The Exile
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123. Letter addressed to Maulvi Abdal Aziz, dated December 3, 2002. ODNI documents, Abbottabad, released in March 2016.
124. Author interviews with Mahfouz.
CHAPTER FIVE
1. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary was obtained by the authors from his lawyer Joseph Margulies, who applied to have it declassified. The diary amplifies the International Committee for the Red Cross file on the prisoner’s treatment and is reprinted here with his authorization. Author copies.
2. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), The Official Senate Report on CIA Torture (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2015), 37 [hereafter Senate Torture Report]. See also James Mitchell, Enhanced Interrogation (New York: Crown, 2016).
3. Senate Torture Report, 32.
4. In the Senate Torture Report Dr. Jessen was identified as Dr. Hammond Dunbar, a former psychologist with the U.S. Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training school, Senate Torture Report, 21. He has refused to comment on any of the allegations made against him, although Dr. Mitchell confirmed that he was the other named participant in the CIA program, Dr. Grayson Swigert. See also Mitchell, Enhanced Interrogation.
5. From the Senate Torture Report, 34. Liaison equities meant the need for the CIA to adequately appraise their Thai hosts about what they were doing to Abu Zubaydah without implicating them in the program.
6. Ibid., 34–35. The normal procedure for dealing with a body in the Buddhist country is cremation.
7. Ibid., 35.
8. Ibid., 36.
9. Ibid., 31.
10. Ibid., 40.
11. Ibid., 42.
12. Ibid., 41.
13. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary. For Mitchell’s account, see Mitchell, Enhanced Interrogation.
14. Senate Torture Report, 41.
15. In an interview with the author, Mitchell confirmed he walled Abu Zubaydah on this first day of enhanced interrogation and thereafter. He also describes this process in detail in his book, Enhanced Interrogation. Interview conducted at Mitchell’s home in Florida, February 2017.
16. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Senate Torture Report, 33.
22. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary.
23. Senate Torture Report, 41.
24. In Enhanced Interrogation, Mitchell said that he held down Zubaydah while Jessen poured the water.
25. Jason Leopold, “Psychologist James Mitchell Admits He Waterboarded Al Qaeda Suspects,” Vice News, December 15, 2014. See also Mitchell, Enhanced Interrogation.
26. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary.
27. Ibid.
28. These tapes were stored at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok but were destroyed in 2005, a fact that did not become public until 2007. Peter Taylor, “ ‘Vomiting and Screaming’ in Destroyed Waterboarding Tapes,” BBC Newsnight, May 9, 2012.
29. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary.
30. Spencer Ackerman, “CIA Medical Staff Gave Specifications on How to Torture Post-9/11 Detainees,” Guardian, June 15, 2016.
31. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary.
32. Ibid.
33. Senate Torture Report, 44.
34. Ibid. 42.
35. Ibid.
36. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary.
37. Senate Torture Report, 44.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., 45.
41. Joby Warrick and Peter Finn, “Interviews Offer Look at Roles of CIA Contractors during Interrogations,” Washington Post, July 19, 2009; and Jason Leopold, “Psychologist James Mitchell Admits He Waterboarded Al Qaeda Suspects.” See also Mitchell, Enhanced Interrogation. Dr. Mitchell also made this assertion during interviews with the author, Florida, February 2017.
42. Senate Torture Report, 41.
43. Ibid., 43.
44. Jose Rodriguez later told the Office of the Inspector General that “CTC subject matter experts” pointed to intelligence that they said indicated Abu Zubaydah knew more than he was admitting and thus disagreed with the assessment from Detention Site Green that Zubaydah was “compliant.” Senate Torture Report, 41.
