Dirty Wars (116 page)

245
“
the right strategy
”:
“Feb. 26 Democratic Debate Transcript,” February 26, 2007, transcript available via
MSNBC.com
,
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23354734/ns/politics-the_debates/t/feb-democratic-debate-transcript/#.UPeVjBzKZcR
.

245
“
John McCain likes to say
”:
Obama Blasts McCain, Lays Out His Own Agenda,” CNN.com, August 28, 2008.

246
“
reassuring
”:
Karl Rove, “Thanksgiving Cheer from Obama; He's Assembled a First-Rate Economic Team,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 28, 2008.

246
“
I am gobsmacked
”:
Max Boot, “Obama's Picks,”
Commentary
, posted November 11, 2008,
www.commentarymagazine.com/2008/11/25/obamas-picks/
.

246
“
continue the course
”:
Michael Goldfarb, “Obama the Realist,” Weekly Standard (blog), November 26, 2008,
www.weekly-standard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/11/obama_the_realist_i.asp
.

247
“
we need to look forward
”:
Transcript,
This Week with George Stephanopoulos
, ABC, January 11, 2009.

247
“
take down a lot of those policies
”:
Transcript,
Face the Nation
, CBS, May 10, 2009.

248
“
message we are sending
”:
Jake Tapper, Jan Crawford-Greenburg, and Huma Khan, “Obama Order to Shut Gitmo, CIA Detention Centers,” ABCNews.go.com, January 22, 2009.

248
Hayden briefed him
:
Daniel Klaidman,
Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency
(New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), p. 39.

248
The first strike
:
Reprieve, “Complaint Against the United States of America for the Killing of Innocent Citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the UN Human Rights Council,” February 23, 2012,
http://reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_02_22_PUB_drones_UN_HRC_complaint.pdf?utm_source=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=89f3db0a75-2012_02_23_drones_UN_complaint&utm_medium=email
. The complaint was filed on behalf of the victims of different strikes, including Ejaz Ahmad, whose relatives were among those killed and injured by the strike in question.

248
The second struck
:
Klaidman,
Kill or Capture,
p. 39.

248
“
five al Qaeda militants,” “Good
”:
Bob Woodward,
Obama's Wars
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), p. 93.

248
straight to the president
:
Klaidman,
Kill or Capture
, p. 40.

248
between seven and fifteen
:
“Obama 2009 Pakistan Strikes,”
Bureau of Investigative Journalism
, August 10, 2011,
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/10/obama-2009-strikes/
.

249
One boy, loss of an eye
:
Reprieve,
“Complaint Against the United States of America.”

249
“
wrong house
”:
“Obama 2009 Pakistan Strikes.”

249
“
pro-government peace committee
”:
Klaidman,
Kill or Capture
, p. 40.

249
first the new president had heard
:
Ibid., pp. 40-41.

249
added a constraint
:
Ibid., p. 42.

249
But he didn't
:
Obama has reportedly made other small changes to the signature strike protocol, such as bringing the State Department, namely, the ambassador in Islamabad, into the process. Adam Entous, Siobhan Gorman, and Julian E. Barnes, “U.S. Tightens Drone Rules,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 4, 2011.

249
“
crash course
”:
Klaidman,
Kill or Capture
, p. 120.

249
“
tutorial
”:
Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker,
Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against al Qaeda
(New York: Times Books, 2011), p. 232.

250
most of the ExOrds
:
Ibid., p. 245.

250
“
reached a tacit agreement
”:
R. Jeffrey Smith, Candace Rondeaux, and Joby Warrick, “Two U.S. Airstrikes Offer a Concrete Sign of Obama's Pakistan Policy,”
Washington Post
, January 24, 2009.

250
“
fully endorsed
”:
Woodward,
Obama's Wars
, p. 93.

250
“
all the key personnel
”:
Jane Mayer, “The Predator War: What Are the Risks of the C.I.A.'s Covert Drone Program?”
New Yorker
, October 26, 2009.

250
“
the real [secret]
”:
Woodward,
Obama's Wars
, p. 6.

250
“
number one goal
”:
Peter Bergen,
Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden
—
from 9/11 to Abbottabad
(New York: Crown, 2012), p. 116.

250
“
detailed operation plan
”:
Jake Tapper, “Chapter Six: The President Takes Aim,” in Terry Moran, Martha Raddatz, Nick Schifrin, Brian Ross, and Jake Tapper,
Target: Bin Laden
—
the Death and Life of Public Enemy Number One
, ABCNews.go.com, June 9, 2011.

250
Scores of civilians
:
“Obama 2009 Pakistan Strikes.”

250
“
After the prayers
”:
Agence France-Presse, “US Drone Fires on Taliban Territory,”
National
(UAE), June 24, 2009.

251
“
among the mourners
”:
Mayer, “The Predator War.”

251
father-in-law's house
:
Ibid.

251
“
target boxes
”:
Klaidman,
Kill or Capture
, p. 121.

251
as many drone strikes
:
“2009: The Year of the Drone,” Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative, New America Foundation, accessed December 17, 2012,
http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones/2009
.

251
“
hidden bases
”:
James Risen and Mark Mazzetti, “C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones,”
New York Times
, August 20, 2009.

251
“
With an ACCM
”:
Author interview, US military intelligence source, October 2009. All information from and quotations of the “military intelligence source” come from the author's interview.

253
introduced legislation
:
Transparency and Accountability in Military and Security Contracting Act of 2007, S. 674, 110th Cong. (2007).

