Dirty Wars

by Jeremy Scahill

  395 “We thank the mujahideens”: “Al-Shabab Claims Uganda Bombings; Twin Attacks Targeting World Cup Fans in Kampala Kill at Least Seventy-four People,” AlJazeera.com, July 13, 2010.

  396 terrorism capital: “Somalia Tops Terror Attack List,” UPI, November 18, 2010.

  396 “national emergency”: Executive Order 13536 (April 12, 2010).

  396 “These indictments and arrests”: Attorney General Eric Holder, remarks as prepared for delivery at press conference, Washington, DC, August 5, 2010.

  396 “most significant military campaign”: Bryden et al., “Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1916 (2010),” p. 17.

  396 “massive war”: Associated Press, “Militants Slaughter Lawmakers at Somali Hotel,” MSNBC.com, August 24, 2010.

  397 laid siege to the Muna Hotel: Bryden et al., “Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1916 (2010),” p. 17.

  397 tied the remains: Mohamed Olad Hassan and Malkhadir M. Muhumed (AP), “Somalia Suicide Bomber, Gunmen Attack Muna Hotel, Thirty-two Killed,” Huffington Post, August 24, 2010.

  397 “This is a particularly outrageous act”: Transcript, Press briefing by Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton and Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan,” Vineyard Haven, MA, August 24, 2010.

  397 dual car bombing: Bryden et al., “Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1916 (2010),” p. 18.

  397 week of intense violence: Abdi Sheikh, “Somalia’s al Shabaab Rebels Push Towards Palace,” Reuters, August 25, 2010.

  397 deadly roadside bomb: Mohamed Ibrahim, “Somalia: Roadside Bomb Kills Eight Civilians,” New York Times, August 31, 2010.

  397 displaced by the fighting: The Editors, “Quick Take: Map of al Shabaab’s Mogadishu Offensive,” Critical Threats, September 23, 2010, www.criticalthreats.org/somalia/quicktake-map-al-shabaabs-mogadishu-offensive.

  397 “overdependence of [al Shabab] on child soldiers”: Bryden et al., “Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1916 (2010),” p. 18.

  44: “Anwar Awlaki...Definitely Has a Missile in His Future”

  398 convicted of terrorism-related charges: Iona Craig, “Obama Intervention Puts Yemen Reporter in Jail,” Index on Censorship, February 7, 2011.

  398 “failed to meet international standards”: Human Rights Watch, World Report 2011, “Yemen,” www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-yemen.

  398 “It has no legal basis”: Author interview, Abdulrahman Barman, January 2012. All statements and information attributed to Abdulrahman Barman come from the author’s interview, unless otherwise noted.

  398 “Having witnessed his trial”: Author interview, Iona Craig, March 2012. All statements and information attributed to Iona Craig come from the author’s interview, unless otherwise noted.

  398 “There are strong indications”: “Yemeni Journalist Jailed After Alleging US Involvement in Missile Attack,” Amnesty International, January 19, 2011, www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/yemeni-journalist-jailed-after-alleging-us-involvement-missile-attack-2011-01-19.

  398 “It is difficult to overestimate”: Author interview, Gregory Johnsen, March 2012. All statements and information attributed to Gregory Johnsen come from the author’s interview, unless otherwise noted.

  399 call from President Obama: “Readout of the President’s Call with President Saleh of Yemen,” The White House, February 3, 2011.

  399 brief hunger strike: Iona Craig, “Yemen: Shaye Commences Hunger Strike,” Index on Censorship, February 14, 2012.

  399 “We remain concerned”: Author interview, Beth Gosselin, March 2012.

  400 “Shaye is in jail”: Iona Craig, “US Has ‘Direct Interest’ in Shaye’s Case,” Iona Craig’s Blog, February 21, 2012, http://ionacraig.tumblr.com/post/17969745744/us-ambassador-response-to-shaye-imprisonment.

  400 “the threat is constant”: Eric Holder, interview with Pierre Thomas, Good Morning America, ABC, December 21, 2010.

  401 “Even if what [Awlaki] is saying”: Author interview, Pardiss Kebriaei, March 2012.

  401 “definitely has a missile in his future”: Author interview, Malcolm Nance, May 2011.

  401 in missions to kill or capture”: Duncan Gardham and Richard Spencer, “Cargo Bomb Plot: SAS Hunting al-Qaeda in Yemen,” Telegraph, November 2, 2010.

  401 “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula”: Understanding the Homeland Threat Landscape—Considerations for the 112th Congress, Hearing Before the House Homeland Security Committee, 111th Cong. (February 9, 2011) (testimony of Michael Leiter).

