Dirty Wars (118 page)

273
at least twenty cases
:
Andrea Elliott, “A Call to Jihad, Answered in America,”
New York Times
, July 11, 2009.

273
cracked down substantially
:
Maalik Eng, “Somalia Piracy Falls to Six-Year Low as Guards Defend Ships,” Shabelle Media Network, October 22, 2012.

273
for-profit fishery
:
Johan Peleman, Edward Howard Johns, Pavanjeet Singh Sandhu, and John Tambi, “Report of the Panel of Experts on Somalia Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1474 (2003),” UN Security Council, November 4, 2003, p. 32.

273
illegal waste dumping
:
“Report of the Secretary-General on the Protection of Somali Natural Resources and Waters,” United Nations Security Council, October 25, 2011, pp. 12-13.

273
Somali coastguard
:
Najad Abdullahi, ‘“Toxic Waste' Behind Somali Piracy,” AlJazeera.com, October 11, 2008.

274
counter-piracy training
:
“American Crew Regains Control of Hijacked Ship, One Pirate in Custody,” FoxNews.com, April 8, 2009.

274
a secured safe room
:
Chip Cummins and Sarah Childress, “On the Maersk: ‘I Hope if I Die, I Die a Brave Person,'”
Wall Street Journal
, April 16, 2009.

274
maneuvered the
Alabama
's rudders
:
“Crewman's E-mail Gives Harrowing Details of Hijacking,” CNN.com, April 20, 2009.

274
FV
Win Far 161
:
Jay Bahadur,
The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World
(New York: Pantheon Books, 2011, Kindle edition).

274
US Defense Department contractor
:
Mark Mazzetti and Sharon Otterman, “U.S. Captain Is Hostage of Pirates; Navy Ship Arrives,”
New York Times
, April 8, 2009.

274
since the early 1800s
:
James Bone, “Maersk Alabama Crew Return to US to Tell of Somali Pirate Ordeal,”
Times Online
(London), April 18, 2009.

274
deployment of a destroyer
:
Mazzetti and Otterman, “U.S. Captain Is Hostage of Pirates.”

274
taken hostage
:
Ibid.

274
Two other ships
:
“More Pirates Searching for Lifeboat, Official Says,” CNN.com, April 10, 2009.

274
“
virtually immediately
”:
Scott Wilson, Ann Scott Tyson, and Stephanie McCrummen, ‘“Three Rounds, Three Dead Bodies'; Precision Volley by Navy SEALs Ended a Five-Day Ordeal for an American Seaman, but Piracy Off Somalia Continues,”
Washington Post
, April 14, 2009.

274
first authorization
:
Transcript,
Larry King Live
, CNN, April 12, 2009.

274
tried to escape
:
Wilson, Tyson, and McCrummen, ‘“Three Rounds, Three Dead Bodies.'”

274
threw into the ocean
:
Mark Owen, with Kevin Maurer,
No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
(New York: Dutton, 2012), p. 94.

275
second authorization
:
Transcript,
Larry King Live
, CNN, April 12, 2009.

275
“
the first time I know of
”:
Author interview, Marc Ambinder, December 2010. All quotations of Marc Ambinder come from the author's interview.

275
deploy to the Horn of Africa
:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 89.

275
based at Manda Bay
:
Marc Ambinder, “Obama Gives Commanders Wide Berth for Secret Warfare,” TheAtlantic.com, May 25, 2010.

275
“
They're deadly accurate
”:
Author interview, General Hugh Shelton, March 2011.

275
Three shots
:
Wilson, Tyson, and McCrummen, ‘“Three Rounds, Three Dead Bodies,'”

276
publicly used the name
:
Marc Ambinder, “SEAL Team Six v. the Pirates,” the
Atlantic.com
, April 12, 2009. The White House provided a backgrounder to journalists, which stated that President Obama called military officials after the operation, including “Vice Admiral William McRaven, Commander Joint Special Operations Command.”

276
“
The President personally invited
”:
Author interview, Special Operations source, August 2010.

277
bold attack
:
Alex Perry, “Behind the Suicide Bombing in Somalia,”
Time
, June 19, 2009.

277
Mogadishu's police chief
:
Associated Press, “Somali Police Chief Among Seventeen Dead in Clashes,” MSNBC.com, June 17, 2009.

277
few hundred yards
:
Jeffrey Gettleman, “In Somalia, a Leader Is Raising Hopes for Stability,”
New York Times
, September 16, 2009.

277
“
weakened by the rebel forces
”:
Al Arabiya/Agencies, “Somalia Seeks Foreign Military Aid amid Crisis,” AlArabiya.net, June 20, 2009.

277
shipment of forty tons
:
Mary Beth Sheridan, “U.S. Has Sent Forty Tons of Munitions to Aid Somali Government,”
Washington Post
, June 27, 2009.

277
“
best hope we've had
”:
Transcript, “Remarks with Somali Transitional Federal Government President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed,” August 6, 2009.

277
“
a number of actions and initiatives
”:
John O. Brennan, “A New Approach to Safeguarding Americans,” prepared remarks, Center for Strategic and International Studies, August 6, 2009,
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-john-brennan-center-strategic-and-international-studies
.

278
received a phone call
:
“Saudi Prince Spoke to Bomber on Phone Before Attack,” Reuters, September 2, 2009.

278
fled the kingdom
:
Al Arabiya/Reuters, “Qaeda Names Man Who Tried to Kill Saudi Prince,” AlArabiya.net, August 30, 2009.

278
recruited
:
Abdullah Al-Oreifij (Saudi Gazette), “Saudi Interior Ministry Names Suicide Bomber in Attack on Prince,” BBC Monitoring International Reports, August 31, 2009.

278
“
I need to meet
”:
“Saudi Prince Spoke to Bomber on Phone Before Attack.”

