A Pretext for War (50 page)

“NSA is . . . not well-positioned”: U.S. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, Richard A. Best, Jr., “The National Security Agency: Issues for Congress,” Report RL 30740 (Updated January 16, 2001). (unpaginated).

“We truly are speaking truth”: John J. Lumpkin, “CIA’s Top Analyst Informs President,” Associated Press (November 3, 2002).

“multimodality learner”: Walter Pincus, “Under Bush, the Briefing Gets Briefer; Key Intelligence Report by CIA and FBI Is Shorter, ‘More Targeted,’ Limited to Smaller Circle of Top Officials and Advisers,”
The Washington Post
(May 24, 2002), p. A33.

“The Presidential Daily Brief was the first”: George H. W. Bush, remarks at the conference “U.S. Intelligence and the End of the Cold War,” Texas A&M University (November 19, 1999).

Charles A. Peters; “He did not want us talking”: Vernon Loeb, “The Spy Chief Who Came In From Cold War; CIA Honoring Ex-President Bush,”
The Washington Post
(April 23, 1999), p. A35.

“The relationship between the President”: Walter Pincus and Vernon Loeb, “CIA Resurfaces, In the Oval Office; Tenet, Bush Develop Close Relationship,”
The Washington Post
(July 29, 2001), p. A05.

“The former president reinforced”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “C.I.A. Chief Prospers From Bond With Bush,”
The New York Times
(December 17, 2002).

“really hit it off”: Walter Pincus and Vernon Loeb, “CIA Resurfaces in the Oval Office; Tenet, Bush Develop Close Relationship,”
The Washington Post
(July 29, 2001), p. A05.

“They’re pragmatists”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “C.I.A. Chief Prospers From Bond With Bush,”
The New York Times
(December 17, 2002).

Once described by a family friend: All Politics, CNN (March 28, 1997).

“Nobody who knew me”: George Tenet, Address at the 1999 Alumni of the Year Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School (June 11, 1999).

“Starting out with nothing”: George Tenet, Address at the 1999 Alumni of the Year Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School (June 11, 1999).

“When I went to high school”: George Tenet, Address at the 1999 Alumni of the Year Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School (June 11, 1999).

“I didn’t go to law school”: George Tenet, Address at the 1999 Alumni of the Year Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School (June 11, 1999).

“Read ‘lobbying,’”: Rick Horowitz, “By George, He Knows the Guy,” at Everybody Comes to Rick’s website (March 27, 1997):
http://yesrick.com/rh32097.htm
.

Room SH-219: Paul De La Garza, “Sen. Graham Oversees World of Intrigue,”
St. Petersburg Times
(July 22, 2001).

“A pretty appropriate description”: Milt Bearden and James Risen,
The Main Enemy: Inside the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB
(New York: Random House), p. 377.

“When David Rolph walked into the embassy”: Milt Bearden and James Risen,
The Main Enemy: Inside the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB
(New York: Random House), p. 490.

“The CIA did not have any high-level agents”: Milt Bearden and James Risen,
The Main Enemy: Inside the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB
(New York: Random House), p. 397.

“The CIA had no agents inside”: Milt Bearden and James Risen,
The Main Enemy: Inside the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB
(New York: Random House), p. 386.

“The CIA had no human intelligence”: Milt Bearden and James Risen,
The Main Enemy: Inside the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB
(New York: Random House), p. 399.

“In truth”: Milt Bearden and James Risen,
The Main Enemy: Inside the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB
(New York: Random House), pp. 397–398.

“Washington is full of people”: Eric Pooley, “CIA Nominee: Take Two,”
Time
(3/24/97).

“I’m registered in one party”: Barbara Slavin, “Tenet on a Mission to ‘Serve Everyone,’”
USA Today
(3/24/97).

“My high school soccer coach”: George Tenet, Address at the 1999 Alumni of the Year Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School (June 11, 1999).

“Puff Daddy”: Barbara Slavin, “Tenet on a Mission to ‘Serve Everyone,’”
USA Today
(October 11, 2000).

“I’ll come in and his door”; Nurith C. Aizenman, “Can George Tenet Save the CIA?”
The New Republic
(March 22, 1999).