  402 “He immediately sent drones”: Author interview, Joshua Foust, January 2011.

  45: The Curious Case of Raymond Davis: Act I

  403 Big Stone Gap: Mark Mazzetti, Ashley Parker, Jane Perlez, and Eric Schmitt, “American Held in Pakistan Worked with C.I.A.,” New York Times, February 21, 2011.

  403 Lahore plate: Raja Riaz, “‘Raymond Davis Tried to Trick Investigators,’” Daily Times, February 15, 2011, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011215story_15-2-2011_pg7_17.

  403 withdrawal from an ATM: “US Official Raymond Davis on Lahore Murder Charges,” BBC.co.uk, January 28, 2011.

  403 pulled in front of him: Declan Walsh, “A CIA Spy, a Hail of Bullets, Three Killed and a US-Pakistan Diplomatic Row,” Guardian, February 20, 2011.

  403 Davis was arrested: Riaz, “‘Raymond Davis Tried to Trick Investigators.’”

  404 “our diplomat”: Transcript of White House press briefing by Jake Tapper, “Spending Cuts and an American Imprisoned in Pakistan: Todays Qs for O’s WH—2/15/11,” Political Punch (blog), ABCNews.go.com, February 15, 2011.

  404 Vienna Conventions: Charlie Savage, “Pakistan Case Tests Laws on Diplomatic Immunity,” New York Times, February 22, 2011.

  404 “technical adviser”: Matthew Cole, Kirit Radia, and Lee Ferran, “American Official Involved in Pakistan Shooting Identified,” ABCNews.go.com, January 28, 2011.

  404 not authorized: Asif Chaudhry, “US Official Guns Down Two Motorcyclists in Lahore,” Dawn.com, January 28, 2011.

  404 Old Anarkali Bazaar: Walsh, “A CIA Spy, a Hail of Bullets.”

  404 “high security zone”: Declan Walsh and Ewen MacAskill, “American Who Sparked Diplomatic Crisis over Lahore Shooting Was CIA Spy,” Guardian, February 20, 2011.

  404 transferred out of the jail: Ewen MacAskill and Declan Walsh, “US Gives Fresh Details of CIA Agent Who Killed Two Men in Pakistan Shootout,” Guardian, February 21, 2011.

  404 Punjab Rangers: “Rangers Deployed at Kot Lakhpat,” Dawn, February 14, 2011.

  404 served another purpose: Ansar Abbasi, “Multiple Security Layers Erected for Raymond Davis,” News International (PAK), February 11, 2011.

  404 grainy film: “Raymond Davis Investigation by Punjab Police,” YouTube video, 3:06, from a video shot of Davis’s initial interrogation, broadcast on the Geo News network, posted by “shoaib748,” February 11, 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkqBFDk4Zu0.

  405 least interesting item: Riaz, “‘Raymond Davis Tried to Trick Investigators.’” Unless otherwise noted, this inventory is based on the Riaz article, which claims to have reprinted excerpts of the Punjab police report following Davis’s arrest.

  405 multiple IDs: Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, “U.S., Pakistan Officials at Diplomatic Odds in Fatal Shooting,” Washington Post, February 10, 2011.

  405 masks: Mazzetti et al., “American Held in Pakistan Worked with C.I.A.”

  405 calls to twenty-seven militants: Qaiser Butt, “‘CIA Agent Davis Had Ties with Local Militants,’” Express Tribune, February 22, 2011.

  405 religious schools: Brigadier (Ret.) F. B. Ali, “#Update: The Raymond Davis Affair,” Sic Semper Tyrannis (blog), February 19, 2011, http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2011/02/update-the-ra
ymond-davis-affair-fb-ali.html.

  405 military institutions: Walsh, “A CIA Spy, a Hail of Bullets.”

  405 Department of Defense contractor: Jane Perlez, “Mystery over Detained American Angers Pakistan,” New York Times, February 8, 2011.

  405 number at CIA headquarters: Walsh and MacAskill, “American Who Sparked Diplomatic Crisis.”

  405 “The accused has concealed”: Riaz, “‘Raymond Davis Tried to Trick Investigators.’”

  405 well known to Pakistan’s spy agency: Asad Kharal, “Retracing the Path: Trailing Raymond Davis,” Express Tribune, February 22, 2011.

  406 “Boy, we’re in a world of hurt!”: Author interview, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, May 2011.

  406 arrived in Pakistan: Kharal, “Retracing the Path.”

  406 Special Operations weapons sergeant: Miller and DeYoung, ”U.S., Pakistani Officials at Diplomatic Odds in Fatal Shooting.”

