One measure of the cost to the overall U.S. war effort: Gareth Porter, “Doubling of SOF Night Raids Backfired in Kandahar,” Inter Press Service, September 15, 2010.
In a series of media interviews in August 2010: Ibid.
Leaving aside the number of innocent civilians represented in those figures: Felix Kuehn and Alex Strick van Linschoten, “A Knock on the Door: 22 Months of ISAF Press Releases,” Afghanistan Analysts Network, Kabul, October 12, 2011.
seventeen commanders had been killed: Antonio Gustozzi and Christopher Reuter, “The Insurgents of the Afghan North,” Afghanistan Analysts Network, Kabul, April 2011, p. 29.
Squadron Leader Keith Dear: Keith Patrick Dear, “Beheading the Hydra: Does Killing Terrorist or Insurgent Leaders Work?” RAF Department of Defense Studies, August 2011, p. 22.
They were also younger: Ibid., p. 22.
“We want to die anyway”: WGBH Boston, “Kill Capture,” op. cit.
A marine officer who served two tours in the lethally dangerous neighborhood of Sangin: Interview with marine officer, Jacksonville, NC, December 2, 2012.
making the Taliban even more cruel: Alex Strick van Linschoten, “Entropy and Insurgent Radicalisation: An ISAF Goal?” A Different Place (blog), December 7, 2011. http://www.alexstrick.com/2011/12/entropy-and-insurgent-radicalisation-an-isaf-goal/.
Three of the victims were children: Rod Nordland and Habib Zahori, “Killing of Afghan Journalist and Family Members Stuns Media Peers,” New York Times, March 26, 2014.
“It just shows you”: Email, March 14, 2014.
The Taliban, said Lavoy, were making significant gains: U.S. State Department Cable, “Allies find briefing on Afghanistan NIE ‘Gloomy’ but focus on recommendations to improve situation,” Secret—NOFORN, December 5, 2008: Wikileaks, Public Library of U.S. Diplomacy. http://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08USNATO453_a.html.
“I simply doubt our ability”: Email from Matthew Hoh, April 3, 2014.
“I have yet to see one of those out here”: Email, April 9, 2014.
12 | Drones, Baby, Drones!
The Richard M. Helms Award dinner: CIA Officers Memorial Foundation: “Richard M. Helms Award Dinner 2011,” Compass (no. 1), undated.
Joining them were senior executives of various defense corporations: Recollection of attendees at dinner.
“the CIA gets what it wants”: Daniel Klaidman, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency (New York: Houghton Mifflin–Harcourt, 2012), p. 121.
At just under $15 billion: Barton Gellman and Greg Miller, “‘Black Budget’ Summary Details U.S. Spy Networks’ Successes, Failures, and Objectives,” Washington Post, August 29, 2013.
“those bastards”: Communication from the late Colonel Richard M. Hallock, who had many discussions with Helms on this topic when the latter was ambassador to Iran.
“all-consuming ambition”: Interview with former CIA official Ray McGovern (the supervisor in question), Arlington, VA, January 9, 2014.
On one occasion, notorious within the community: Aram Roston, “Obama’s Counterterror Czar Gave Bogus Intel to Bush White House,” C4ISR Journal, October 1, 2012.
Exiting government service in 2005: Aram Roston, “Intel Firm Paid CIA Nominee Well as He Left for White House,” Defense News, February 4, 2013.
“finishing Brennan’s sentences”: Daniel Klaidman, op. cit., p. 23.
“You know, our president has his brutal side”: Interview with former CIA official, Washington, DC, April 13, 2011.
After paying due tribute to previous honorees: Interview with attendee at dinner, April 6, 2011.
As is the custom in Pashtun culture: Kathy Gannon, “Timing of U.S. Drone Strike Questioned,” AP Exclusive, August 2, 2011.
Although the ominous buzz of drones was always in the air: Akbar Ahmed, The Thistle and the Drone (New York: HarperCollins, 2013), p. 85.
However, the land in question: Gannon, op. cit.
In Lahore, a burly American named Raymond Davis: Mark Mazzetti, The Way of the Knife (New York: Penguin, 2013), p. 264.
The man they selected to kill: Ahmed, op. cit., p. 82.
“The CIA was angry”: Gannon, op. cit.
After all, it was an established point of drone-strike doctrine: Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” New York Times, May 29, 2012.
Finally, sometime after 10:00 a.m.: International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School and Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law, “Living Under Drones; Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from U.S. Drone Practices in Pakistan” (2012), p. 59. http://livingunderdrones.org/report/.
