The Longest War

by Peter L. Bergen

  285 winter of 2004: Woodward op. cit., pp. 17–26.

  285 “The biggest mind-set change”: Emma Sky, interview by author.

  285 General Petraeus arrived: Peter Baker, “General is front man for Bush’s Iraq plan,” Washington Post, February 7, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content

  /article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601918.html

  285 “I just couldn’t believe it”: Petraeus interview with author,

  October 7, 2009. Washington D.C.

  285 well over two hundred car bombings: slide from October 2009, “Patterns in high profile explosions,” published in Anthony Cordesman, “Iraq security trends,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, November 19, 2009.

  286 more than 1,600 every week: CENTCOM slide from October 2009, “Iraq: Weekly security Incidents.”

  286 Laughing, he recalls: David Petraeus, interview.

  286 Battlefield Update Assessment: Author observations of Petraeus in Baghdad, June 2008.

  286 three-page letter: Multi-national Force-Iraq Commander’s Counterinsurgency Guidance July 15 2008 http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil

  /CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/

  MilitaryReview_20081031_art004.pdf.

  286 another key role: Sky interview interview.

  286 “Where everyone”: O’Sullivan interview.

  287 “Persisting indefinitely”: Richard Lugar, June 25, 2007, Washington, D.C. http://lugar.senate.gov/press

  /record.cfm?id=277751.

  287 “charged beyond belief”: David Petraeus, interview by author, Washington, D.C.; December 16, 2009.

  287 “suspension of disbelief”: Hillary Clinton, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, September 11, 2007.

  287 banner headline: MoveOn.org ad available from cdn.moveon.org/pac/content/pac/pdfs/PetraeusNYTad.pdf; “Army of One”: Petraeus interview.

  288 “twenty-three or twenty-five-mile”: David Petraeus, interview by author, Washington, D.C., October 7, 2009.

  288 put two brigades: Robinson op. cit., p. 104.

  288 deadliest month in two years: Ricks op. cit., p. 179.

  288 For those who worked: Sky interview; “the most difficult times”: Odierno interview.

  288 “Tony Soprano does Iraq”: Biddle interview.

  289 traveled in January 2007 to Ramadi: Odierno interview.

  289 cash payments: Colin Kahl, Michèle A. Flournoy, Shawn Brimley, Shaping the Iraq Inheritance, CNAS June 2008, p. 18; and Ricks op. cit., p. 215.

  289 “As we were able to”: Odierno interview.

  290 half the Sunni population: West op. cit., p. 320.

  290 efforts to register: Ernesto Londono, “U.S. takes battle against Iraq violence to border,” Washington Post, October 30, 2008; and author interviews with various U.S. military officers in Iraq June 2008.

  290 gated communities: Petraeus interview with author, October 7, 2009, Washington, D.C.

  290 number of hours flown by unmanned aerial vehicles: “Military replying more on drones, mostly in Iraq,” Associated Press, January 1, 2008, http://www.msnbc

  .msn.com/id/22463596/. These numbers do not include the large numbers of hours flown by the Pentagon’s UAV workhorse the Raven.

  290 signals intelligence: author interviews with various U.S. military officers in Iraq, June 2008.

  290 “two rounds a night!”: David Gordon, interview by author, Washington, D.C., October 15, 2009.

  290 IED attacks: Thom Shanker, “Makeshift bombs spread beyond Afghanistan, Iraq,” New York Times, October 28, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/

  world/29military.html.

  290 “So you reverse”: Petraeus, interview with author, December 16, 2009.

  291 pitched battles: “Iraqi, U.S. forces battle al-Sadr’s militia,” CNN.com, August 6, 2004, http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/

  08/05/iraq.main/index.html.

  291 sixty thousand men: Tom Ricks and Ann Scott Tyson, “Intensified combat on streets likely,” Washington Post, January 11, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/

  article/2007/01/10/

  AR2007011002581_pf.html.

  291 Iraqi civilians: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/.

  291 sectarian violence: Information from a series of unclassified U.S. military briefing slides from the week of May 31, 2008.

  291 six-month truce: Charles Crain, “Iraq militias fighting for supremacy,” TIME magazine, August 29, 2007. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/

  0,8599,1657449,00. html.

  292 attack on the city of Basra: “UK halts troop cuts after Iraq clashes,” CNN.com, April 1, 2008, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/

  meast/04/01/uk.iraq/index.html.