  406 left the military: Walsh and MacAskill, “American Who Sparked Diplomatic Crisis.”

  406 private security firm Blackwater: Matthew Cole, “Raymond Davis Is CIA Contractor, U.S. Officials Say,” ABCNews.go.com, February 21, 2011. Details of Davis’s reported work with the Global Response Staff are from Cole’s reporting.

  406 common cover: Mazzetti et al., “American Held in Pakistan Worked with C.I.A.”

  406 run its drone bombing campaign: James Risen and Mark Mazzetti, “C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones,” New York Times, August 20, 2009.

  406 moved between: Cole, “Raymond Davis Is CIA Contractor.”

  407 “Davis was ‘vanilla’ Special Forces”: Author interview, former JSOC staffer, March 2011. All statements and information attributed to the former JSOC staffer are from the author’s interview.

  407 signed a contract worth $200,000: Munir Ahmed (AP), “Disagreements in Pakistan over Held American; ex-Foreign Minister Disputes Immunity Claim,” Star Tribune, February 16, 2011.

  407 “loss and risk management professionals”: Cole, Radia, and Ferran, “American Official Involved in Pakistan Shooting Identified.”

  407 address in Las Vegas: Summary of registration, Hyperion Protective Services LLC, business registry database from the website of the Colorado Secretary of State. Screenshot of Colorado registration summary available via Jim White, “Does Raymond Davis Recruit Intelligence Agents in US?” My FDL (blog), My Firedoglake, February 17, 2011, http://my.firedoglake.com/jimwhite/2011/02/17/does-raymond-davis-recruit-intelligence-agents-in-us/.

  407 post office box: “The UPS Store--#3627, Las Vegas, NV,” www.theupsstorelocal.com/3627/.

  407 “The Blackwater individuals”: Author interview, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Addicott, November 2009. All statements and information attributed to Addicott come from the author’s interview.

  407 “make much more money”: Author interview, US military intelligence source, November 2009. All statements and information attributed to the military intelligence source come from the author’s interview.

  408 first “black” contract: Robert Young Pelton, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006), pp. 36–41; author interviews, former Blackwater and intelligence officials, February–September 2006.

  408 “That’s not entirely accurate”: Author interview, former Blackwater executive, November 2009. Details of Blackwater’s relationship with Kestral Logistics come from the author’s interview.

  408 powerful Pakistani firm: “Kestral Group of Companies,” Kestral Logistics, www.kestral-logistics.com/.

  409 “We cannot help you”: Author interview, David McKeeby, November 2009.

  409 “no operations of any kind”: Mark Corallo, e-mail to author, November 20, 2009.

  409 federal lobbying records: Lobbying records filed on behalf of Kestral-USA, from the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, accessed December 2012, http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=submit-SearchRequest.

  409 Kestral had hired: Lobbying Report, required under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, Quarter 4 of 2009, Roger F. Noriega, with the DC-based consulting firm Vision Americas, on behalf of Kestral-USA.

  409 Vision Americas: “Ambassador Roger F. Noriega,” Vision Americas website, accessed December 2012, www.visionamericas.com/noriega.php.

  409 Christina Rocca: “Ambassador Christina Rocca,” Vision Americas website, accessed December 2012, www.visionamericas.com/rocca.php.

  410 paid Vision Americas $15,000: Lobbying report, filed by Roger F. Noriega, Vision Americas, Quarter 3, 2009.

  410 Firecreek Ltd.: See records of Firecreek Ltd.’s lobbying on behalf of Kestral-USA, Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, accessed December 2012, http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=submitSearchRequest.

  410 called it “conspiratorial”: Transcript, “DoD News Briefing with Geoff Morrell from the Pentagon,” November 24, 2009.

  411 “personal consent, Chief of Army Staff General Kayani”: US diplomatic cable 09ISLAMABAD2449, from Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, US Embassy Islamabad, “Pakistan Army GHQ Again Approves Embedding,” October 9, 2009, released by WikiLeaks, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/10/09ISLAMABAD2449.html.

  411 “forward operating troops”: Author interview, Special Operations source, December 2010.

  411 detailed information on refugee camps: US diplomatic cable 08ISLAMABAD3183, from Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, US. Embassy Islamabad, “Taskings for IDP/Refugee Information,” October 6, 2008, released by WikiLeaks, http://cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=08ISLAMABAD3183&q=for%20idp-refugee%20information%20taskings.

  412 Forward Operating Base Chapman: See Joby Warrick, The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA (New York: Doubleday, 2011).