“I know most of you”: George Tenet, Address at the 1999 Alumni of the Year Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School (June 11, 1999).

“Laugh as much as you can”: George Tenet, Address at the University of Oklahoma Graduation Ceremony (May 10, 2003).

“I called Tenet”: Richard W. Stevenson, “President Asserts He Still Has Faith in Tenet and CIA,”
The New York Times
(July 12, 2003).

“The CIA is good at stealing”: Jeff Stein, “Spy Business Leaves Little Room for Intelligence,”
Newsday
(December 7, 1995), p. 48.

“We never recruited a spy”: Robert M. Gates,
From The Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), p. 560.

“Perhaps the most compelling”: CIA, Gates quoted in John H. Hedley, “The Intelligence Community: Is it Broken? How to Fix It?”
Studies in Intelligence
(1996), p. 18.

“U.S. intelligence assets on the ground”: James A. Baker III with Thomas M. DeFrank,
The Politics of Diplomacy, 1989–1992
(New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995), p. 7. This view was also shared by General Norman Schwarzkopf, who said, after the war, “Our human intelligence was poor.” (H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Peter Petre,
It Doesn’t Take a Hero
[New York: Bantam Books, 1992], p. 319.)

“The greatest weakness of CIA’s performance”: Richard L. Russell, “CIA’s Strategic Intelligence in Iraq,”
Political Science Quarterly
(Summer 2002), p. 205.

“The CIA had no spies worthy of the name in India”: Tim Weiner, “Report Finds Basic Flaws in U.S. Intelligence Operations,”
The New York Times
(June 3, 1998).

“We made a school bus disappear”: Robert Baer,
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism
(Three Rivers Press, 2003).

Description of Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity: Jon Elliston, “Bomb School,”
Durham Independent
(June 5, 2002).

“The incendiary projectile would”: Victor Marchetti and John E. Marks,
The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974), pp. 111–112.

“Hardly an Islamic fundamentalist”: Ben Anderson, “Terror in the Philippines,” Correspondent, BBC (June 15, 2003).

“Put 0.5g of sodium hydroxide”: Matthew Brzezinski, “Boom and Bust,”
The Washington Post Magazine
(December 30, 2001).

“Murad’s idea is that”: Jim Gomez and John Solomon, “Authorities Warned of Hijack Risks,” Associated Press
(March 5, 2002).

“What do you mean by Liberation Army?”: Transcript, Abdul Hakim Murad interrogation, Philippines Police, January 7, 1995.

If the U.S. government keeps supporting Israel: Matthew Brzezinski, “Boom and Bust,”
The Washington Post Magazine
(December 30, 2001).

“When the invasion of Afghanistan started”: Robert Fisk, “Anti-Soviet Warrior,”
Independent
(London) (December 6, 1993).

“We transported heavy equipment”: Transcript of Osama bin Laden interview by Peter Arnett, CNN (March 1997).

“It is quite obvious”: Israel Shahak, “Strategic Aims of the 1996 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon,” Columbia University, Middle East and Jewish Studies Department.

“My God, my God”: Matthew Rothschild, “Interview with Robert Fisk,”
The Progressive
(July 1998).

“It was a massacre”: Robert Fisk, “Massacre in a Sanctuary; Eyewitness,”
Independent
(London) (April 19, 1996).

“It is unlikely”: United Nations, “Report of the Secretary-General’s Military Adviser Concerning the Shelling of the United Nations Compound at Qana on 18 April 1996,” May 1, 1996.

“How easily we killed them”: James Walsh, “Anatomy of a Tragedy,”
Time
(international edition) (May 20, 1996).

“Around the Middle East”: James Walsh, “Anatomy of a Tragedy,”
Time
(international edition) (May 20, 1996).

“we will no longer be relevant”: Vernon Loeb, “Inside Information,”
The Washington Post
(January 10, 2001).

“a world-renowned operator”: Vernon Loeb, “At Hush-Hush CIA Unit, Talk of a Turnaround; Reforms Recharge Espionage Service,”
The Washington Post
(September 7, 1999).

