78 “A Soviet airplane”: Basil Muhammed, Al Ansar Al Arab fi Afghanistan (“The Arab Volunteers in Afghanistan”), The Committee for Islamic Benevolence Publications, 1991, p. 307.
78 escape from Tora Bora: Peter Finn, “Bin Laden used Ruse to Flee; Moroccans Say Guard Took Phone at Tora Bora,” Washington Post, January 21, 2003.
78 the al-Qaeda leader fled: “Moroccan security source views danger of Moroccans released from Guantánamo,” Al Sharq al Awsat, August 20, 2004.
79 had gone to Afghanistan: Ghanim Abdul Rahman al Harbi, Guantánamo Administrative Review Board hearing round 1 summaries, p. 1.
79 ended up with a group: Ghanim Abdul Rahman al Harbi, Guantánamo Administrative Review Board hearing round 1 summaries, p. 3. http://projects.nytimes.com/Guantánamo/
detainees/516-ghanim-abdul-rahman-
al-harbi/documents/1/pages/467.
79 estimated that at battle’s end: Fury op. cit., pp. 277–278.
79 thousands of the paramilitary constabulary: Berntsen, Jawbreaker, p. 305.
79 attack by a group: Indian parliament, http://www.indianembassy.org/
new/parliament_dec_13_01.htm.
79 “We had to respond”: Moinuddin Haider, interview by author, January 24, 2002, Karachi, Pakistan.
79 up to 240 militants: Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire (New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 265.
80 some four hundred American soldiers: Ambassador Hank Crumpton, “Remarks at CSIS Smart Power series,” Washington, D.C., January 14, 2008.
80 “The mountains of Tora Bora”: Michael Delong, A General Speaks Out: The Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Osceola: Zenith Press, 2007), p 56.
80 not a single American had died in combat: Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2003. http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/
2003/030330-public-opinion01.htm.
80 more journalists had died than U.S. soldiers: Icasualties.org; three soldiers had died: http://www.icasualties.org/OEF/Fatalities.aspx; four journalists had been killed on November 19, 2001. Claire Cozens, The Guardian, November 27, 2001. Swedish TV cameraman killed in Afghanistan http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/
nov/27/terrorismandthemedia.afghanistan.
80 “stay in the foothills”: Fury op. cit., and Fury interview, December 18, 2008.
80 “wants us to look for options in Iraq”: Tommy Franks, American Soldier (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), p. 315.
81 “I realized”: Richard Myers, Eyes on the Horizon (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), p. 218.
81 seven days a week, sixteen-plus hours a day: Franks op. cit., p. 335.
81 “close to 100 journalists”: email to author from Nic Robertson.
81 Could the Pentagon: Drew Brown, “U.S. lost its best chance to decimate al-Qaida in Tora Bora,” Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, October 14, 2002. And see also U.S. Special Operations Command History (6th edition, 2008), p. 98, which describes a reinforced company of the 10th Mountain being at Bagram and Mazr-e-Sharif. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on page 17 explains that it was the 15th and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units; http://foreign.senate.gov/
imo/media/doc/Tora_Bora_Report.pdf.
82 asked to send his men into Tora Bora: Mary Anne Weaver, “Lost at Tora Bora,” New York Times Magazine, September 11, 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/
magazine/11TORABORA.html.
82 three hundred U.S. soldiers: Interview by author with Dalton Fury, December 19, 2008.
82 blackout conditions: U.S. Special Operations Command History (6th edition, 2008), pp. 93–94.
82 “unrealistic”: “A Different Kind of War,” United States Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, October 2001–September 2005, Combat Studies Institute Press, June 2009, p. 128.
82 story on November 25: Tim Weiner, “Bin Laden reported spotted in fortified camp in Afghan east,” New York Times, November 25, 2001.
82 background briefing reported by CNN: “U.S. Officials Believe bin Laden is in Tora Bora,” CNN transcript, December 15, 2001.
83 “senior military officer”: John Kifner, “Al-Qaeda balks at surrender,” New York Times, December 12, 2001.
83 “I think he’s probably”: Dick Cheney, ABC News, November 29, 2001. http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/
story?id=132168&page=1.
83 Two weeks later: Vice President Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, December 9, 2001.
83 “We don’t have”: Paul Wolfowitz, Defense Department Briefing, December 10, 2002.
