: “Al Jazeera, “Full Transcript of bin Laden’s Speech,” October 29, 2004, english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html.
36 recommended the works of Noam Chomsky: SITE Group translation, September 11, 2007, counterterrorismblog.org/site-resources/images/SITE-OBL-transcript.pdf.
37 “We didn’t necessarily think”: Barbara Sude interview.
38 bragged to his girlfriend’s father: Neal Bascomb, Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), pp. 86–87.
39 the operation to find Pablo Escobar: The definitive account of the hunt for Pablo Escobar is in Mark Bowden, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001).
40 “You can throw all your phones away”: General Michael Hayden, interview for Last Days of Osama bin Laden, National Geographic Channel, aired November 9, 2011.
41 Saudi media advisor: Khaled al-Fawwaz, interview by author, London, April 1, 1997.
42 assassination of Dzhokhar Dudayev: Glenn Kessler, “File the Bin Laden Phone Leak Under ‘Urban Myths,’ ” Washington Post, December 22, 2005, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122101994_pf.html.
43 rookie cop: Henry Schuster and Charles Stone, Hunting Eric Rudolph: An Insider’s Account of the Five-Year Search for the Olympic Bombing Suspect (New York: Berkley Books, 2005), pp. 277–79.
44 on a flight back home to Pakistan: Tim Weiner, “U.S. Seizes Lone Suspect in Killing of 2 C.I.A. Officers,” New York Times, June 18, 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/06/18/world/us-seizes-the-lone-suspect-in-killing-of-2-cia-officers.html?ref=miramalkansi.
45 habitually dressed: Brad Garrett, interview by author, Washington, DC, November 2011.
46 chasing the elusive Kansi: Ibid.
47 You can’t trust the Pakistanis: Ibid.
48 sizable cash reward: Ibid.
49 no signals intelligence: Peter Bergen, Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), p. 4.
50 “magic detainee”: Author interviews with U.S. counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
51 “midlevel managers”: Ibid.
52 “It was a reflection”: Philip Mudd, interview by author, Washington, DC, June 2, 2011.
53 Mudd authored an influential memo: Author interview with senior intelligence official, Washington, DC, November 2011.
54 “If you sat around the table”: Philip Mudd interview.
55 four “pillars”: Author interviews with U.S. counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
56 problem with this approach: Author interview with senior U.S. intelligence official, Washington, DC, November 2011.
57 “solid conclusions”: Ibid.
58 increasingly easy for the CIA to dismiss: Author interviews with senior U.S. counterterrorism officials.
59 “was not making any new friends”: Ibid.
60 “too big a footprint”: Ibid.
61 might well be living with him: Ibid.
62 never developed any: Author interview with senior U.S. counterterrorism official, Washington, DC, November 2011.
63 safe houses in all the major cities: bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson, Growing Up bin Laden, pp. 238–39.
64 “probably in the outskirts of Islamabad”: Author interview with National Security Council official, Washington, DC, 2011.
65 “We always hoped for a person”: Author interviews with counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
66 highly compartmented … just not feasible: Author interviews with U.S. intelligence officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
67 “It was much easier”: Robert Dannenberg interview.
68 created a composite: Ibid.
69 “never a sense”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 6: CLOSING IN ON THE COURIER
1 believed that the sun revolved around the Earth: Adam Zagorin and Michael Duffy, “Inside the Interrogation of Detainee 063,” Time, June 20, 2005, www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1071284-1,00.html.
2 dropped out of agricultural college: JTF-GTMO assessment for Maad Al Qahtani, ISN US9SA-000063DP (S), October 30, 2008.
3 fighting alongside the Taliban: Ibid.
4 Qahtani trained on the usual panoply: See U.S. v. Moussaoui, Cr. No. 01-455-A, exhibit ST-0001.
5 “ready for a mission”: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Maad Al Qahtani.
