by Scott Shane
An April 2008 FBI memo referred to Awlaki as “a known Al Qaeda facilitator and operative” The memo is included in the second collection of FBI documents obtained by J. M. Berger of Intelwire, who shared them with me in November 2014. They are not online at the time of this writing, but the redacted memo of April 28, 2008, is at pdf page 2026.
Charlie Allen, the CIA veteran Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, “A Ticking Time Bomb”: Counterterrorism Lessons from the U.S. Government’s Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack, February 3, 2011, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-112shrg66620/html/CHRG-112shrg66620.htm, 20.
In a much-debated 2007 report, the New York Police Department’s Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat, New York City Police Department, 2007, http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf.
In early 2009, the group posted on the web its own guide to radicalization See Brian Fishman and Abdullah Warius, “A Jihadist’s Course in the Art of Recruitment,” CTC Sentinel (Combating Terrorism Center at West Point), February 15, 2009, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/a-jihadist%E2%80%99s-course-in-the-art-of-recruitment.
Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, a theologian and physicist Albacete, interview, winter 2002, in PBS documentary Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero, 2002, transcript at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/faith/interviews/albacete.html.
“Within the histories of religious traditions” Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, rev. ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 6.
Ibraheim: “May Allah keep Anwar” Comment posted December 5, 2008, on Awlaki’s December 1 post “Finding a Balance,” http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com, archived at http://cryptome.org/anwar-alawlaki/08-1201.htm.
“The sun in that solar system was Awlaki” Will McCants, interview, February 18, 2014.
“44 Ways of Supporting Jihad,” it drew 737 comments in ten days “44 Ways” is not accessible at http://cryptome.org/anwar-alawlaki/09-0105.htm, but the entire text of Awlaki’s tract is copied into the comments section of this blog entry at comment 36.
a Virginian named Zachary Chesser The information on Chesser comes from Tara Bahrampour, “Terror Suspect Took His Desire to Belong to the Extreme,” Washington Post, July 25, 2010; the excerpt from Chesser’s high school yearbook at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/zac-chesser/docs/document-cloud-chesser-senior.html; and the affidavit of FBI agent Mary Brandt Kinder in USA v. Zachary Adams Chesser, July 21, 2010, case 1:10 mj 504, US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In court, he expressed remorse Dana Hedgpeth, “N.Va. Man Sentenced to 25 Years for Threats, Trying to Join Terrorist Group,” Washington Post, February 24, 2011.
listened to more than one hundred hours of lectures by Awlaki Tamer al-Ghobashy, “Recordings Inspired Terrorist,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2012.
A former fry cook and Muslim convert in his late twenties, Michael C. Finton, tried to blow up the Federal Building Madeleine Gruen, Attempt to Attack the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield, Illinois, Nine Eleven Finding Answers (NEFA) Foundation, “Target: America” Report 23, December 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20120301022613/http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/nefa_fintontargetamerica.pdf.
Roshonara Choudhry British police interview with Choudhry, conducted May 14, 2010, in Vikram Dodd, “Roshonara Choudhry: Police Interview Extracts,” Guardian, November 3, 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/nov/03/roshonara-choudhry-police-interview.
Paul G. Rockwood Jr. Plea agreement in USA v. Paul Gene Rockwood Jr., filed on July 21, 2010, in US District Court for the District of Alaska, 5, posted at Investigative Project on Terrorism, http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1348.pdf.
Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte Criminal Complaint against Mohamed Alessa, filed June 4, 2010, in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, posted at Investigative Project on Terrorism, http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1295.pdf.
Barry Bujol Press statement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Texas, November 14, 2011, posted at Investigative Project on Terrorism, http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1815.pdf.
At a Washington conference in April 2010, Representative Jane Harman Harman spoke at a conference at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, “The State of Intelligence Reform,” on April 7, 2010; transcript available via Federal News Service.
At a New York Police Department briefing Judith Miller and David Samuels, “A Glossy Approach to Inciting Terrorism,” Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2010.
Hasan began sending Awlaki messages For the most complete and authoritative account of the e-mail exchanges, see William H. Webster Commission, Final Report of the William H. Webster Commission on the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counterterrorism Intelligence, and the Events at Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009, especially 41ff, http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/final-report-of-the-william-h.-webster-commission.
Awlaki posted a blistering attack on his website Awlaki, “Fighting Against Government Armies in the Muslim World,” http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com, July 14, 2009. This is missing from the Cryptome archive on Awlaki’s website but is preserved at http://anwar-awlaki.blogspot.com/2011/10/fighting-against-government-armies-in.html.
“this is what Muslims should do, they should stand up to the aggressor” Retired Colonel Terry Lee, a former Fort Hood colleague of Hasan, interview, Fox News, November 5, 2009, http://video.foxnews.com/v/3944018/fight-against-the-aggressor/#sp=show-clips.
