Government members should be beheaded, and their property should be looted.
4. The three Anglo-Afghan wars occurred in 1839–1842, 1878–1880, and 1919.
5. Interview with a journalist from South Waziristan who spoke with me on condition that his name not be used. See also Syed Saleem Shahzad, Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 (London: Pluto Press, 2011), p. 24.
6. Interview with American diplomat, Washington D.C., June 2012. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with standard diplomatic practice.
7. Karzai’s own account at a press conference on February 18, 2006, in Kabul on his return from Islamabad.
8. Interview with Amrullah Saleh, Kabul, September 30, 2012.
9. The resident, well known to me, requested that his name not be used for fear of retribution from the Taliban. Interview with Ruhullah Khapalwak, Kandahar, April 2006.
10. American officials estimated that armed Taliban in the province numbered from 300 to 1,000 men. The governor estimated that there were 300 armed insurgents in each of the six districts, making 1,800 in all.
11. Carlotta Gall, “In a Remote Corner, an Afghan Army Evolves from Fantasy to Slightly Ragged Reality,” New York Times, January 25, 2003, http://www.nytimes .com/2003/01/25/world/threats-responses-rebuilding-afghanistan-remote-corner-afghan-army-evolves.html.
12. Interview with Lieutenant General David Barno, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Kabul, April 19, 2004.
13. Thanks to colleague David Rohde for his work on the failures of police training; see James Glanz and David Rohde, “Panel Faults U.S.-Trained Afghan Police,” New York Times, December 4, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/world/asia/04police.html.
14. Zhare district was created out of Maiwand and Panjwayi districts after 2001.
15. First reports said sixteen civilians were killed, but a joint Afghan-ISAF investigation concluded that thirty-five civilians were killed.
16. Interview with Western diplomat, Kandahar, May 2006.
17. Carlotta Gall, “Taliban Surges Reduces as U.S. Reduces Afghan Mission,” New York Times, June 6, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/world/asia/11afghan.html.
18. Al Jazeera’s enterprising bureau chief in Afghanistan, Palestinian journalist Samer Allawi, took a taxi and drove into Panjwayi looking for the Taliban. Taped interview filmed by Al Jazeera, Panjwayi, August 27, 2006, viewed by me in Kabul, September 2006.
19. Interview with Canadian military official, Pashmul, Afghanistan, September 22, 2006. This Mullah Abdul Rauf said he was from Spin Boldak. He was no relation to the Abdul Rauf of Kajaki.
20. Email correspondence with Gary Bowman, January 22, 2013.
21. Interview with Staff Sergeant Gregory C. Robinson, FOB Wilson, Zhare, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, January 24, 2011.
22. Sergeant Robinson returned to active duty and was deployed to FOB Wilson again as part of the surge in 2010, one of a dozen amputees back in theater in Afghanistan.
23. The Manley Panel report was released in 2008. A web version is available at http://www.afghanistan.gc.ca/canada-afghanistan/assets/pdfs/Afghan_Report_web_e.pdf, accessed January 14, 2013.
8. THE SUICIDE BOMB FACTORY
1. Interviews with intelligence officials, Kandahar, February 2006, http://www .nytimes.com/2006/02/15/international/asia/15afghan.html.
2. I was allowed to interview Daoud Shah in an anteroom at the National Directorate of Security jail in Kabul in the presence of intelligence officials, October 2006.
3. Interviews with Daoud Shah and Afghan intelligence officials, Kabul, and with Daoud Shah’s father, Hekmat Shah, and Maulavi Khairpuri, Karachi, October 2006.
4. Interview with Afghan intelligence officer, Kabul, October 10, 2006. The official spoke on condition that his name and rank not be used in keeping with the rules of his organization.
5. Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America and the Future of the Global Jihad (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2011), p. 65; interview with Talat Masood, Islamabad, November 2012.
6. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), p. 306.