  292 70 percent: CBS News, “UK exit leaves Basra’s future in doubt,” September 4, 2–7, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/04/

  america_in_iraq/main3232921.shtml.

  292 He barely gave: Stephen Farrell and James Glanz, “More than 1,000 in Iraq’s forces quit Basra fight,” New York Times, April 4, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/world/

  middleeast/04iraq.html?scp=6&

  sq=basra&st=cse; and author’s reporting trip to Basra in June 2008.

  292 “arguably impulsive”: Petraeus interview with author October 7, 2009, Washington, D.C.

  292 “There were all”: David Gordon interview.

  292 “If he succeeds”: Hadley interview.

  292 militias were decimated: Author interviews with British and American officers in Baghdad and Basra, Iraq, June 2008.

  292 Maliki followed up: Sudarsan Raghavan, “19 tense hours in Sadr City alongside the Mahdi Army,” Washington Post, March 29, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/

  wp-dyn/content/article/

  2008/03/28/AR2008032803810_pf.html

  292 Sunni sheikhs: The four sheikhs were Hamid al-Haiys, Jassim Suwaydawi, Abd al-Jabbar and Ali Hatem, interviewed by author in Anbar, Iraq, May 31, 2008.

  293 some six hundred thousand Iraqi soldiers and policemen: Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, “Obama’s War,” Washington Post, February 15, 2009.

  293 fired eighteen: Stephen Biddle, Michael E. O’Hanlon, and Kenneth M. Pollack, “How to leave a stable Iraq,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2008, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/print/63565; and author interview with Major General Hussein al-Awadi, June 2008, Baghdad, Iraq.

  293 a mixed force: Stephen Biddle, Michael O’Hanlon, and Kenneth Pollack, “How to leave a stable Iraq,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2008.

  293 provincial election law: Sudarsan Raghavan, “Parliament approves elections law in Iraq,” Washington Post, September 25, 2008, http://www.washingtonpostcom/wp-dyn/content/

  article/2008/09/24/AR2008092400752.html;. “went largely peacefully”: New York Times, “Iraq Elections,” http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/

  international/countriesandterritories/

  iraq/elections/index.html.

  293 late November 2008: White House, Text of Strategic Framework Agreement and Security Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq, November 27, 2008, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/

  releases/2008/11/20081127-2.html.

  294 “I just never believed”: Sky interview.

  000 blood and treasure: CNN, U.S. and coalition casualties, http://www.cnn.com/SPE CIALS/2003/

  iraq/forces/casualties/index.html; “at least 100,000 Iraqis killed”: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/

  content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html; “increased around the world sevenfold”: Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, “The Iraq Effect,” Mother Jones, March 1, 2007. http://www.motherjones.com/news/

  featurex/2007/03/iraq_effect_1.html.

  294 An alliance: Kevin M. Woods, “Saddam and terrorism: emerging insights from captured Iraqi documents,” Institute for Defense Analyses, November 2007.

  294 road to Jerusalem: Fouad Ajami, “Iraq and the Arabs’ future,�
� Foreign Affairs, January/February 2003. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/

  20030101faessay10218/fouadajami/

  iraq-and-the-arabs-future.html.

  295 “finance its own reconstruction”: Paul Wolfowitz, before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, March 27, 2003.

  295 “never been closer to defeat”: Adrian Croft, “Al-Qaeda in Iraq never closer to defeat,” Reuters, May 24, 2008; “killed hundreds”: For example, a series of bombings on August 19, 2009, killed 95 in Baghdad (“95 killed on Iraq’s deadliest day since U.S. handover,” CNN.com, August 19, 2009), and at least 127 were killed when a series of truck bombs exploded on December 8, 2009 (BBC, “Baghdad car bombs cause carnage,” December 8, 2009).

  295 “They will really be”: Odierno interview.

  295 around 30 percent: Bush Job approval ratings, CNN/Opinion Research, January 11, 2007. http://www.pollingreport.com

  /BushJob.htm.

  295 “There’s only one guy”: Cohen interview.

  296 crowed about: Octavia Nasr, “Tape: bin Laden tells Sunnis to fight Shiites in Iraq,” CNN.com, July 1, 2006, http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/01/

  binladen.message/index.html.