45. Ibid., 43.
46. Ibid., 45.
47. Ibid., 43.
48. Ibid.
49. Abu Zubaydah’s prison diary.
50. Senate Torture Report, 46.
51. Author interview with Dr. Ghairat Baheer, Islamabad, February 2015.
52. Senate Torture Report, 47.
53. “Death of a Detainee: April 27, 2005, CIA Inspector General Report of Investigation,” newly declassified version available here: www.documentcloud.org/documents/3214828-CIA-IG-Gul-Rahman-Newly-Declassified.html. The report notes that Dr. Jessen was there for the first ten days of Rahman’s detention. Dr. James Mitchell was also there for some of the time, working with other prisoners.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. All Baheer quotes from author interview with Dr. Ghairat Baheer.
57. Jane Mayer, “Who Killed Gul Rahman?” New Yorker, March 31, 2010.
58. “Death of a Detainee.”
59. Jason Leopold, “The CIA Officially Identifies the Architects of Its Post-9/11 Torture Program,” Vice News, November 9, 2016.
60. The Washington Post did not name Thailand but published a report soon after detailing some of what Zubaydah had endured there. “Stress and Duress Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret Overseas Facilities,” Washington Post, December 26, 2002.
61. Zubaydah was transferred with Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. See “Gitmo Files,” Wikileaks, wikileaks.org/gitmo/prisoner/10015.html for more details. Dexter Filkins, “How Did Abu Zubaydah Lose His Eye?” New Yorker, June 9, 2015.
62. Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) v. Poland, Judgment, European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, July 24, 2014, page 67.
63. Notes on Zubaydah’s interrogation, made by him, and declassified in 2016 after pressure from his lawyer Joseph Margulies.
64. Ibid.
65. Jason Leopold, “I’m Just a Guy Who Got Asked to Do Something for His Country,” Guardian, April 18, 2014.
66. This figure was confirmed in the Senate Torture Report. See Robert Windrem, “CIA Paid Torture Teachers More than $80 Million,” NBC News, December 9, 2014. Declassified CIA document “How Much Has the CIA Paid Mitchell and Jessen Since 2002?” cited in Greg Miller, “CIA Documents Expose Internal Agency Feud over Psychologists Leading Interrogation Program,” Washington Post, January 19, 2017.
67. Jason Leopold, “Psychologist James Mitchell Admits He Waterboarded Al Qaeda Suspects.”
68. Author interview with Ahmad Zaidan, Islamabad, January 2015.
69. “Bali Death Toll Set at 202,” BBC News, February 19, 2003.
70. Author interviews with bin Laden family members and relatives of Maryam. The ISI would later claim that Osama left Pakistan in 2002–2003 for an operation in an unnamed Gulf country. Shaukat Qadir, Operation Geronimo: The Betrayal and Execution of Osama bin Laden and Its Aftermath (Islamabad: HA Publications, 2012).
71. See Osama’s letters from Abbottabad, declassified and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence [hereafter OD
NI] in May 2015 and March 2016, www.dni.gov/index.php/resources/bin-laden-bookshelf.
72. This episode was recounted by Maryam in the unpublished Abbottabad Commission report: Al Jazeera Investigation Unit, “Document: Pakistan’s Bin Laden Dossier,” Al Jazeera, July 8, 2013, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/binladenfiles/.
73. Author interviews with relatives of Ibrahim and Maryam. Osama also referred to his differences with Ibrahim in his correspondence. See Osama’s letters, ODNI documents, Abbottabad, released in May 2015 and March 2016.
74. One had died fighting in Afghanistan and a second at Tora Bora.
75. “Full Text of Colin Powell’s Speech,” Guardian, February 5, 2003.
76. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, “Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq,” July 7, 2004, 92–93. Author interview with Abu Yusuf, who was based with Zarqawi at Khurmal. Amman, Jordan, December 2016.
77. Urs Gehriger, “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: From Green Man to Guru,” a three-part series originally published in German by Die Weltwoche, October 6, 2005. An English translation is available at www.signandsight.com/features/449.html.
78. “Full Text of Colin Powell’s Speech,” Guardian.