“The smell was awful.”: Ben Emmerson, UNSRCT Drone Inquiry, “Interview with witness #3,” Case Study #1: Datta Khel, March 14, 2014. http://vimeo.com/79102292.
The country’s foreign office called it: Manzoor Ali, “Pakistan Furious as U.S. Drone Strike Kills Civilians,” Express Tribune, March 18, 2011.
“in a manner consistent…”: Sebastian Abbott, “New Light on Drone War’s Death Toll,” AP Impact, February 26, 2012.
“These guys were terrorists”: Tom Wright and Rehmat Mehsud, “Pakistan Slams U.S. Drone Strike,” Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2011.
A separate probe by the Associated Press: Abbott, op. cit.
Although the positions held by the dead men were now of course vacant: Stanford and NYU Law Schools, op. cit., p. 60.
When presented with the tool of a Hellfire-armed Predator: Steve Simon and Dan Benjamin, Age of Sacred Terror (New York: Random House, 2002), p. 345.
Soon, visiting dignitaries: Mazzetti, op. cit., p. 6.
In 2004, when the CIA sought Pakistani permission to launch drone strikes: Mazzetti, op. cit., p. 103ff.
Nor was the tally of high-value targets impressive: Bill Roggio, “Senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan,” Long War Journal, 2004–2013. http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes-hvts.php#ixzz2yiEkZAY0.
“completely done by the Pakistani military”: New York Times, October 30, 2006.
“It is something that we have done”: “Bajaur Operation Not under Any Pressure: FO,” Dawn.com, October 31, 2006.
police barracks: Ahmed, op. cit., p. 81.
“Is Cofer some sort of vampire?”: Interview with former senior CIA official, Washington, DC, March 27, 2014.
“I’ve had a lot of run-ins with the CIA”: Interview with former State Department official, Washington, DC, April 25, 2014.
By 2011 the Counterterrorism Center accounted for 10 percent: Greg Miller and Julie Tate, “CIA Shifts Focus to Killing Targets,” Washington Post, September 1, 2011.
“We’re not thinking about bloodthirsty butchers”: Interview with former CIA official, Washington, DC, April 16, 2014.
“They were coming at us”: Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, Counterstrike (New York: Times Books, 2012), p. 101.
Interestingly, these bellicose remarks were guided by Richard Clarke: Klaidman, op. cit., p. 18.
“We did nothing”: Columbia School of Law, Human Rights Clinic and Center for Civilians in Conflict, The Civilian Impact of Drones—Unexamined Costs, Unanswered Questions, p. 21.
Afterward, when Hayden and Kappes explained the concept of a signature strike: Daniel Klaidman, “Drones: The Silent Killers,” Newsweek, May 28, 2012.
According to a rare outside observer: David Rhode, “The Drone War,” Reuters magazine, January 26, 2012.
“We do not come out of our villages”: NYU and Stanford Schools of Law, op. cit., p. 96.
The sole survivor of Obama’s first strike: Ibid., p. 74ff.
“We got played all the time”: Interview with former CIA official, Washington, DC, April 16, 2014.
Naturally, the Pakistani government was happy: Ahmed, op. cit., p. 73.
As related in Joby Warrick’s gripping account: Joby Warrick, The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA (New York:
Doubleday, 2011).
In reality the driver of the car: Ibid., p. 86.
In fact, given reports that the rival Mehsud and Wazir tribes: Azhar Masood, “Pakistani Tribesmen Settle Scores Through US Drones,” Arab News, May 24, 2011.
ISI … were supplying the targeting information: Patrick Cockburn, “Revenger’s Tragedy: The Forgotten Conflict in Pakistan,” Independent, May 10, 2010.
Ahmed Wali Karzai: Wikileaks, “Ahmed Wali Karzai Seeking to Define Himself as US Partner,” February 25, 2010. https://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/02/10KABUL693.html.
“very precise precision strikes”: David Jackson, “Obama Defends Drone Strikes,” State Department Cable, USA Today, January 31, 2012.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta echoed the sentiment: U.S. Department of Defense, Press Operations, “Remarks by Secretary Panetta at the Center for a New American Security,” November 20, 2012.
John Brennan insisted: Scott Shane, “C.I.A. Is Disputed on Civilian Toll in Drone Strikes,” New York Times, August 11, 2011.
“Drones were a cheap, politically painless way of dealing with that”: Interview with Cameron Munter, ambassador to Pakistan from 2010 to 2012, Washington, DC, April 24, 2012.