254
prisoner number 372
:
Associated Press, “Report: Ex-Gitmo Detainee Now al-Qaeda's No. 2 in Yemen,” USAToday.com, January 23, 2009.

254
“
al Qaeda travel facilitator
”:
Memorandum from DoD Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants at US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Said Ali Jabir al Khathim al Shihri, “Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the Case of Said Ali Jabir al Khathim al Shihri,” June 16, 2005, accessed December 18, 2012,
http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/372-said-ali-al-shihri/documents/i/pages/411#3
.

254
went missing
:
Robert F. Worth, “Freed by the U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief,”
New York Times
, January 22, 2009.

254
“
By Allah
”:
Agence France-Presse, “Former Guantanamo Detainee Elevated to Senior Qaeda Rank,” January 23, 2009.

255
“
transformed al Qaeda in Yemen
”:
Barak Barfi, “Yemen on the Brink? The Resurgence of al Qaeda in Yemen,” Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative Policy Paper, New America Foundation, January 2010, p. 5.

255
“
85 Most Wanted
”:
Ibid., p. 8.

255
“
deteriorated significantly
”:
Associated Press, “U.S. Report Says Pakistan Terror Attacks Up,” USAtoday.com, April 30, 2009.

255
“
I don't think there's any doubt
”:
Hearing to Receive Testimony of Afghanistan, Before the Senate Committee on Armed Services
, 111th Cong. p. 63 (December 2, 2009) (testimony of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State).

255
“
toothpaste in a tube
”:
Annual Threat Assessment Hearing, Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
, 111th Cong. (February 25, 2009) (testimony of Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence).

256
“
a very persistent enemy
”:
Transcript, “Media Roundtable with CIA Director Leon E. Panetta,” February 25, 2009, transcript from Federal News Service.

256
“
immediate threat
”:
Bob Woodward,
Obama's Wars
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), p. 8.

256
“
adequate plans
”:
Ibid., p. 35.

256
“
establishing new safe-havens
”:
Dan Pfeiffer, “The Same Old Washington Blame Game,” The White House Blog, December 30, 2009,
www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/30/same-old-washington-blame-game
.

256
Almost half
:
Worth, “Freed by the U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief.”

256
Khobar Towers
:
Pam Benson, “Obama to Name John Brennan to Lead CIA,” Security Clearance (blog), CNN.com, January 7, 2013,
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/07/obama-to-name-john-brennan-to-lead-cia/
.

257
“
direct and immediate
”:
“Profile: John O. Brennan,” Who Runs Gov, Washington-Post.com, accessed December 15, 2012.

257
released 176 of the men
:
“Yemen Frees 176 al-Qaeda Suspects,” AlArabiya.net, February 9, 2009.

257
South Korean tourists
:
“Tourists Die in Yemen Explosion,” BBC.co.uk, March 15, 2009.

257
“
repeatedly rebuffed
”:
US diplomatic cable 09SANAA495, from Chargé d'Affaires Angie Bryan, “Saleh Shows No Flexibility on GTMO Detainees,” March 23, 2009, released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/03/09SANAA495.html
. The author relies on this cable for details of the meeting.

257
“
praised Yemen's efforts
”:
Saba (Yemen), “Yemeni Leader Receives Letter from US President,” BBC Monitoring International Reports, March 16, 2009.

257
addressed the Guantánamo situation
:
Bryan, “Saleh Shows No Flexibility on GTMO Detainees.”

258
“
We are not obedient soldiers
”:
Kevin Peraino, “Our Main Enemy Is Al Qaeda,”
Newsweek
, April 17, 2009.

258
“
know how to deal with us
”:
Author interview, Colonel W. Patrick Lang, February 2011. All quotations of Lang come from the author's interview.

258
pushed hard
:
Gareth Porter, “True Believer: Petraeus and the Mythology of Afghanistan,”
Truthout
, December 20, 2012.

258
“
Success against the extremist networks
”:
General David H. Petraeus, Commander US Central Command, “The Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategic Review and the Posture of U.S. Central Command,” prepared statement for Senate Armed Services Committee, April 1, 2009.

258
approved a plan
:
“Yemen,” excerpt from General David H. Petraeus, Commander US Central Command, statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategic Review and the Posture of US Central Command, March 16, 2010,
www.centcom.mil/yemen/
.

258
“
inability of the Yemeni government
”:
Petraeus, “The Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategic Review and the Posture of U.S. Central Command,” April 1, 2009.

259
advised President Obama, under Petraeus's command
:
Marc Ambinder, “Obama Gives Commanders Wide Berth for Secret Warfare,”
Atlantic
, May 25, 2010,
www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/obama-gives-commanders-wide-berth-for-secret-warfare/57202/
.

259
boarded a Yemeni Air Force helicopter
:
US diplomatic cable 09SANAA1015 from Ambassador Stephen Seche, US Embassy Sana'a, “Saleh Sees Foreign Hand Behind Yemen's Internal Woes,” May 31, 2009, released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09SANAA1015.html
. The author relies on this cable for details of the meeting.

260
US military recruiting center
:
CNN Wire Staff, “Man Pleads Guilty to Recruiting Center Killing, Gets Life,” CNN.com, July 25, 2011.

260
literature by Anwar Awlaki
:
Kristina Goetz (Commercial Appeal, Memphis), “Muslim Who Shot Soldier in Arkansas Says He Wanted to Cause More Death,”
Knox-news.com
, November 13, 2010.