83 “at one point or another”: Robert Burns, “U.S. war commander says search of Tora Bora caves ending with no bin Laden,” Associated Press, January 7, 2002.
83 official U.S. military history: U.S. Special Operations Command History (6th edition, 2008), p. 101.
83 “Did we get him?”: Michael Delong, A General Speaks Out (Washington, D.C.: Zenith Press, 2004), p. 57.
83 “When we had Osama”: John Kerry, Presidential Debate, Coral Gables, FL, September 30, 2004. http://www.debates.org/pages/
trans2004a.html
84 “We don’t know”: General Tommy Franks, “War of Words,” New York Times, October 19, 2004.
84 “absolute garbage”: Cheney was speaking in Ohio on the morning of October 19, 2004.
84 Bush himself weighed in: Dan Froomkin, “Bush buys himself some time,” Washingtonpost.com, October 27, 2004. President Bush was speaking on the morning of October 27 at a rally in Lancaster County, PA.
84 suddenly appeared on a videotape: Gilles Kepel and Jean-Pierre Milelli, Al-Qaeda in its own Words (Boston: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008), p. 75.
84 Kerry was quick to point out: Agence France Presse, “Bush rips Kerry’s ‘shameful’ attacks,” October 30, 2004.
85 “I am just a poor slave”: Osama bin Laden videotape, Al Jazeera, December 27, 2001.
85 “I was in the Gulf region”: Abdel Bari Atwan, interview by author, London, June 2005.
85 “As to my children”: Osama bin Laden, “The Will of One Seeking the Support of Allah Almighty, Usama Bin Laden.” Al-Majallah (Saudi magazine), December 14, 2001. http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ubl-fbis.pdf, p. 222.
Chapter 6
86 “The tactics took over”: Noman Benotman, interview by author, London, UK, August 30, 2005.
86 Omar bin Laden: BBC1, Mr. and Mrs. Bin Laden; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512463/
Mr-Mrs-Bin-Laden-Rockers-Rome-
hoping-peace-meeting-Pope.html.
86 part of the small contingent: Khalid al-Hammadi, “Bin Laden’s former bodyguard interviewed,” Al Quds al Arabi, August 3, 2004 and March 20 to April 4, 2005; Omar bin Laden, Najwa bin Laden, Jean Sasson, Growing Up Bin Laden (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009), pp. 136–145.
87 “Those guys are dummies”: Hutaifa Azzam, interview by author, Amman, Jordan, September 13, 2005.
87 permanent wedge: Paul Schemm, “Bin Laden son wants to be peace activist,” Associated Press, January 18, 2008. For more on Omar’s life, see Growing Up Bin Laden op. cit. (2009).
87 just how demoralized: Letter from ‘Abd al-Halim Adl to Mukhtar, June 13, 2002, translated by Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, Harmony collection. www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/Al_Adl_Letter
_Translation.pdf.
87 how precarious life on the run had become: Muhammad al Shafi’i, “A Site Close to al-Qaeda Posts a Poem by bin Laden in which He Responds to His Son Hamzah,” Al Sharq al Awsat, June 16, 2002.
87 ten thousand to twenty thousand recruits: CIA analytic report, “Afghanistan: An incubator for international terrorism,” CTC 01-40004, Mar. 27, 2001; CIA analytic report, “Al-Qa’ida still well positioned to recruit terrorists.” 9/11 Commission Report, p. 470, fn. 78.
88 Only around two hundred: Author interview with former FBI Special Agent Daniel Coleman, Washington, D.C., April 26, 2006.
88 oath of allegiance: West Point, Harmony document “Employment contract,’ AFGP-2002-600045, http://ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/AFG
P-2002
-600045-Trans.pdf.
88 The training camps: See generally Omar Nasiri, Inside the Jihad (New York: Basic Books, 2006).
88 L’Houssaine Kherchtou: USA v. Usama bin Laden, testimony of L’Houssaine Kherchtou, February 21 and 27, 2001, quoted in Peter Bergen, Holy War, Inc. (New York: Free Press, 2001), p. 93.
88 Encyclopedia of Jihad: C. J. Chivers and David Rohde, “Turning out guerrillas and terrorists to wage a holy war,” New York Times, March 18, 2002.