7. Interview with madrassa student, Islamabad, January 12, 2013.
8. Interview with Pakistani police officer, Lahore, November 2012.
9. This was told to me in strictest confidence so I have withheld the name of the village, the elder who took part in the meeting, and my acquaintance who relayed to me the story, for their own safety.
10. Interview with Western diplomat, London, August 2012. The former diplomat asked to speak on condition of anonymity in accordance with the rules of his office.
11. Interview with former interior minister and peace negotiator Rustam Shah Mohmand, Peshawar, December 3, 2012.
12. Interview with the official, United States, September 2013. The official agreed to talk to me on condition of anonymity in keeping with the rules of his organization.
9. MILITANCY EXPLODES IN PAKISTAN
1. Thanks to my New York Times colleague Salman Masood for his frontline reporting with me that day, July 3, 2007.
2. For the transcript of his video statement, see http://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dr-ayman-al-zawahiri-the-aggression-against-lal-masjid1.pdf.
3. Interview with former Pakistani cabinet minister, Islamabad, December 2012.
4. Interview with former Pakistani cabinet minister, Lahore, December 1, 2012.
5. Interview (by me and New York Times colleague David Rohde) with former Pakistani senior intelligence officer, Islamabad, December 2007.
6. Mujahid Hussain, Punjabi Taliban: Driving Extremism in Pakistan (Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2012), p. 85.
7. Among the militant leaders brought in to intercede were Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the leader of the banned group Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, who had helped in negotiations at the Red Mosque; Abdul Rauf Azhar, brother of the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad, who spoke to the militants on the phone; and Commander Jabar, the deputy of Jaish-e-Mohammad and one of the most infamous militants who has been accused of attacks on Christian churches and schools after 9/11.
8. Malik Ishaq was released from jail in July 2011 after he was acquitted of some cases against him and given bail for others as part of the deal made in 2009. He was detained again in March 2013 after one of the worst campaigns of sectarian violence, blamed on Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, against Shiites in Quetta.
9. Thanks for extra input from a Pakistani reporter on this incident. I am not naming the reporter for their own safety. A spokesman for the ISI confirmed that on some occasions, the military has negotiated with armed militants in order to win the release of hostages. He denied, however, any nefarious intentions on this occasion or others. “War is something in which you have to try everything,” he told me. Interview, Islamabad, January 2013.
10. Bhutto was speaking at a press conference in Dubai at which I was present, October 17, 2007.
11. Interview with Ejaz Shah, Lahore, December 1, 2012.
12. Interview with Syed Mohammad Yousuf Shah, Akora Khattak, Pakistan, January 12, 2013.
13. A UN Commission of Inquiry that investigated the circumstances of her death found the security arrangements provided by the government “fatally insufficient and ineffective.” Bhutto faced threats from multiple sources, Taliban, al Qaeda, local jihadi groups, and potentially from elements in the military establishment, it said. See http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Pakistan/UN_Bhutto_Report_15April2010.pdf.
14. Interview with Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, Islamabad, January 23, 2013.
15. Interview with senior Afghan security official, Kabul, October 2012.
10. THE TALIBAN CLOSE THEIR GRIP
1. Press conference on the investigation into the April 7, 2009, attack on the national parade, Kabul, April 30, 2009.
2. Interview with a senior Afghan intelligence official, Kabul, 2008.
3. The strategy is laid out by Brig
adier Muhammad Yousaf who headed the Afghan bureau of the ISI in the 1980s. Muhammad Yousaf and Mark Adken, The Bear Trap: Afghanistan’s Untold Story (London: Leo Cooper, 1992), pp. 1, 151.
4. General Kayani said this to a group of Pakistani journalists when he was head of the ISI. American officials have quoted him as saying the same, apparently overhearing it through electronic intercepts. See David E. Sanger, The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power (New York: Random House, 2009), ch. 8.