“There was a reluctance to take risks”: Walter Pincus, “Top Spy Retiring from CIA; Downing Led Revamp of Clandestine Service,”
The Washington Post
(July 29, 1999).

“Ordinary people are not inclined”: Vernon Loeb, “At Hush-Hush CIA Unit, Talk of a Turnaround; Reforms Recharge Espionage Service,”
The Washington Post
(September 7, 1999).

“At the end of the day”: George Tenet, Address at Georgetown University’s Oscar Iden Lecture (October 18, 1999).

“Yesterday’s code clerk”: Interview with a very senior intelligence official.

“the Live Room”: Tom Bowman, Scott Shane, “Espionage From the Front Lines,”
The [Baltimore] Sun
(special series December 3–5, 1995).

“My spies save the world”; “I’ll probably get indicted for this”; Pavitt background: James Pavitt address to the University of Missouri Alumni Association, summer 2000.

“Our resources were perilously depleted”: Interview with James Pavitt, April 2001.

They have the three sets: Interview conducted in late 2003.

“You’ve got the close family”: Interview conducted in late 2003.

seventy-nine since the agency was formed: Vernon Loeb, “CIA Reports Officer Killed in Prison Uprising,”
The Washington Post
(November 29, 2001).

forty-one New Jersey law-enforcement officers died: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund website at:
http://www.nleomf.com/FactsFigures/Statestats01.doc
.

“
You’re asking them to leave the mother ship”: Interview conducted in late 2003.

“I think the biggest issue is control”: Interview conducted in late 2003.

“One case I ran for a long time”: Interview conducted in late 2003.

“I saw a lot of backbiting and backstabbing”: Interview conducted in late 2003.

“It’s absolutely appalling”: Interview conducted in late 2003.

Details on Ziyad Khalil are derived from Mark Morris, “Jihad phone’ linked to former Missouri student,”
The Kansas City Star
(September 19, 2001)

“We look upon those heroes”: Transcript of Osama bin Laden interview by Peter Arnett, CNN (March 1997).

“My Muslim Brothers of the World”: Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of War Against America,” August 23, 1996.

“It should not be hidden from you”: Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of War Against America,” August 23, 1996.

“hold you responsible for all of the killings”: Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of War Against America,” August 23, 1996.

“Regarding the American people”: Transcript of Osama bin Laden interview by Peter Arnett, CNN (March 1997).

“The war has just begun”: Transcript of interview with Osama bin Laden by ABC News producer Rahimullah Yousafasi (January 1999).

“The Nairobi embassy”: Salah Najm, film transcript, “Usamah Bin-Laden, The Destruction of The Base” (June 10, 1999). Bin Laden interviewed by Jamal Isma’il.

Details concerning the calls between London and Afghanistan are derived from Vernon Loeb, “NSA Intercepts Are Foundation of Bombing Case,”
The Washington Post
(January 8, 2001).

Details concerning the legal status of the embassy bombing suspects are derived from United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, Press Release, May 29, 2001.

“The Jews and crusaders”: Peter Finn, “Hamburg’s Cauldron of Terror,”
The Washington Post
(September 11, 2002).

“He maintained a simple life”: Dafna Linzer, “Binalshibh, From Secular Student to Islamic Extremist,” Associated Press (September 14, 2002).

“The group’s discussions became”: Peter Finn, “Hamburg’s Cauldron of Terror,”
The Washington Post
(September 11, 2002).

“By October 1999 at the latest”: Douglas Frantz with Desmond Butler, “Sept. 11 Attack Planned in ’99, Germans Learn,”
The Los Angeles Times
(August 30, 2002).

“The goal of every Muslim”: Georg Mascolo, Holger Stark, “Operation Holy Tuesday,”
Der Spiegel
(October 27, 2003).

“Why do you use an ax”: Georg Mascolo, Holger Stark, “Operation Holy Tuesday,”
Der Spiegel
(October 27, 2003).

“They wanted to go off”: Interview with senior intelligence official, December 2003.

Directorate of Operations named Gary Schroen: Steve Coll,
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
(New York: The Penguin Press, 2004).

“If fundamentalism comes to Afghanistan”: Michael Griffin,
Reaping the Whirlwind
(London: Pluto Press, 2001), p. 5.