88 Al-Qaeda’s bylaws: translated by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center, April 18, 2002. AFGP-2002-600048, http://ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/
AFGP-2002-600048-Trans.pdf.
89 “to discuss their issues”: Abu Jandal, FD-302, Federal Bureau of Investigation, pages 40–41. Author’s collection.
89 as some had portrayed it: Adam Curtis, “The Power of Nightmares,” BBC Two, October 2004; and Jason Burke, Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam (New York: I. B. Tauris and Co., Ltd, 2004).
90 were part of a far-reaching: “Al-Zarqawi: The Second al-Qa’ida Generation,” by Fu’ad Husayn, a Jordanian journalist who received information from three people close to al-Zarqawi, including Saif al-Adel, to whom this chapter is attributed. The Arabic-language London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi serialized the book. This section was published by the newspaper on 21–22 May 2005.
90 painted a grim picture: Abu Musab al-Suri, The Call for Global Islamic Resistance, published on jihadist websites, 2004.
91 Suri’s bleak assessment was seconded: Hank Crumpton, “Intelligence and War: Afghanistan, 2001–2002,” in Jennifer Sims and Burton Gerber, Transforming U.S. Intelligence (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2005), p. 162.
91 “Terrorists want a lot of people watching,” Terrorism expert Brian Jenkins, “Will terrorists go nuclear?”, November 1975, www.rand.org/pubs/
papers/2006/P5541.pdf.
91 economic consequences: Osama bin Laden, interview by Taysir Alouni, somewhere near Kabul, Afghanistan, October 20, 2001.
92 disrupting the global economy: Osama bin Laden, Al Jazeera, October 6, 2002. Original date, location unknown. FBIS Report, Compilation of usama bin Laden Statements, 1994-January 2004.
92 “No doubt about that”: Osama bin Laden, (Internet) Jihad Online News Network WWW-Text in Arabic 21 Jan 03. FBIS Report op. cit., p. 244.
92 low tens of thousands: “Asian Muslims hold anti-U.S. marches; Pakistan seeks to curb demos,” Agence France Presse, October 19, 2001.
93 the way to accomplish this: see generally Fawaz A. Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
93 an estimated $500 billion: Royal Institute of International Affairs quoted in James Fallows, “Declaring victory,” The Atlantic, September 2006; an annual output: Budget of the United States Government, GPO Access, Table 10.1, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/
fy05/hist.html.
93 provoking the world’s only superpower: Peter Bergen, “Al-Qaeda at 20: Dead or Alive?” Washington Post, August 17, 2008. http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2008/
al_qaeda_20_dead_or_alive_7760.
94 ten hijacked planes: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 154.
Chapter 7
95 “All you need to know”: Cofer Black, Joint hearing of the United States House of Representatives Select Intelligence Committee and the United States Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Washington, D.C., September 26, 2002.
95 “A state of war”: United States Supreme Court, HAMDI V. RUMSFELD (03-6696) 542 U.S. 507 (2004), Opinion (O’Connor), June 28, 2004. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-6696.ZO.html.
95 “no information to floods”: Bumiller op. cit., p. 168.
95 “inaccurate threat reporting possible”: Roger Cressey interview by author, Washington, D.C., November 24, 2009.
96 anthrax letters: “U.S. officials declare researcher is anthrax killer,” CNN.com, August 6, 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/06/
anthrax.case/index.html.
96 “an enormous impact”: Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception (New York: Perseus Books, 2008), p. 108.
96 “Dark Winter”: Dark Winter Exercise, Center for Strategic and International Studies and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, June 2001. http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/
website/events/2001_darkwinter/.
96 believed by the participants: Feith op. cit., p. 216.
97 Bush nixed the idea: David E Sanger, The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power (New York: Harmony, 2009), p. 423.
97 “undisclosed location”: Bumiller op. cit., p. xx.
97 consistently believed that a 9/11: Foreign Policy and the Center for American Progress, “Terrorism Index,” May 22, 2008. http://www.americanprogress.org/
issues/2008/08/pdf/time_series.pdf, p. 9.
97 And none of the senior: Donald Rumsfeld had served as a Navy aviator in peacetime between 1954 and 1957. Department of Defense, “SecDef Histories,” http://www.defense.gov/specials/secdef_
histories/bios/rumsfeld.htm.