John Brennan did like to put a “strategic” gloss on the undertaking: Interview with former White House official, Washington, DC, April 22, 2014.
Despite Brennan’s theorizing about table legs: Jonathan Landay, “Obama’s Drone War Kills ‘Others,’ Not Just al-Qaida Leaders,” McClatchy Newspapers, April 9, 2013.
By 2012, for example, the CIA had clearance: Greg Miller, “White House approves broader Yemen Drone Campaign,” Washington Post, April 25, 2012.
So near neighbors might not know: NYU and Stanford Schools of Law, op. cit., p. 5.
“The drone campaign only makes sense”: Interview, Washington, DC, April 12, 2014.
“truly disturbing”: Bureau of Investigative Journalism, “Reported U.S. covert actions 2001–2011,” Yemen Times, March 29, 2012.
Edmund Hull: Wikileaks, U.S. State Department Cable, “Ambassador’s 4/10 Meeting with Amnesty.” https://wikileaks.org/cable/2004/04/04SANAA860.html.
He has also laid claims: Yemen Times, April 13, 2008.
Saleh, who was distrustful of banks: Interview with Sana’a former government official, January 2011.
When he had first seized power in a 1978 coup: The winning ticket was claimed by the late Selma al-Radi, whose knowledge of Yemen was unmatched.
Well-informed political sources in Sana’a: Interview with Sana’a former government official, January 2011.
“They were supposed to have used forks”: Interview with Sana’a former government official, January 2011.
CIA built a special base in Saudi Arabia: Foxnews.com, “Obama Administration Building New Drone Bases in Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia,” September 21, 2011. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/21/obama-administration-building-new-drone-bases-in-horn-africa-saudi/#ixzz38jrJi5Gw.
Jaber was also a business partnership of a Saleh relative: Interview Sana’a former government official, January 2011.
“How could this happen?” Klaidman, Kill Capture, op. cit., p. 255.
Brennan, meanwhile, was “pissed”: Adam Enthous, “U.S. Doubts Intelligence That Led to Yemen Strike,” Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2011.
This mistargeted killing had more far-reaching consequences: Jeb Bone, “Drone Wars, Attacks Fuel Anger in Yemen,” Global Post, October 10, 2011. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/111007/drone-warsyemen-unrest-protests-aqap-al-qaeda.
“no one has asked us”: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, “Shabwa: Blood Feuds and Hospitality in al-Qaida’s Yemen Outpost,” The Guardian, August 23, 2010.
“slapdash pastiche”: The Editorial Board, “A Thin Rationale for Drone Killings,” New York Times, June 23, 2014.
Israeli Supreme Court: The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel v. The Government of Israel, HCJ 769/02, December 13, 2006.
However, as revealed by Anat Kamm: Noa Yachot, “Timeline—The Anat Kamm Affair,” +972 Magazine, October 29, 2011.
“The regime decided to hand over this territory”: Interview with Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani, “Yemenis Celebrate as Saleh Flees,” Democracy Now, June 6, 2011.
Al-Qaeda member Hamid al-Radmi, for example: Human Rights Watch, “Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda, Pt. 2, Wessab, Strike on Alleged Local AQAP Leader,” October 22, 2013, p. 7. http://www.hrw.org/node/119909/section/7.
Adnan al-Qadhi, a colonel: Ibid.
“They could have picked him up any time”: Telephone interview, January 25, 2014.
Inevitably, collateral victims accumulated: Human Rights Watch, op. cit.
This document stated clearly and unequivocally: Office of the Press Secretary, “Fact Sheet: U.S. Policy Standards and Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism Operations Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities,” White House, May 23, 2014. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/fact-sheet-us-policy-standards-and-procedures-use-force-counterterrorism.
Over fifteen days in the summer of 2013: Eric Schmidt, “Embassies Open but Yemen Stays on Terror Watch,” New York Times, August 11, 2013.
“Turns out I’m really good at killing people”: John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, Double Down: Game Change 2012 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), p. 55.
In April 2014, Western media took notice: Barbara Starr, “Unsettling Video Shows Large al-Qaeda Meeting in Yemen,” CNN, April 16, 2014.
Reports from Sana’a indicated: Adam Baron, “U.S. Drone Strikes Came Despite Yemen’s Hopes to Limit Them,” McClatchy New Service, April 21, 2014.
13 | One Big Robot
“We want to be everywhere, know everything”: Melanie D. G. Kaplan “JSOC Commander Outlines Intel Demands,” Trajectory Magazine, U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, April 17, 2014. http://trajectorymagazine.com/got-geoint/item/1721-jsoc-commander-outlines-intel-demands.html (video of speech embedded).
