Dirty Wars (109 page)

131
disillusioned
:
Author interviews, former Special Operations Forces members, February 2011 and March 2011.

131
Houthi minority launched
:
Christopher Boucek, “War in Saada: From Local Insurrection to National Challenge,” Carnegie Paper series Yemen: On the Brink, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 2010,
www.carnegieendowment.org/files/war_in_saada.pdf
.

131
special operations forces
:
See US diplomatic cable 09SANAA2230 from Ambassador Stephen Seche, US Embassy Sana'a, “Subject: Yemen's Counter Terrorism Unit Stretched Thin by War Against Houthis,” December 17, 2009, released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/12/09SANAA2230.html
.

131
“
eas[ing] the persecution
”:
“Yemen: Al-Qaeda Fighting Rebels ‘at Government's Request,'” Adnkronos.com, January 31, 2008.

131
backed up
:
Author interviews, former US intelligence and military officials, January 2011 and February 2011.

131
$10 million a month
:
David Hughes, “Yemen's Problems Are the Region's Problems,” NATO Review (blog), accessed March 2012,
www.nato.int/docu/review/2010/yemen/Yemen_region_problems/EN/index.htm
.

132
$2 billion a year
:
Camille Pecastaing,
Jihad in the Arabian Sea
(Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2011, Kindle edition).

132
indicted in 2003
:
Attorney General John Ashcroft, prepared remarks, “Indictment for the Bombing of the U.S.S. Cole,” Washington, DC, May 15, 2003.

132
“
The Yemeni constitution prohibits
”:
“An Interview with President Ali Abdullah Saleh,”
New York Times
, June 28, 2008.

132
“
dialogue council
”:
Barak Barfi, “Yemen on the Brink? The Resurgence of al Qaeda in Yemen,” Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative Policy Paper, New America Foundation, January 2010,
www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/NAF_YemenOnTheBrink.pdf
.

132
“
Yemeni state felt an urgent need
”:
Ane Skov Birk, “Incredible Dialogues: Religious Dialogue as a Means of Counter-Terrorism in Yemen,” Series Developments in Radicalisation and Political Violence, The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, April 2009,
http://icsr.info/2009/06/incredible-dialogues-reli-gious-dialogue-as-a-means-of-counter-terror-ism-in-yemen/
.

132
“
gross violations
”:
Ibid.

132
return to the struggle, discontinued
:
Barfi, “Yemen on the Brink?”

132
“
After the
Cole”
:
Author interview, former US counterterrorism official, January 2011.

132
escaped from prison
:
Associated Press, “Main Suspects in USS Cole Bombing Escape from Yemeni Prison,” FoxNews.com, April 11, 2003.

133
“
Al-Qaeda intends
”:
Michael Sheuer, “Yemen Still Close to al-Qaeda's Heart,”
Asia Times Online
, February 7, 2008.

133
“
Our operations
”:
James L. Pavitt, Deputy Director for Operations on Weapons Mass of Destruction (WMD) Programs, Written Statement for the Record, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, April 14, 2004.

134
give Britain another shot
:
Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, September 2012.

134
among Awlaki's sponsors
:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, “As American as Apple Pie: How Anwar al-Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad,” The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, London, 2011.

134
“
they sought to co-opt
”:
Ibid. All quotations of Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens come from this paper. The author does not intend to suggest that the organizations named in this chapter in any way condoned or espoused the radical views held by Awlaki later in his life, particularly with regard to jihad. Their support for Awlaki in 2003 seems
to have been based on his ability to preach a conservative religious message with charisma and cultural savvy. As former colleagues and family members have noted, this style of preaching was quite novel at the time.

134
“
icons of Western Salafism
”:
Ibid.

134
“
forced down the throats
”:
Anwar al Awlaki, “The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: Introduction [Makkan Period],” You-Tube video, 49:20, from a sixteen-CD lecture series produced by al-Bashir Audio, undated, posted by “Muslim Knight,” September 12, 2012,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts36mQf-viE
.

135
“
never, ever trust a
kuffar”
:
Anwar al Awlaki, “Never, Ever Trust the (Kuffar) Non-Believer—Anwar al-Awlaki,” You-Tube video, 13:12, from a series of lectures delivered by Awlaki called “The Life and Times of Umar bin Khattab,” at the East London Mosque in London, United Kingdom, December 2003, posted by “nevertrusttherkuffar,” October 9, 2011,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SALh9tTvZ4
.

136
“We are watching
”:
Anwar al Awlaki, “Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki: Stop Police Terror, Part 1 of 3,” YouTube video, 10:19, from an audio recording of a lecture delivered by Awlaki as part of a London-based campaign called “Stop Police Terror” at East London Mosque on December 26, 2003, posted by “Haqq13,” May 24, 2011,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U6wGQkOLBc
.

136
“
We are arresting people
”:
“Police Question Terror Suspects,” BBC.co.uk, December 3, 2003.

136
“
there is a Guantánamo Bay
”:
Anwar al Awlaki, “Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki: Stop Police Terror, Part 3 of 3,” from an audio recording of a lecture delivered by Awlaki as part of a London-based campaign called “Stop Police Terror” at East London Mosque on December 26, 2003, posted by “Haqq13,” May 24, 2011,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6JC4hzaTgY
.

136
“
He became a social figure
”:
Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, January 2012.