6 “I’ll be back”: Greg Miller and Josh Meyer, “Clues Missed on 9/11 Plotters,” Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2004, articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/27/nation/na-terror27/2. Also see Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, “How the ’20th Hijacker’ Got Turned Away,” Newsweek, January 26, 2004, www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2004/01/25/exclusive-how-the-20th-hijacker-got-turned-away.html.
7 arrested on December 15: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Maad Al Qahtani.
8 love of falconry: Zagorin and Duffy, “Inside the Interrogation of Detainee 063.”
9 head-butting one of his interrogators: Ibid.
10 given drugs and enemas: Neil A. Lewis, “Fresh Details Emerge on Harsh Methods at Guantánamo,” New York Times, January 1, 2005.
11 FBI official later noted: Zagorin and Duffy, “Inside the Interrogation of Detainee 063.”
12 legal definition of torture: Bob Woodward, “Guantanamo Detainee Was Tortured, Says Official Overseeing Military Trials,” Washington Post, January 14, 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html.
13 after the weeks of abuse: U.S. Department of Defense, “Recommendation for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD for Detainee, ISN US9SA-000063DP[S]),” October 30, 2008.
14 “Those guys were swashbucklers”: Michael Scheuer interview.
15 gave them some useful information: Musharraf, In the Line of Fire, p. 220.
16 waterboarded 183 times: Scott Shane, “Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects,” New York Times, April 19, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/world/20detain.html.
17 diapered and shackled: Peter Finn, Joby Warrick, and Julie Tate, “How a Detainee Became an Asset: Sept. 11 Plotter Cooperated After Waterboarding,” Washington Post, August 29, 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082803874_pf.html.
18 “retired”: Scott Shane, “Harsh Methods of Questioning Debated Again,” New York Times, May 4, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/us/politics/04torture.html.
19 senior CIA analyst Frederica traveled: Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (New York: Anchor Books, 2008), p. 273.
20 When CIA officials interrogated Hambali: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Riduan Isomuddin, ISN US9ID-010019DP, October 30, 2008.
21 stayed in an al-Qaeda safe house: Ibid.
22 letter addressed to bin Laden: “Letter May Detail Iraq Insurgency’s Concerns,” CNN.com, February 10, 2004, articles.cnn.com/2004-02-10/world/sprj.nirq.zarqawi_1_zarqawi-qaeda-senior-coalition?_s=PM:WORLD.
23 not clear if these techniques were actually employed: Mark Hosenball and Brian Grow, “Bin Laden Informant’s Treatment Key to Torture Debate,” Reuters, May 14, 2011, www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/14/us-binladen-ghul-idUSTRE74D0EJ20110514. The confusion stems from ambiguity surrounding Ghul’s detention and status, and the only mention of his treatment appears in a Department of Justice memo to the CIA regarding acceptable treatment of detainees, where it says that interrogators received approval to use “attention grasp, walling, facial hold, facial slap, wall standing, stress positions, and sleep deprivation.” See U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, “Memorandum for John A. Rizzo, Senior Deputy Council, Central Intelligence Agency,” May, 30, 2005, p. 7, http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/missing_memos/28OLCmemofinalredact30May05.pdf.
24 traveled with al-Qaeda’s leader: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Maad Al Qahtani.
25 the Kuwaiti was trusted by KSM: Ken Dilanian, “Detainee Put CIA on bin Laden Trail,” Los Angeles Times, May 5, 2011, articles.latimes.com/2011/may/05/nation/la-na-bin-laden-torture-20110505/2.
26 the operational commander of al-Qaeda: On al-Libi’s role as operational commander, see JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abu al-Libi, ISN US9LY-010017DP, September 10, 2008.
27 two serious but ultimately unsuccessful attempts: Tim McGirk, “Can This Man Help Capture Bin Laden?” Time, May 8, 2005, www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1058999,00.html.
28 lacked melanin: Musharraf, In the Line of Fire, p. 258.
29 arrested in Pakistan: JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abu al-Libi.
30 handed over to the CIA: Ibid. He was transferred to U.S. custody on June 6, 2005.