5. Interview with Nuristani elder, Kabul, 2008. The elder requested his name be withheld for security reasons.
6. Interview with farmer by a New York Times colleague, Taimoor Shah, Kandahar, August 2009.
7. Interview with Haji Abdul Majid, Kandahar, August 2009.
8. Interview with Samad Zazai, Kabul, October 6, 2012.
9. Interview with Mohammad Haq Jenabi, Kandahar, August 2009.
11. KARZAI’S TURN
1. Sabrina Tavernise, Mark Landler, and Helene Cooper, “With New Afghan Vote, Path to Stability Is Unclear,” New York Times, October 21, 2009, p. A12, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/world/asia/21afghan.html.
2. The cables were later released by Wikileaks; see http://documents.nytimes.com/eikenberry-s-memos-on-the-strategy-in-afghanistan.
3. House of Commons, oral evidence taken before the Foreign Affairs Committee, “The UK’s Foreign Policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan,” November 9, 2010. Corrected transcript posted online at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmfaff/c514-iii/c51401.htm.
4. Interview with former cabinet minister, Kabul, April 24, 2013.
5. Telephone interview with Simar Samar, Kabul, April 25, 2013.
6. Interview with Richard C. Holbrooke, Kabul, August 2009.
7. Telephone interview with Sayed Tayeb Jawad, June 13, 2012.
8. Interviews with General David Richards, Kabul and Kandahar, September 2006.
9. For details of President Karzai’s handling of the Kabul Bank crisis, see reporting by Matthew Rosenberg, “Political Meddling Hampers Inquiry into Kabul Bank Debacle,” New York Times, November 28, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/world/asia/inquiry-into-kabul-bank-fraud-hits-snags.html.
10. Interview with Umar Daudzai, Afghan ambassador to Pakistan and former presidential chief of staff, Islamabad, January 29, 2013.
11. Interview with a Western diplomat, Kabul, 2006.
12. Alissa Rubin, “Karzai’s Words Leave Few Choices for the West,” New York Times, April 5, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/world/asia/05karzai.html.
13. Sherard Cowper-Coles, Cables from Kabul: The Inside Story of the West’s Afghanistan Campaign (London: HarperPress, 2011), p. 58.
12. OBAMA’S SURGE
1. Commander’s Initial Assessment, Commander, NATO International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan, U.S. Forces Afghanistan, August 30, 2009.
2. Interview with Abdul Razziq, Kandahar, February 16, 2013.
3. Interview with Lieutenant General Nick Carter, deputy commander of HQ ISAF, Kabul, March 1, 2013.
13. OSAMA’S SAFE HAVEN
1. For a detailed account of bin Laden’s family life, see bin Laden, bin Laden, and Sasson, Growing up Bin Laden.
2. Pakistani officials gave conflicting accounts as to how many women and children were in the compound and taken into custody. This is my tally from various sources and may not be complete.
3. I have withheld further details regarding the source in order to protect those involved. I have not been able to confirm this account with a second source, but two former senior U.S. government officials told me that the report was consistent with their own conclusions.
4. Interview with former U.S. official, United States, September 2013.
5. Interviews with ISI spokesmen, Islamabad, 2011 and 2013.
6. Carlotta Gall, Pir Zubair Shah, and Eric Schmitt, “Seized Phone Offers Clues to Bin Laden’s Pakistani Links,” New York Times, June 23, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/world/asia/24pakistan.html.
7. Thanks to reporting from colleague Pir Zubair Shah; see ibid.
8. Mark Mazzetti, “Signs That Bin Laden Weighed Seeking Pakistani Protection,” New York Times, May 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/world/middleeast/27binladen.html.
9. Account of Maryam, widow of Ibrahim, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Abbottabad Incident of May 2, 2011, p. 44, note 55. The report was not made public but was leaked to Al Jazeera and posted on its website in July 2013; see http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/07/20137813412615531.html.
10. Both episodes, according to a Pakistani intelligence source.
11. Special Correspondent, “Qaeda Plans to Trap U.S. in Afghanistan beyond 2011,” The Daily Times, July 5, 2010, http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C07%5C05%5Cstory_5-7-2010_pg1_6. The newspaper report states that the meeting occurred in the Afghan border region, but a senior Pakistani official confirmed that the meeting actually took place in Kohat, inside Pakistan.
12. Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), p. 259.
13. Elizabeth Rubin, Roots of Impunity: Pakistan’s Endangered Press and the Perilous Web of Militancy, Security, and Politics, a special report of the Committee to Protect Journalists, May 2013.
14. Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington, D.C., September 22, 2011, http://www.jcs.mil/speech.aspx?ID=1651.
15. Interview with former senior U.S. official, United States, September 2013.
16. Interview with former senior U.S. official, United States, September 2013.
17. See Report of the Commission of Inquiry, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/07/20137813412615531.html.
14. SPRINGTIME IN ZANGABAD
1. Interview with Abdul Wudood, Pishin Gan Sayedan, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, February 16, 2013.
2. Telephone interview with Major General Robert B. Abrams, March 19, 2013. He also gave an interview to a group of Pentagon reporters, March 13, 2013, http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=5204.
3. Interview with Asadullah Khaled, head of the National Directorate of Security, Kabul, October 13, 2012.
4. Interview by Gordon Lubold with General John Allen, “Are We Winning in Afghanistan?” Foreign Policy, September 5, 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/09/05/are_we_winning_in_afghanistan.
5. Telephone interviews with Sultan Mohammad, April and September 2013.
6. Interview with former Pakistani legislator, Washington D.C., September 2013.
7. The United Nations reports that in the six years from 2006 to 2012, 14,728 civilians were killed. Afghanistan Annual Report 2012: Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, p. 1, http://unama.un missions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=K0B5RL2XYcU=.
8. Afghan police and army deaths were tallied at around 1,000 in 2007 and 3,400 in 2012. Total deaths from 2007 to 2012 came to nearly 10,000. Afghanistan Index, Brookings Institute, http://www.brookings.edu/about/programs/foreign-policy/afghanistan-index.
9. Interview with Zhare elder, Kandahar, February 10, 2013.
10. Thomas McAdams Deford, “Leaving Afghanistan–Now the Hard Part,” The Free Press, May 23, 2012, http://www.freepressonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=50&Sub SectionID=72&ArticleID=19483
Index
Abbas, Athar, [>]
Abbasi, Zaheer ul-Islam, [>]
Abbottabad, Pakistan
bin Laden raided in, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
bin Laden’s safe house in, [>]–[>]
bin Laden’s visitors in, [>]–[>]
al-Libi in, [>]
Abdullah, Abdullah, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
Abrams, Robert B., [>]
Abrar (bin Laden’s courier), [>], [>], [>]
Abu Ghraib, [>]
Achakzai, Mahmood Khan, [>]–[>], [>]
Achakzai, Mansour, [>], [>]
> Achakzai tribe, [>], [>], [>]
Afghan Local Police program, [>]–[>]
Afghan National Army
formation of, [>]–[>]
Highway One deployment, [>]–[>]
Zhare offensive of, [>]–[>], [>]
Afghan National Liberation Front, [>]
Afghanistan. See also specific villages, cities and regions of Afghanistan
Canada military operations in, [>]–[>], [>]
casualties, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>] n [>]
civil war in, [>]–[>]
clothing of, [>]
corruption ranking of, [>]–[>]
elections of 2001, [>]–[>]
elections of 2009, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
festivals, [>]
financial scandal in, [>]–[>]
hospitality customs of, [>]–[>]
infrastructure, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Iraq resources versus, [>], [>]–[>]
NATO withdrawal from, [>]–[>]
Pakistan as enemy of, [>]
Pakistan negotiations with, [>]–[>]
peace, hope for, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
“peace convoy” trade route with, [>]–[>]
refugees of, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
Soviet invasion of, [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>] n [>]
tribal assembly (loya jirga), [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>]
uprisings, [>]
The Wrong Enemy Page 36
