Authors: Joby Warrick
Black Flags
Also by Joby Warrick
The Triple Agent:
The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA
Copyright © 2015 by Joby Warrick
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., Toronto.
DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Cover design by Emily Mahon
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Warrick, Joby.
Black flags : the rise of ISIS / Joby Warrick.—First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-385-53821-3 (hardcover)—ISBN 978-0-385-53822-0 (eBook)
1. IS (Organization) 2. Terrorism—Iraq. 3. Terrorism—Middle East. 4. Terrorism—Religious aspects—Islam. 5. Islamic fundamentalism. 6. Middle East—Politics and government—21st century. I. Title.
HV6433.I722I8593 2015
956.9104′2—dc23
2015020949
eBook ISBN 9780385538220
v4.1
a
To Maryanne
With love and gratitude
I bring the men who desire death as ardently as you desire life.
—Khalid ibn a-Walid (seventh-century Islamic warrior, companion of Muhammad)
CONTENTS
1.
“What kind of person can command with only his eyes?”
2.
“Here was a real leader”
3.
“A problem like that always comes back”
4.
“The time for training is over”
5.
“I did it for al-Qaeda and for Zarqawi”
6.
“This war is going to happen”
7.
“Now his fame would extend throughout the Arab world”
8.
“No longer a victory”
9.
“So you guys think this is an insurgency?”
10.
“Revolting is exactly what we want”
11.
“It would surpass anything al-Qaeda did”
12.
“The sheikh of the slaughterers”
13.
“It’s hopeless there”
14.
“Are you going to get him?”
15.
“This is our 9/11”
16.
“Your end is close”
17.
“The people want to topple the regime!”
18.
“Where is this Islamic State of Iraq that you’re talking about?”
19.
“This is the state for which Zarqawi paved the way”
20.
“The mood music started to change”
21.
“There was no more hope after that”
22.
“This is a tribal revolution”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The names of several current and former Jordanian intelligence officers interviewed for this book have been altered by mutual agreement due to concerns about threats to their safety. They are referred to in these pages by their informal Arab
kunya
titles, rather than by traditional family names.
LIST OF PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
Zarqawi and His Generation
Abu Muhmmad al-Maqdisi (given name Aasim Muhammad Tahir al-Barqawi), Jordanian-Palestinian cleric and author, former cellmate and mentor to Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (given name Ahmad Fadil al-Khalayleh), Jordanian terrorist, founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Abu al-Ghadiya, Syrian dentist, senior Zarqawi associate, and supply master
Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of al-Qaeda’s “core” branch, former deputy to Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda
The Islamic State of Iraq and Its Successors
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (given name Hamid Dawud Mohamed Khalil al-Zawi), former member of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Party and leader of the Islamic State of Iraq from 2006 to 2010
Abu Ayyub al-Masri (given name Abu Hamza al-Muhajir), Egyptian explosives expert and Zarqawi associate who became the number two commander of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006; killed in an air strike in 2010
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (given name Ibrahim Awad al-Badri),
Islamic cleric and ISI spiritual adviser who rose to leadership in 2010; declared himself “caliph” of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2014
Abu Wahib (given name Shaker Wahib al-Dulaimi), brutal, media-obsessed ISIS commander in Anbar Province notorious for killing Shiite truck drivers and other civilians
Haji Bakr (given name Samir al-Khlifawi), deputy to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and leader of ISIS’s military council; killed in 2014
In Jordan
King Abdullah II, fourth sovereign of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Abu Haytham, senior counterterrorism official, General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Jordan
Abu Mutaz, GID case officer and later manager; expert in “flipping” Islamists into informants
Ali Bourzak, GID official and legendary interrogator known as the “Red Devil”
Laurence Foley, midlevel official at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan
Salem Ben Suweid, Zarqawi disciple who plotted Foley’s assassination
Azmi al-Jayousi, Palestinian-Jordanian, trained at Zarqawi’s camp in Herat, Afghanistan; plotted to explode chemical “dirty” bomb in Amman
Sajida al-Rishawi, would-be suicide bomber in 2005 terrorist attack on hotels in Amman, Jordan
In Iraq
Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, 1979 to 2003
Charles “Sam” Faddis, CIA operative inside Iraq prior to 2003 invasion; urged preemptive strike on Zarqawi’s camp
Nada Bakos, CIA officer and chief “targeter” responsible for tracking Zarqawi
Zaydan al-Jibiri, Sunni tribal leader from Ramadi, Iraq
General Stanley McChrystal, head of Joint Special Forces Command that led the hunt for Zarqawi in Iraq
Zaid al-Karbouly, Iraqi customs officer in the pay of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Nouri al-Maliki, Shiite prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014
In Syria
Bashir al-Assad, president of Syria
Robert Ford, U.S. ambassador to Syria, 2010 to 2014
Mouaz Moustafa, director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a nonprofit that offered a window into deteriorating conditions in Syria
Abu Mohammad al-Julani, leader of Jabhat al-Nusra (“al-Nusra Front”), the Syrian branch established by the Islamic State of Iraq in late 2011
Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary-general, 1997 to 2006, who sought to broker Syrian peace accord
In Washington
Dick Cheney, U.S. vice president, sought the CIA’s support in connecting al-Qaeda to Iraqi regime
Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, 2009 to 2013
Michael V. Hayden, NSA director and director of National Intelligence during anti-Zarqawi campaign; CIA director, 2006 to 2009
Frederic C. Hof, special State Department adviser on the Middle East and Syria, 2009 to 2012
Sen. John McCain, chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee
Leon Panetta, CIA director, 2009 to 2011; defense secretary, 2011 to 2013
Robert Richer, the CIA’s former station chief in Jordan, later chief of the agency’s Near East Division and deputy director of operations
George Tenet, CIA director, 1996 to 2004
Detail left
Detail right
PROLOGUE
Amman, Jordan, February 3, 2015
Just after nightfall, a warrant arrived at the city’s main women’s prison for the execution of Sajida al-Rishawi. The instructions had come from King Abdullah II himself, then in Washington on a state visit, and were transmitted from his private plane to the royal court in Jordan’s capital. A clerk relayed the message to the Interior Ministry and then to the prisons department, where it caused a stir. State executions are complicated affairs requiring many steps, yet the king’s wishes were explicit: the woman would face the gallows before the sun rose the next day.