  Chapter 17

  297 “Striking the World Trade:” Frapper l’immeuble du ‘World Trade Center,’ je considere cela comme criminel. From an interview with Al Arabiya in 2005, translated into French; http://www.recherches-sur-leterrorisme.com/Document-

  sterrorisme/abdallah-anas.html

  297 “history’s unmarked grave”: George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, September 20, 2001, Washington, D.C. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/

  releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html.

  297 “stupid and will be punished”: Mohamed Tantawi, quoted in Douglas Jehl, “More extremists find basis for rebellion in Islam,” New York Times, September 22, 2001.

  298 “a grave sin”: Yusaf al-Qaradawi, quoted in Caryle Murphy, “Muslim leaders speak out,” Washington Post, October 13, 2001.

  298 “greatest of sins”: “The Mufti of Saudi Arabia on the recent terrorist attacks in the USA,” The Muslim Creed, September 2001 (9:9), p. 4.

  298 “will not force the United States”: Interview with Muhammad al-Shafi’I, “Abdallah Anas, the son-in-law of Abdallah Azzam, tells Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Al-Zarqawi’s banner is illegitimate and the AL-Qa’ida trials have no credibility; the bombings in London are criminal deeds.” February 9, 2006. Open Source Center via World News Connection.

  298 “My brother Osama”: Quoted in Turki al-Saheil, “Reaction to Salman al-Awdah’s bin Laden letter,” Al-Sharq al-Awsat, September 18, 2007. http://www.aawsat.com/english/

  news.asp?section=1&id=10241.

  299 “message to his followers”: Author interview with Salman al-wdah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 25, 2008.

  299 one of the reasons: I was the producer of the CNN interview, which aired on May 10, 1997, and was conducted somewhere in eastern Afghanistan.

  299 twenty-six Saudi clerics: Toby Jones, “Saudi Arabia: reform or ruin?,” Daily Star, December 18, 2004.

  299 withdrew his support: Ellen Knickmeyer, “Egyptian extremist rewriting rationale for armed struggle,” Washington Post, July 15, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/

  wp-dyn/content/article/

  2007/07/14/AR2007071401182_pf.html. This section draws on Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, “The Unraveling,” The New Republic, June 11, 2008.

  299 terrorism against civilians: Abdul Hameed Bakier, “Imprisoned leader of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad challenges al-Qaeda,” Terrorism Monitor, Jamestown Foundation, December 10, 2007.

  299 “extremely immoral”: Middle East Media Research Institute, “Major Jihadi Cleric and Author of Al-Qaeda’s Shari’a Guide to Jihad: 9/11 Was a Sin; A Shari’a Court Should Be Set Up to Hold Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri Accountable; There Are Only Two Kinds of People in Al-Qaeda—The Ignorant and Those Who Seek Worldly Gain,” December 14, 2007, Dispatch No. 1785.

  299 turned against al-Qaeda: Paul Cruickshank and Nic Robertson, “New jihadi code threatens al-Qaeda,” CNN, November 10, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/

  11/09/libya.jihadi.code/.

  299 mainstream Islamic theology: “Whoever judges that someone is no longer a Muslim, it is they who have deviated from Islam and transgressed God’s will because they have judged another’s faith,” explains Hasan al Hudaybi, the leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood from 1949 to 1973.

  300 dramatically in Iraq: Mohammed Hafez’s book Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom (Washington, D.C.: USIP Press, 2007) describes this phenomenon.

  300 claimed to be defending Muslims: Tom Chivers, “Al-Qaeda doesn’t kill the innocent,” Daily Telegraph, April 3, 2008.

  300 over the Internet: Selected Questions and Answers from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, April 17, 2008, translated by NEFA Foundation.

  300 The Q&A did not go well: The Open Meeting with Shayk Ayman al Zawahiri, As Sahab, 1429, pages 2, 4, and 13.

  300 “not the intended targets”: Osama bin Laden, “The way to frustrate the conspiracies,” December 29, 2007, translated by NEFA Foundation. http://www1.nefafoundation.org/

  miscellaneous/nefabinladen1207.pdf.

  301 only 10 percent of Saudis: Terror Free Tomorrow, Saudi Arabia, December 2007. http://www.terrorfreetomorrow.org/upimagestft

  /TFT%20Saudi%20Arabia%20 Survey.pdf.

  301 2005 letter sent by Zawahiri: Ayman al-Zawahiri, letter to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, July 9, 2005. www.rjchq.org/media/pdf/zawahiriletter

  .pdf.