97 vigorously objected: Colin Powell, Memorandum to Counsel to the President, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, subject: Draft Decision Memorandum for the President on the Applicability of the Geneva Convention to the Conflict in Afghanistan, January 26, 2002. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/
NSAEBB127/02.01.26.pdf.
98 Abu Omar: Author interview with Abu Omar, Alexandria, Egypt, November 24, 2007.
98 “extraordinary rendition”: Jane Mayer, “Outsourcing Torture,” The New Yorker, February 14, 2005. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/
2005/02/14/050214fa_fact6.
98 thousands of documents: Tribunale di Milano, Sezione Giudice per le indagini preliminari, “The judge presiding over preliminary investigations,” n. 10838/05, n. 1966/05. Author collection; statements by Abu Omar’s wife, “Decree for the application of coercive measures,” art. 292 c.p.p., n. n. 10838/05, n. 1966/05.
99 “the Americans imposed you on us”: Abu Omar interview.
100 “substantial grounds”: United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, February 4, 1985, http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html.
100 detailed the methods used: United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. 2003 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, February 25, 2004. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/
hrrpt/2003/27926.htm.
100 “This country does not believe in torture”: George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005.
100 “has not transported anyone”: Condoleezza Rice, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, December 5, 2005.
100 sped up dramatically: Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, “Disappearing Act: Rendition by the Numbers,” Mother Jones, March 3, 2008. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/
disappearing-act-rendition-numbers.
100 “outsources our crimes”: Philip Bobbitt, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 21st Century (New York: Knopf, 2008), p. 368.
101 “there are approaches”: Author interview with Brad Garrett, Washington, D.C., 2007.
101 “a real chilling effect”: Author interview, Robert Dannenberg, New York, December 17, 2009.
101 professional liability insurance: Michael Scheuer, interview by author, Washington, D.C., December 23, 2009.
102 set back Spataro’s probe dramatically: Author interview, Armando Spataro, Milan, Italy, December 3, 2007.
102 more than ten thousand: Armando Spataro, “The kidnapping of Nasr Osama Mustafa Hassan alias Abu Omar,” Milan, February 17, 2007.
103 owned by Phillip Morse: John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, “Jet’s travels cloaked in mystery,” Chicago Tribune, March 20, 2005.
103 went to trial in Milan: Italy convicts U.S. agents in CIA kidnap trial,” CNN.com,
November 4, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/
europe/11/04/italy. rendition.verdict/index.html.
104 “engaged in”: DeYoung op cit, pp. 365–366.
104 four dozen nations: New York Times, Guantánamo Docket. Citizens of 48 countries have been held at Guantánamo.
104 “What the hell”: Mayer op. cit., p. 82.
104 news even: Karen Greenberg, The Least Worst Place: Guantánamo’s First 100 Days (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). pp. 16–17.
104 attractive to administration officials: Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Department Briefing, Arlington, VA, December 27, 2001.
104 “The whole theory”: Bobbitt op. cit., p. 265.
105 “failed state”: Memorandum for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Subject: status of Taliban and Al-Qaida, January 19, 2002. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB
/NSAEBB127/02.01.19.pdf. This memo draws on the January 9, 2002 memo from John Yoo.
105 the State Department’s response: William Taft IV, United States Department of State Unclassified Memorandum to John C. Yoo, Subject: Your draft memorandum of January 9. January 11, 2002. http://www.cartoonbank.com/newyorker/
slideshows/01TaftMemo.pdf.
105 “Like criminals”: Bobbitt op. cit., p. 264.
106 “vicious killers”: Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Department Briefing, Camp X-Ray, Cuba, January 27, 2002, http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.
aspx?id=43817.
106 only some 5 percent: Mark Denbeaux and Joshua Denbeaux, “Report on Guantánamo detainees: A profile of 517 detainees through analysis of Department of Defense data,” Seton University School of Law, http://law.shu.edu/aaafinal.pdf, p. 2.
106 they have never in the past: Ken Ballen and Peter Bergen, “The worst of the worst?”, Foreign Policy, October 2008. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/
cms.php?story_id=4535.
106 “I never saw anything useful”: Author interview with Daniel Coleman, Princeton, New Jersey, December 19, 2009.
106 “don’t recall any information”: Author interview with Michael Rolince, Washington, D.C., 2007.
The Longest War Page 50