On November 4, he began to give away his food The details of Hasan’s actions before the shootings come from reporting by me and my colleagues; see Scott Shane and James Dao, “Investigators Study Tangle of Clues on Fort Hood Suspect,” The New York Times, November 14, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/15hasan.html.
“Nidal Hassan is a hero” Awlaki’s blog entry “Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing,” http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com, November 9, 2009, http://cryptome.org/anwar-alawlaki/09-1109.htm.
“When a drone is sent into afghanistan” Ibid., comment 21, posted by Abu Mubarak on November 9, 2009, http://cryptome.org/anwar-alawlaki/09-1109.htm.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was making his own lethal plans Among the fullest accounts of Abdulmutallab’s life are “Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: One Boy’s Journey to Jihad,” Sunday Times, January 3, 2010; Delta Christmas Detroit Attempt 25 Dec. 2009, IntelCenter, Significant Terrorist Event Report, January 6, 2010, http://www.intelcenter.com/icf/STER-DCDA-25Dec2009-V2-8.pdf; and a useful timeline by NBC News, “Timeline: Umar Abdulmutallab,” n.d., http://www.nbcnews.com/id/34713877/ns/us_news-security/t/timeline-umar-abdulmutallab/.
Within a few weeks he had connected in Sanaa with a member of Awlaki’s underground network “USA v. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Government’s Sentencing Memorandum,” February 10, 2012, 12–14, posted at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/documents/umar-farouk-abdul-mutallab-sentence-brief.pdf.
Abdulmutallab’s prolific blog posts Abdulmutallab’s writings on the Islamic Forum at www.gawaher.com are accessible via a search on the site for his screen name “Farouk1986.” Also see the links to vario
us posts by Abdulmutallab and a zip file of all his posts here: Noah Shachtman, “Analyze This: The Mind of the Underpants Bomber,” Wired, December 29, 2009, http://www.wired.com/2009/12/look-inside-the-underpants-bombers-mind/.
placed in the computer files, and then essentially ignored Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Unclassified Executive Summary of the Committee Report on the Attempted Terrorist Attack on Northwest Flight 253, May 18, 2010, http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/100518/1225report.pdf.
10. I FACE THE WORLD AS IT IS
“For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror” Obama’s first inaugural address, White House Blog, January 21, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/inaugural-address.
“We intend to win this fight” Scott Shane, “Obama Orders Secret Prisons and Detention Camps Closed,” The New York Times, January 22, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/us/politics/23GITMOCND.html.
Michael Hayden, the outgoing CIA chief, went over plans for the latest drone operations The briefing and its aftermath, including the exchange with Rahm Emanuel, were described by two former officials in confidential interviews, 2012 and 2014.
Obama would insist on deep personal involvement in the drone program See Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” The New York Times, May 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html.
civilians had been killed in both strikes The most detailed compilation of reports on drone strikes is by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. Though its stories are often openly hostile to the drone program, the bureau has been scrupulous in attempting to fairly collect the full range of reports on each strike. On the strikes of Obama’s first week, see the entries for January 23, 2009, at “Get the Data: Drone Wars,” Bureau of Investigative Journalism, http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/10/obama-2009-strikes/. On the general difficulty of assessing civilian casualties accurately, see Scott Shane, “C.I.A. Is Disputed on Civilian Toll in Drone Strikes,” The New York Times, August 11, 2011, and the sidebar, Scott Shane, “Contrasting Reports of Drone Strikes,” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/asia/12droneside.html. For an account of those who believe that drones save civilian lives compared to other military approaches, see Scott Shane, “The Moral Case for Drones,” The New York Times, July 14, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-moral-case-for-drones.html.
“He is determined that he will make these decisions” Tom Donilon, interview, 2012.
Eisenhower had suggested at a meeting George Lardner Jr., “Did Ike Authorize a Murder? Memo Says Eisenhower Wanted Congolese Premier Dead,” Washington Post, August 8, 2000.
The CIA station chief would hurl the poisoned toothpaste Scott Shane, “Memories of a C.I.A. Officer Resonate in a New Era,” The New York Times, February 24, 2008.
“Non-attribution to the United States for covert operations” Senate Select Committee to Study Government Operation with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, Report No. 94-465 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1975), 11.
“Assassination is an extreme measure” Kate Doyle and Peter Kornbluh, eds., CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 4, document 2, “A Study of Assassination”; a legible transcription of the aging document is at http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/ciaguat2.html.
Dick Cheney, who had brought his own sense of history See Charlie Savage, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (New York: Little, Brown, 2007), especially chaps. 2 and 3.
Cheney had famously spoken about the need to work “sort of, the dark side” Cheney speaking to Tim Russert on NBC’s Meet the Press, September 16, 2001.
When he gave the major national security speech of his early presidency “Remarks by the President on National Security,” delivered at the National Archives, May 21, 2009, White House, Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-national-security-5-21-09.