  302 favorable view of bin Laden: Pew Global Attitudes Project op. cit., p. 84.

  302 quite negative attitude toward the United States: Pew Global Attitudes Project op. cit., p. 1.

  302 subsequently arrested: “Saudi Arabia announces al-Qaeda arrests,” CNN.com, August 19, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/19/

  saudi.alqaeda.arrests/index.html.

  302 leaders in jail or dead: Aside from a bombing in July 2009, there were no JI-related incidents in Indonesia since 2005, and many of the group’s leaders were arrested or executed. (New York Times, Times Topics, “Jemaah Islamiyah,” July 19, 2009). The leader of a JI splinter group, Noordin Top, was killed in September 2009 (Tom Allard, “Terror kingpin Noordin shot dead,” The Age, September 18, 2009.

  302 popular legitimacy: In 2009, only 13 percent of Indonesians surveyed said suicide bombings could be justified, down from 26 percent in 2002, and 24 percent had confidence in bin Laden to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” down from 57 percent in the spring of 2003. Pew Global Attitudes Project, “Confidence in Obama lifts U.S. image around the world,” July 23, 2009. http://pewglobal.org/reports

  /pdf/264.pdf.

  302 “without achieving this goal”: Zawahiri, Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet (2001).

  Chapter 18

  303 “I’ve noticed”: Anderson Cooper 360, February 3, 2010, Washington, D.C. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/

  0902/03/acd.01.html.

  304 largest massacre: New York Times, Times Topics, Irish Republican Army, March 10, 2009. http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/

  reference/timestopics/organizations/

  i/irish_republican_army/index.html.

  304 “al-Qaeda and its allies”: Barack Obama, “Remarks by the president on a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan,” March 27, 2009, Washington, D.C. http://www.whitehouse.

  gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-new-

  strategy-afghanistan-and-pakistan.

  304 On Christmas Day: Anahad O’Connor and Eric Schmitt, “Terror attempt seen as man tries to ignore device on jet,” New York Times, December 26, 2009; “80 grams of PETN”, prominent Nigerian family: Carrie Johnson, “Explosive in Detroit terror case could have blown hole in airplane, sources say,” Washington Post, December 29, 2009; recently graduated: “Bomb suspect Umar Faro
uk Abdulmutallab on UK watch-list,” BBC, December 29, 2009; originally flown from: “Key dates surrounded the Christmas Day attack,” Associated Press, December 30, 2009, http://www.wtop.com/?nid=

  116&sid=1851004; carried a syringe: Richard Esposito and Brian Ross, “Photos of the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 bomb,” ABC News, December 28, 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=9436297.

  304 acquired in Yemen; “Yemen can carry out airstrikes against al-Qaeda,” CNN.com, December 30, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/

  WORLD/meast/12/30/

  U.S..yemen.strikes/index.html.

  304 On August 28: Peter Bergen, “Similar explosive used in Saudi attack,” CNN.com, December 27, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/U.S./

  12/27/bergen.terror.plot/index.html.

  305 traditionally a time of repentance: Peter Bergen, “Saudi investigation: would-be assassin hid bomb in underwear,” CNN.com, September 30, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/30/

  saudi.arabia.attack/index.html.

  305 hundred-gram device: Bergen, September 2009, op. cit; “rare”: author interview with senior U.S. counterterrorism official, December 27, 2009.

  305 “try it”: Author interview with top Saudi counterterrorism official, October, 2009.

  306 White House’s own review: Summary of the White House Review of the December 25, 2009 Attempted Terrorist Attack, p. 2. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/

  white-house-review-summary-regarding-12252009

  -attempted-terrorist-attack.

  306 assassination attempt: John Brennan, White House press conference, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2010. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/

  briefing-homeland-security-secretary

  -napolitano-assistant-president-counterterrorism.

  306 “dodged a bullet”: Jake Tapper, Karen Travers, and Huma Khan, “Obama: system failed in a potentially disastrous way,” ABC News, January 5, 2010. http://abcnews.go.com/

  print?id=9484260.

  306 On January 21: Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti, Helene Cooper, “Obama reverses key Bush security policies,” New York Times, January 22, 2009; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/U.S./

  politics/23obama.html; “reject as false”: Barack Obama, Washington, D.C., January 20, 2009.