31 he had been promoted to KSM’s spot: Ibid.
32 Libi also told his interrogators: Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, “Phone Call by Kuwaiti Courier Led to bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 3, 2011, abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13512344.
33 made-up name: Scott Shane and Charlie Savage, “Bin Laden Raid Revives Debate on Value of Torture,” New York Times, May 3, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/us/politics/04torture.html.
34 “If you were to ask me”: Robert Richer, interview by author, Washington, DC, October 6, 2011.
35 Scrabble board: Ibid.
36 “Those guys gave a wealth of invaluable information”: Robert Dannenberg interview.
37 help in the hunt for bin Laden: Author interviews with counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
38 of real interest at the CIA: Ibid.; also see Goldman and Apuzzo, “Phone Call by Kuwaiti Courier.”
39 his real name: Lamb, “Revealed: The SEALs’ Secret Guide.”
40 large family of brothers: Author interviews with counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
41 the Kuwaiti had died in the arms: See JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Walid Said bin Said Zaid, ISN US9YM-000550DP (S), January 16, 2008.
42 “marginalized”: Barton Gellman and Thomas E. Ricks, “U.S. Concludes bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight,” Washington Post, April 17, 2002, www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62618-2002Apr16?language=printer.
43 “As I would walk into the Oval Office”: Michael Hayden, interview for The Last Days of Osama bin Laden, National Geographic, aired November 9, 2011.
44 “The president’s questions were passed down to us”: Author interviews with counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
45 warrant from a judge: This story was first reported by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, “Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts,” New York Times, December 16, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html?pagewanted=all.
46 pursuing bin Laden through his courier network: Michael Hayden interview.
47 “no bated-breath moment”: Author interviews with counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.
48 fixated on finding bin Laden: Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, “
Meet ‘John’: The CIA’s Bin Laden Hunter-in-Chief,” Associated Press, July 5, 2011, www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43637044/ns/us_news-security/.
49 Chuck’s hair had gradually turned gray: Author observation.
50 done a thorough job: “9/11 Commission Report,” pp. 255–58, 534.
51 Malaysian terror summit, on January 15, 2000: Ibid., pp. 215 and 267.
52 “Some fifty to sixty”: Office of the Inspector General, “Report on CIA Accountability with Respect to the 9/11 Attacks,” August 21, 2007, www.cia.gov/library/reports/Executive%20Summary_OIG%20Report.pdf.
53 had a visa … flown to Los Angeles: “9/11 Commission Report,” p. 267.
54 local phone directory: Defendants’ exhibit 950 in U.S. v. Moussaoui, Cr. No. 01-455-A, “FBI’s Handling of Intelligence Information Related to Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hamzi,” Department of Justice Inspector General’s report by Glenn A. Fine, obtained via INTELWIRE. com, p. 29.
55 “routine” notice: Ibid., p. 54.
56 “informing the FBI”: Office of the Inspector General, “Report on CIA Accountability.” Also useful is Defendants’ exhibit 950 in U.S. v. Moussaoui, p. 26 and generally.
CHAPTER 7: OBAMA AT WAR
1 “We were told to evacuate”: Barack Obama’s Speech at Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, DC, August 1, 2007, www.cfr.org/us-election-2008/obamas-speech-woodrow-wilson-center/p13974.
2 Obama thought she was vulnerable: “I think I will be the Democrat who will be most effective in going up against John McCain, or any other Republican—because they all want basically a continuation of George Bush’s policies—because I will offer a clear contrast as somebody who never supported this war, thought it was a bad idea.” Barack Obama at Democratic Debate, Los Angeles, CA, January 31, 2008, articles.cnn.com/2008-01-31/politics/dem.debate.transcript_1_hillary-clinton-debate-stake/29?_s=PM:POLITICS.
3 “has protected or regenerated”: National Intelligence Council, “National Intelligence Estimate: The Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland,” July 2007, www.c-span.org/pdf/nie_071707.pdf.
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