278
pick him up
:
Al Arabiya/Reuters, “Qaeda Names Man.”

278
“
Asiri said
”:
Richard Barrett, “Al-Qaida and Taliban Status Check: A Resurgent Threat?” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, September 29, 2009, transcript by Federal News Service,
www.teachingterror.net/resources/AQ%20Status%20check.pdf
. All quotations and information attributed to Barrett come from these remarks.

278
one-pound bomb
:
CBS/AP, “Saudi Bombmaker Key Suspect in Yemen Plot,” CBSNews.com, November 1, 2010.

279
Asiri's brother
:
“Profile: Al-Qaeda ‘Bomb Maker' Ibrahim al-Asiri,” BBC.co.uk, May 9, 2012.

279
delivering a personal letter
:
US diplomatic cable 09JEDDAH343, from Consul General Martin R. Quinn, US Consulate in Jeddah, “Presidential Assistant Brennan's Sept. 5 Discussion with Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif,” September 11, 2009, released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/09/09JEDDAH343.html
.

279
“
I met with Prince Mohammed bin Nayef
”:
Transcript, interview with Gloria Borger,
State of the Union with John King, CNN
, January 4, 2010.

279
“
We're very concerned
”:
Transcript,
Meet the Press
, NBC, January 3, 2010.

279
“
There was no indication
”:
Ibid.

279
sat face to face
:
US diplomatic cable 09SANAA1669, from Ambassador Stephen Seche, US Embassy Sana'a, “Brennan-Saleh Meeting September 6, 2009,” September 15, 2009. Released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/09/09SANAA1669.html
. Details of this meeting between Brennan and President Saleh come from this cable.

280
subsequent classified cable
:
Ibid.

280
“
doesn't mean a damn thing
”:
Author interview, Colonel W. Patrick Lang, February 2011.

281
“
initiative to help Yemen
”:
Reuters, “US Offers Yemen Help in ‘Fight Against Terrorism,'” AlArabiya.net, September 7, 2009.

281
authorizing plans
:
Author interviews, Special Operations sources, May-July 2010.

281
“
Not enough people
”:
“Al Qaeda Extends to Somalia, Yemen,”
Washington Times
, September 10, 2009.

281
“
under more pressure
”:
Eight Years After 9/11: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland, Hearing Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs
, 111th Cong. (September 30, 2009) (testimony of Michael Leiter, Director, National Counterterrorism Center), video available at
www.senate.gov/fplayers/I2009/urlPlayer.cfm?fn=gov-taff093009&st=840&dur=8355
.

281
“
witnessed the reemergence
”:
Ibid.

282
convened a meeting
:
Sunlen Miller, “A Look at the President's Meetings on Afghanistan and Pakistan,” ABCNews.go.com, November 10, 2009.

282
seven-page secret order
:
Marc Ambinder, “Obama Gives Commanders Wide Berth for Secret Warfare,” TheAtlantic.com, May 25, 2010.

282
permission slip
:
Mark Mazzetti, “U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret Actions in Mideast,”
New York Times
, May 24, 2010.

282
“
more systematic and long term
”:
Ibid.

282
“
reluctant to allow such an expansion
”:
Ambinder, “Obama Gives Commanders Wide Berth.”

283
intelligence gathering
:
Mazzetti, “U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret Actions.”

283
“
cannot or will not be accomplished
”:
Ibid.

283
“
The temptation for the leadership
”:
Author interview, Colonel W. Patrick Lang, February 2011.

283
“
Pentagon is already empowered
”:
Author interview, Special Operations source, May 2010.

284
“
insulate the president
”:
Author interview, former aide to Special Operations commander, May 2010.

284
discreet trip to Yemen
:
“Yemen, U.S. Talks on Cooperation in Military, Combating Terror Fields,” President Saleh website, October 4, 2009,
www.presidentsaleh.gov.ye/shownews.php?lng=en&_nsid=7743
.

284
“
cooperation between the U.S. and Yemen
”:
“Senior Military Official Visits Yemen,” press release from the US embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, October 4, 2009,
http://yemen.usembassy.gov/smov.html
.

284
“
implementation of some special operations
”:
Muhammad al Ahmadi, “Al Qaeda to Respond to Obama's Strategy in Yemen,”
al-Ghad
, December 6, 2009.

284
“
We're developing geostrategic principles
”:
Bob Woodward,
Obama's Wars
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), pp. 227-228.

285
Soldier Readiness Processing Center
:

Ana Campoy, Peter Sanders, and Russell Gold, “Hash Browns, Then Four Minutes of Chaos,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 9, 2009.

285
prosecuted for war crimes
:
Brooks Egerton, “Fort Hood Captain: Hasan Wanted Patients to Face War Crimes Charges,”
Dallas Morning News
, November 17, 2009.

285
complained to friends
:
James McKinley Jr. and James Dao, “Fort Hood Gunman Gave Signals Before His Rampage,”
New York Times
, November 8, 2009.

285
“
It's getting harder
”:
Dana Priest, “Fort Hood Suspect Warned of Threats Within the Ranks,”
Washington Post
, November 10, 2009.

285
imminent deployment
:
Staff and wire reports, “Suspect Was to Deploy to Afghanistan,”
Army Times
, November 5, 2009.

286
“
did not alert
”:
Scott Shane and James Dao, “Investigators Study Tangle of Clues on Fort Hood Suspect,”
New York Times
, November 14, 2009.

286
“
ordered nor pressured
”:
Sudarsan Raghavan, “Cleric Says He Was Confidant to Hasan,”
Washington Post
, November 16, 2009.

286
“
is a hero
”:
Anwar al Awlaki, “Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing,” Imam Anwar's blog, anwar-alawlaki.com, November 9, 2009.