  412 “Patient relationship-building”: Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, “Pakistan Army GHQ Again Approves Embedding.”

  412 “well, we don’t”: Times Wire, “Bomb Exposes U.S. in Pakistan,” Tampa Bay Times, February 10, 2010.

  412 civil lawsuit: Aliza I. Kassim, “Pakistan Defies U.S. Court in Lawsuit over Mumbai Attacks,” CNN.com, December 30, 2010.

  412 blew his cover: Greg Miller and Karin Brulliard, “CIA’s Pakistan Chief Removed,” Washington Post, December 18, 2010.

  413 “terrorist threats against him”: Ibid.

  413 Davis returned to Pakistan: Kharal, “Retracing the Path.”

  46: The Curious Case of Raymond Davis: Act II

  414 five CIA security personnel: Asad Kharal, “Retracing the Path: Trailing Raymond Davis,” Express Tribune (PAK), February 22, 2011; Matthew Cole, “Raymond Davis Is CIA Contractor, U.S. Officials Say,” ABCNews.go.com, February 21, 2011.

  414 also used the house: Author interview, former Blackwater executive, March 2011.

  414 gathering intel on the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba: Mark Mazzetti, “A Shooting in Pakistan Reveals Fraying Alliance,” New York Times, March 12, 2011.

  414 “area familiarization route”: Cole, “Raymond Davis Is CIA Contractor.”

  414 “It’s acting without a script”: Author interview, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, May 2011. All statements and information attributed to Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer are from the author’s interview, unless otherwise noted.

  414 “blood chit”: Raja Riaz, “‘Raymond Davis Tried to Trick Investigators,’” Daily Times (PAK), February 15, 2011. The police report describes it as a “chit of the embassy.”

  414 “small sheet of material”: Joint Publication 3-50, Personnel Recovery, January 5, 2008, IV-8, www.dtic.mil/dpmo/laws_directives/documents/joint_pu_3_50.pdf.

  414 “after all other measure(s)”: Department of Defense memorandum, “Department of Defense Policy on Blood Chits,” July 20, 2006, www.dtic.mil/dpmo/personnel_accounting/documents/dod_policy_on_blood_chits.pdf.

  415 crossed “a red line”: Nick Schifrin, “Did Ray Davis Shoot Two Pakistani Agents?” ABCNews.go.com, February 9, 2011.

  415 “belonged to the security establishment”: Kamran Yousaf, “Raymond Davis Case: Men Kil
led in Lahore Were Intelligence Operatives, Says Official,” Express Tribune, February 5, 2011.

  415 emphatically denied: “Agencies Rule Out Any Link with Lahore Killing Incident,” News International, February 8, 2011.

  415 new chief of station: Rob Crilly, “Raymond Davis ‘Was Acting Head of CIA in Pakistan,’” Telegraph, February 22, 2011.

  415 “a blessing in disguise”: Qaiser Butt, “‘CIA Agent Davis Had Ties with Local Militants,’” Express Tribune, February 22, 2011.

  416 “Davis’s job”: Ibid.

  416 false flag bombings: Ibid.

  416 “All countries conduct espionage”: Colonel W. Patrick Lang, comment thread for post by Brigadier (Ret.) F. B. Ali, “#Update: The Raymond Davis Affair,” Sic Semper Tyrannis (blog), http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2011/02/update-the-raymond-davis-affair-fb-ali.html.

  416 “a paper-shuffling diplomat”: Mazzetti, “A Shooting in Pakistan Reveals Fraying Alliance.”

  417 drawn up plans: Marc Ambinder and D. B. Grady, The Command: Deep Inside the President’s Secret Army (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2012, Kindle edition).

  417 “detect, disarm, disable, or seize WMD”: Glenn W. Goodman Jr., “Deep Underground Tunnels: Counterproliferation Mission Takes SOF Commandos into Tough New Environments,” Armed Forces Journal, accessed November 2012, www.specialoperations.com/Literature/AFJI/CP.htm.

  417 “second phase of the JSOC influx”: Brigadier (Ret.) F. B. Ali, “The Fallout from the Davis Affair,” Sic Semper Tyrannis (blog), March 1, 2011, http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2011/03/the-fall-out-from-the-davis-affair-fb-ali.html.

  418 “following a government directive”: Kathy Gannon and Adam Goldman, “Pakistan’s Intelligence Ready to Split with CIA,” Associated Press, February 23, 2011.

  418 more than 3,500 visas: Karin Brulliard, “In Aftermath of Shooting, Rising Skepticism About American Presence in Pakistan,” Washington Post, February 22, 2011.