79. This account is based on author interviews with Nada Bakos, Seattle, 2014, and an interview she gave to PBS Frontline for their documentary The Secret History of ISIS, a transcript of which can be found in this accompanying article by Jason M. Breslow, “Nada Bakos: How Zarqawi Went from ‘Thug’ to ISIS founder,” Frontline, May 17, 2016.
80. Editorial, “The Case Against Iraq,” New York Times, February 6, 2003.
81. Author interviews with Dr. Moneef Samara and Marwan Shehadah, Zarqa, September 2016; also author interview with Zarqawi’s brother-in-law, Salah al-Hami (Abu Qunaiba), Zarqa, October 2014.
82. Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer, The Hunt for KSM (New York: Little, Brown, 2012). Also author interview with Asad Munir, former ISI station chief in Peshawar, Islamabad, June 2014. Also George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm (New York: HarperCollins, 2007); and Marty Martin interview on Manhunt, a documentary film by Peter Bergen, directed by Greg Barker, 2013.
83. Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp, “The Sky Who Bilked Me: Meet Bush’s War Profiteering Chief Bin Laden Hunter,” Gawker, May 19, 2011.
84. Multiple author interviews with Rahimullah Yusufzai, Peshawar, 2006–2015.
85. Author interviews with reporter Jamal Ismail, who covered the story for Al Jazeera, 2014–2015. His excellent Al Qaeda contacts went back to the time he worked on Osama’s magazine in Peshawar during the 1980s. He interviewed Osama several times and also met Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. Today he works in Islamabad for Abu Dhabi Television.
86. Abdul Sami Paracha, “Major Qadoos Shifted to Rawalpindi,” Dawn, March 23, 2003. What would not become clear for some time were the links between Qadoos and the family of Osama’s courier brothers Ibrahim and Abrar, who lived close by in Suleman Talaab.
87. Quoted in the Senate Torture Report.
88. They also had been used on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
89. Details of KSM’s detention locations and excerpts of his statements to the International Committee of the Red Cross can be found at the Rendition Project, www.therenditionproject.org.uk/prisoners/khaled-sheikh-mohammed.html.
90. “Mohammed Arrest Like ‘Liberation of Paris,’ ” CNN International, March 2, 2003.
91. Author interviews with Asad Munir.
92. KSM admitted to many plots in his submission to a legal panel at Guantánamo Bay in March 2007. See “Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing for ISN 10024,” March 10, 2007, i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/03/14/transcript_ISN10024.pdf.
93. Josh Meyer, “Race on to Find Sleeper Cells,” Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2003.
94. This tape was shown to journalist Terry McDermott, who described it in his book (with Josh Meyer), The Hunt for KSM.
95. Getting there would involve a dangerous journey of 150 miles through the outskirts of several busy cities, including Mardan, Peshawar, and Dara Adam Khel.
96. The Rendition Project.
97. Author interview with Dr. Ghairat Baheer, Islamabad, February 2015.
98. Dr. James Mitchell confirmed in interviews with the author that he personally conducted enhanced interrogations on Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. Author interviews, Florida, February 2017.
99. Jason Leopold, “Exclusive: My Tortured Journey with Former Guantánamo Detainee David Hicks,” Truthout, February 16, 2011.
100. Olga Craig, “CIA Holds Young Sons of Captured al-Qaeda Chief,” Daily Telegraph, March 9, 2003.
101. Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility, “Investigation into the Office of Legal Counsel’s Memoranda Concerning Issues Relating to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Use of ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’ on Suspected Terrorists,” July 29, 2009, 88.
102. Author interviews with Dr. Mitchell, Florida, February 2017.
103. Senate Torture Report.
104. Khalid Shaikh Mohammad statement to ICRC, made in October 2006 and available from the Rendition Project archives: www.therenditionproject.org.uk/prisoners/khaled-sheikh-mohammed.html.