137
“
The Jews and the Christians
”:
Awlaki, “Never, Ever Trust the (Kuffar) Non-Believer.”

137
“
I want to state
”:
Anwar al Awlaki, transcription of lecture from series, “The Story of Ibn al-Akwa: Sheikh Noor al-Din Shahaada,” produced by Dar Ibn al-Mubarak, 2003, transcription by Meleagrou-Hitchens, found in “As American as Apple Pie.”

137
unable to afford
:
Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, September 2012.

137
“
I've got a feeling
”:
Meleagrou-Hitchens, “As American as Apple Pie.”

138
“
tracking and then capturing
”:
Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, “Pentagon Says a Covert Force Hunts Hussein,”
New York Times
, November 7, 2003.

138
run by McRaven
:
John Barry and Michael Hirsh, “The Hunt Heats Up,”
Newsweek
, March 14, 2004.

138
Special Activities Division, “the Activity
”:
“Agencies Unite to Find bin Laden,”
Washington Times
, March 15, 2004.

138
“
tightening the sensor-to-shooter loop
”:
Ibid.

138
given a mission
:
Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer,
Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan
—
and the Path to Victory
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2010), p. 192.

139
Able Danger
:
Ibid., p. 17.

139
Shaffer, colleagues claimed
:
Ibid., p. 178.

139
told the 9/11 Commission
:
Ibid., pp. 177-179.

139
“
conducted clandestine,” “first DIA
”:
Ibid., pp. 18-19.

139
“
Bush administration lunacy
”:
Ibid., p. 19.

139
“
yielded nothing
”:
Ibid.

139
“
more than two-thirds
”:
Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer, “Afghanistan, Iraq: Two Wars Collide,”
Washington Post
, October 22, 2004.

139
“
nearly half
”:
Juan O. Tamayo, “Capture of Saddam Will Not Mean More Forces Available to Find bin Laden,” Knight Ridder Newspapers, December 14, 2003.

140
“
Detainees captured by TF-121
”:
Josh White, “US Generals in Iraq Were Told of Abuse Early, Inquiry Finds,”
Washington Post
, December 1, 2004.

140
“
Everyone knows
”:
Committee on Armed Services, Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in US Custody, S. Prt. 110-54, P. 218 (2008).

140
“
gratuitous enemies
”:
White, “US Generals in Iraq Were Told.”

140
former bodyguard
:
Details of the operation to capture Saddam Hussein come from Michael Smith,
Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006), pp. 261-263.

140
“
Ladies and gentlemen
”:
Transcript, “Ambassador Bremer Briefing from Baghdad,” December 14, 2003.

140
$750,000 in hundred-dollar bills
:
Smith,
Killer Elite
, p. 262.

140
“
I am Saddam Hussein,” “regards
”:
“‘President Bush Sends His Regards,'” CNN.com, December 15, 2003.

141
Saddam's temporary home
:
Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall, “In Secret Unit's ‘Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse,”
New York Times
, March 19, 2006.

141
“
look to the future
”:
Transcript, “Ambassador Bremer Briefing from Baghdad.”

141
“
coalition special operations forces”
: Ibid.

141
shared a cigar
:
Barton Gellman, “Person of the Year 2011; Runners-Up; William McRaven: The Admiral,”
Time
, December 14, 2011.

141
“
begin to run out of gas
”:
Rowan Scarborough,
Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander
(Washington, DC: Regnery, 2004), p. 62.

141
“
establishment of an insurgency
”:
Bob Woodward,
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
(New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2006), p. 266.

142
common cause
:
Jeffrey Gettleman, “Signs That Shiites and Sunnis Are Joining to Battle Americans,”
New York Times
, April 9, 2004.

142
“
exacerbating the insurgency
”:
Author interview, Andrew Exum, March 2012. All quotations from Andrew Exum in this chapter come from the author's interview.

142
barely give his command the courtesy
:
Author interview, General Ricardo Sanchez, June 2010.

142
The most serious thing
”:
Author interview, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, May 2011.

143
“
tailored down
”:
Stanley A. McChrystal, “It Takes a Network: The New Front Line of Modern Warfare,”
Foreign Policy
(March-April 2011). All quotations from General McChrystal in this chapter come from this article.

144
four subunits
:
Sean D. Naylor, “Special Ops Unit Nearly Nabs Zarqawi,”
Army Times
, April 28, 2006. The article describes the task force after it has received a new code name, Task Force 145.

145
F
³
EA
:
McChrystal, “It Takes a Network.”

145
Copper Green, Matchbox
:
Marc Ambinder and D. B. Grady,
The Command: Deep Inside the President's Secret Army
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2012, Kindle edition).

145
Footprint
:
William M. Arkin,
Code Names: Deciphering US Military Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World
(Hanover, NH: Steerforth Press, 2005), p. 369.

145
“
weren't getting anything substantive
”:
Seymour M. Hersh, “The Gray Zone: How a Secret Pentagon Program Came to Abu Ghraib,”
New Yorker
, May 24, 2004.

146
“
Rumsfeld's answer
”:
Jane Mayer,
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
(New York: Doubleday, 2008), p. 243.

146
“‘
Grab whom you must
'”:
Hersh, “The Gray Zone.”

146
“
just wasn't right
”:
Shaffer,
Operation Dark Heart
, pp. 257-259.