Operating in at least 134 countries: Admiral William H. McRaven, Posture Statement to the House Armed Services Committee, February 27, 2014.
From a mere $2.3 billion in 2001: U.S. Special Operations Command, “FY 2015, Budget Highlights,” pp. 5–6. http://www.socom.mil/News/Documents/USSOCOM_FY_2013_Budget_Highlights.pdf.
and was looking for $9.9 billion: Andrew Feickert, “U.S. Special Operations Forces, Background and Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service, May 8, 2014.
“They have professional lighting engineers for the displays”: Interview with House Appropriations Committee staffer, Washington, DC, March 28, 2014.
“When SEAL Team 6 operators are sent on ‘training’ missions to Alaska”: Rowan Scarborough, “Obama Runs Special Forces into the Ground,” Washington Times, March 11, 2014.
Nevertheless, there was little sign: Matt Cox, “Congress Wants More Control of Special Ops Iron Man Suit,” Defense Technology, April 29, 2014. http://defensetech.org/2014/04/29/congress-wants-more-control-of-special-ops-iron-man-suit/.
with a slick, expensive gamelike video: Sidney Freedberg Jr., “SOCOM Wants YOU to Help Build High-tech ‘Iron Man’ Armor,” Breaking Defense, October 21, 2013. http://breakingdefense.com/2013/10/socom-wants-you-to-help-build-high-tech-iron-man-armor/.
Among other items on a Special Operations wish list: Mark Thompson, “Check Out This New Wish List for U.S. Special Ops,” Time, April 28, 2014.
Conducted in conjunction with the CIA: Dana Priest, “Covert Action in Colombia,” Washington Post, December 31, 2013.
Mono Jojoy, for example: Ariel Avila, “Who Is Mauricio, the Man Directing Farc’s Negotiations?” Semana (Bogotá), August 28, 2012.
Paul Reyes, a senior leader killed: Garry Leech, “The Significance of the Deaths of the FARC Leaders,” Colombia Journal, March 10, 2008. http://colombiajournal.org/the-significance-of-the-deaths-of-the-farc-leaders-2.htm.
“They’ve had two ceasefires in recent years and made them stick”:
Telephone interview, May 6, 2014.
In May 2014, in seeming rejection of long-standing U.S. policy: Sara Schaefer Muñoz and Juan Forero, “Colombia Agrees with Rebels to Jointly Fight Trafficking,” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2014.
Notwithstanding the claimed victory in Colombia: Janet Hook, “Americans Want to Pull Back from World Affairs, Poll Finds,” Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2014.
Three days after this speech: Patrick Galey, Jack Serle, and Alice K. Ross, “Drone Strikes in Yemen: Bloodiest US and Yemeni Attacks in Two Years Kill at Least 40 People,” Bureau of Investigative Journalism, April 22, 2014.
“Dear America”: Tweet from Farea al-Muslimi, May 3, 2014. https://twitter.com/almuslimi/status/462465907085029376.
“tsunami”: Tweet from Farea al-Muslimi, April 21, 2014. https://twitter.com/almuslimi/status/458376151556423680.
a detailed Human Rights Watch on-the-ground investigation: Human Rights Watch, “A Wedding That Became a Funeral,” February 19, 2014. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2014/02/19/wedding-became-funeral.
Officials shown the drone-feed video: Kimberly Dozier, “Report: U.S. Drone Strike May Have Killed Up to a Dozen Civilians in Yemen,” Associated Press, February 20, 2014.
However, in an implicit reminder: Michael Isikoff, “U.S. Investigates Yemenis’ Charge That Drone Strike Turned Wedding into a Funeral,” NBCnews.com, January 7, 2014.
Meanwhile a convenient leak suggested: Ken Dilanian, “Debate Grows over Proposal for CIA to Turn Over Drones to Pentagon,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2014.
Fifteen years earlier: George W. Bush: “A Period of Consequences,” speech delivered at The Citadel, Charleston, SC, September 23, 1999.
In 2012, Barack Obama, in a speech at the Pentagon: President Barack H. Obama, “Defense Strategic Guidance Briefing from the Pentagon,” Press Operations, U.S. Department of Defense, January 5, 2012.
“devastating blows”: Dominique Pastre, “Biden Says Terror Leaders’ Deaths Significant Blow to Al Qaeda,” Foxnews.com, April 19, 2010.
At the end of the Bush tenure: Nick Turse, “America’s Secret War in 134 Countries, Huffington Post, January 16, 2014.
Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins Page 34