105. Dr. Ghairat Baheer said that Ensure was only given to the best-behaved detainees, per author interview.
106. Author interviews with Aafia’s maternal uncle, Shams ul-Hassan Faruqi, Islamabad, February 2015.
107. Ibid.
108. Author interviews with Mahfouz Ibn El Waleed, Nouakchott, December 2014, January and June 2015.
109. He was desperate not to face the same plight as his brother-in-law, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was languishing in Guantánamo Bay, accused on the flimsiest evidence of being a senior Al Qaeda facilitator. Slahi had given the Americans statements about Mahfouz’s Al Qaeda activities.
110. His name was Abu Abdul Rahman al-Muhajir. He subsequently left Iran, returned to Al Qaeda Central, and was killed in Pakistan in April 2006.
111. Author interviews with Abu Soufiyan and Abu Yusuf, who were both in Zarqawi’s group at the time. Amman, Jordan, December 2016.
112. Now that the assistance of the Quds Force had been withdrawn, Zarqawi had entrusted the rest of his group still in Iran to Abu-Abdallah al-Shafi’i, a Kurdish Iraqi leader of the Ansar ul-Islam group, and had gone into hiding.
113. Gehriger, “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: From Green Man to Guru.”
114. Ibid.
115. Ibid.
116. Lawrence Wright, “The Master Plan,” New Yorker, September 11, 2006.
117. Saif al-Adel described the circumstances of his arrest to Mahfouz; multiple author interviews with Mahfouz, Nouakchott, 2014–2015.
118. FBI testimony of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, author copy.
119. Saif al-Adel online biography on Zarqawi. Fuad Hussein, The Next Generation of Al Qaeda, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC). Author interviews with Fuad Hussein, Jordan, October 2014. Author copy of the book in English translation and of the LBC documentary.
120. Author telephone interview with Khalilzad, October 2014.
121. Author telephone interviews with Ryan Crocker, December 2014, and Jim Dobbins, January 2016.
122. Author telephone interview with Guldimann, December 2015.
123. White House Office of the Press Secretary, “President Bush Welcomes President Musharraf to Camp David,” June 23, 2003, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/06/images/20030624-3_musharrafarrival062-515h.html.
124. Author interview with General Pervez Musharraf, Karachi, February 2015.
126. Author interviews with Asad Munir.
127. Munir said, “In June and July 2002 we thought he was in the Mehsud area of Latika. Later, we believed he’d gone to Kunar. We thought, he would never come and live in a city. Lots of Al Qaeda people had been caught in cities and staying there was dangerous.”
128. Munir had learned his lesson when, as a young army captain, he had attempted to rescue a brigadier whose plane had gone down in the remote Tirah Valley. “I went in a jeep into mountains and was met by a wall of rifles. ‘You can’t come here,’ they said.”
129. Dexter Filkins, “At Least 11 Die in Car Bombing at Jordan’s Embassy in Baghdad,” New York Times, August 7, 2003.
130. Author interview with Marwan Shehadah, Amman, Jordan, September 2016.
131. Will McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State (New York: St. Martin’s, 2015).
CHAPTER SIX
1. Translation by Jeffrey Pool, “Zarqawi’s Pledge of Allegiance to Al-Qaeda: From Mu’asker Al-Battar, Issue 21,” Terrorism Monitor 2, no. 24 (December 16, 2004).
2. Author interviews with bin Laden family members, Islamabad, Doha, and Jeddah, 2012–2016, and relatives of Maryam, Pakistan, 2014–2016.
3. In 2013 this madrassa would be blacklisted by the United States for supporting terrorism. See “Madrassa Furious over US ‘Terrorist’ Tag,” Express Tribune (Pakistan), August 21, 2013. Also, author interview with founder, Haji Alam Sher, Peshawar, August 2013.
4. Ibrahim’s sister was called Haleema Bibi. According to Shaukat Qadir, who quotes ISI sources, Osama was also taken to Suleman Talaab during this period, staying at the empty home of Ibrahim’s parents, which was located some streets away from Haleema’s house. Author interviews with Shaukat Qadir, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 2012–2015; also see Qadir, Operation Geronimo: The Betrayal and Execution of Osama bin Laden and Its Aftermath (Islamabad: HA Publications, 2012).