“There was complete shock when the new team came in” Senior counterterrorism official, confidential interview, 2014.
a complex assault on the American embassy in September 2008 For a powerful and detailed account of the strike, see Gregory Johnsen, “The Benghazi That Wasn’t: How One Man Saved the American Embassy in Yemen,” BuzzFeed, May 23, 2014, http://www.buzzfeed.com/gregorydjohnsen/the-benghazi-that-wasnt-how-one-man-saved-the-american-embas. See also Robert F. Worth, “10 Are Killed in Bombings at Embassy in Yemen,” The New York Times, September 17, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/world/middleeast/18yemen.html. The death toll later rose.
as he received in succession in 2009 a number of senior Americans The diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks describe visits from American officials to Yemen: Kappes’s visit, 09SANAA1015, May 31, 2009; Seche meeting, 09SANAA1278, July 20, 2009; Petraeus’s July visit, 09SANAA1430, August 9, 2009; Brennan’s visit, 09SANAA1549, September 15, 2009. All the cables are searchable at Cablegate: http://cablegatesearch.net/.
Special Collection Service See Scott Shane and Tom Bowman, “Espionage from the Front Lines,” Baltimore Sun, December 8, 1995.
NSA team studying Yemen’s communications “Yemen Survey,” NSA’s Texas Special Source Analysis and Discovery Team, August 20, 2009. Obtained by the author from a confidential source.
General Petraeus pushed hard An official who was present at meetings where the proposed strike was discussed, confidential interview, 2014.
“It was case by case and trying to get some assurances” General James Jones, interview, April 19, 2012.
On the night of December 17, 2009, Petraeus oversaw the strike The most complete account of the strike on Al Majala is in a Human Rights Watch report, “Between a Drone and Al Qaeda”: The Civilian Cost of US Targeted Killings in Yemen, October 2013, 67–80, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/yemen1013_ForUpload_1.pdf; see also Amnesty International’s report on the use of cluster bombs, “Images of Missile and Cluster Munitions Point to US Role in Fatal Attack in Yemen,” June 7, 2010, https://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/yemen-images-missile-and-cluster-munitions-point-us-role-fatal-attack-2010-06-04, and Jeremy Scahill, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield (New York: Nation Books, 2013), 303–13.
Djibouti, twenty miles from Yemen across the slender Bab el Mandeb Strait, still would allow only surveillance Predators Two former American counterterrorism officials, interviews, 2014.
“We’d been wanting to do strikes forever” Former counterterrorism analyst, confidential interview, March 2014.
statement from Yemen’s embassy Embassy of the Republic of Yemen, press release, December 17, 2009
Yemen announced that Obama had called to congratulate Saleh “Saleh Gets Telephone Call from US President Barrack [sic] Obama,” Yemen News Agency, December 17, 2009, www.presidentsaleh.gov.ye/shownews.php?Ing=en&_nsid=7958.
The New York Times wrote that “American firepower” had been involved Thom Shanker and Mark Landler, “U.S. Aids Yemeni Raids on Al Qaeda, Officials Say,” The New York Times, December 18, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/world/middleeast/19yemen.html.
ABC News broke the news that US cruise missiles had been used Brian Ross et al., “Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists,” ABC News, December 18, 2009, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cruise-missiles-stri
ke-yemen/story?id=9375236.
on January 2, 2010, Petraeus returned to Sanaa See 10SANAA4, January 4, 2010, at cablegatesearch.net.
Human Rights Watch report on Al Majala strike Human Rights Watch, “Between a Drone and Al Qaeda,” 67–80.
Kazami was dubbed “Objective Akron” Daniel Klaidman, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 199.
Saleh bin Fareed al-Awlaki Bin Fareed, interview, January 28, 2014, Aden.
stuffed with 166 yellow cylinders Human Rights Watch, “Between a Drone and Al Qaeda,” 72.
Convention on Cluster Munitions “The Convention on Cluster Munitions,” entered into force August 1, 2010, http://www.clusterconvention.org/.
at least four curious children and adults Human Rights Watch, “Between a Drone and Al Qaeda,” 72–73.
Obama was presiding over a jury-rigged bureaucracy constructed to handle targeted killing Becker and Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List.’ ”
Each Tuesday, Obama would descend from the Oval Office to the Situation Room The Tuesday terrorism meetings were described by several participants in confidential interviews in 2012 and 2014.
At one Tuesday meeting a few weeks after the underwear bomb episode The meeting was described in confidential interviews in 2012 by two people who had been present.
the CIA actually reduced the size of the explosive munition on the Hellfire missile Confidential interviews with one current official in 2012 and one former official in 2014.
On July 5, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated the American stance “Cool Reception for Sharon in Europe,” BBC News online, July 5, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1424911.stm.
the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher Briefing by Richard Boucher, August 27, 2001, US Department of State Archive, http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rt/4697.htm.
