Mark Urban, Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces War in Iraq (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2011).
Joby Warrick, The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA (New York: Doubleday, 2011).
Richard Wolffe, Renegade: The Making of a President (New York: Crown, 2009).
Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).
Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004).
Andy Worthington, Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 759 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (London: Pluto Press, 2007).
Donald P. Wright, James R. Bird, Steven E. Clay, Peter W. Connors, Lieutenant Colonel Scott C. Farquhar, Lynn Chandler Garcia, and Dennis Van Wey, A Different Kind of War: The United States Army in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), October 2001–September 2005 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2005).
Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).
Abdul Salam Zaeef, My Life with the Taliban (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
Ahmad Zaidan, Usama Bin Ladin Without a Mask: Interviews Banned by the Taliban (Lebanon: World Book Publishing Company, 2003).
DOCUMENTS
U.S. Government Documents
United States Navy, Admiral William H. McRaven, biography, United States Special Operations Command, updated August 8, 2011.
Defendants’ exhibit 950 in U.S. v. Moussaoui, Cr. No. 01-455-A, “FBI’s Handling of Intelligence Information Related to Khalid al-Mihdhar & Nawaf al-Hamzi,” Department of Justice Inspector General’s report by Glenn A. Fine, obtained via INTELWIRE.com.
Department of Defense, “Recommendation for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD for Detainee, ISN US9SA-000063DP(S),” October 30, 2008.
Department of Defense, Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Trial, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, March 10, 2007, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/transcript_ISN10024.pdf.
Department of Defense, Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Trial for ISN 10024, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, March 10, 2007, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/transcript_ISN10024.pdf.
Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, “Memorandum for John A. Rizzo, Senior Deputy Council, Central Intelligence Agency,” May 30, 2005, http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/missing_memos/28OLCmemofinalredact30May05.pdf.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abdul Shalabi, ISN US9SA-000042DP, May 14, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abdul Rabbani Abu Rahman, ISN US9PK-001460DP, June 9, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Abu al-Libi, ISN US9LY-010017DP, September 10, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Ali Hamza Ismail, ISN US9YM-000039DP, November 15, 2007.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Ammar al-Baluchi, ISN USSPK-010018D, December 8, 2006.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Awal Gul, ISN US9AF-000782DP, February 15, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Bashir Lap, ISN US9MY-010022DP, October 13, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Faruq Ahmed, ISN US9YM-000032DP, February 18, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Harun al-Afghani, ISN US9AF-003148DP, August 2, 2007.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad Arbaysh, ISN US9SA-000192D, November 30, 2005.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, ISN US9KU-010024DP, December 8, 2006.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Maad Al-Qahtani, ISN US9SA-000063DP (S), October 30, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Mohammed al-Qahtani, ISN US9SA-000063DP, October 30, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Muazhamza al-Alawi, ISN US9YM-000028DP, March 14, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Riduan Isomuddin, ISN US9ID-010019DP, October 30, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al-Haj, ISN US9YM-000256DP, March 23, 2008.
JFT-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Salim Hamed (Salim Hamdan), ISN US9YM-000149DP, September 4, 2008.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Sultan al-Uwaydha, ISN US9SA-000059DP, August 1, 2007.
JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment for Walid Said bin Said Zaid, ISN US9YM-000550DP (S), January 16, 2008.
Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt, “Radicalization in the West: the Homegrown Threat,” New York Police Department, 2007. www.nypdshield.org/public/…/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf.
“National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Final Report” (Washington, DC, 2004) (“9/11 Commission Report”).
National Defense University, Conflict Records Research Center, “Document contains al-Qaeda review of the 9/11 attacks on the United States one year later,” undated (circa September 2002), AQ-SHPD-D-001-285, http://www.ndu.edu/inss/docUploaded/AQ-SHPD-D-001-285.pdf.
National Intelligence Council, “National Intelligence Estimate: The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland,” July 2007, http://www.c-span.org/pdf/nie_071707.pdf.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “Declassified Key Judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate. Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,” April 2006, http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/Declassified_NIE_Key_Judgments.pdf.
Office of the Inspector General, “Report on CIA Accountability with Respect to the 9/11 Attacks,” August 21, 2007, https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/Executive%20Summary_OIG%20Report.pdf.
United States Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), “The Wandering Mujahidin: Armed and Dangerous,” August 21–22, 1993.
United States Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, (INR), “Terrorism? Usama bin Ladin: Who’s Chasing Whom?” July 18, 1996.
United States Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Targets Key Al-Qa’ida Funding and Support Network Using Iran as a Critical Transit Point,” July 28, 2011, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1261.aspx.
United States Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, “Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today,” November 30, 2009.
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, “Report on Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Postwar Iraq, together with additional views,” February 12, 2004, http://intelligence.senate.gov/prewar.pdf.
United States Special Operations Command History (6th edition, 2008), http://www.socom.mil/SOCOMHome/Documents/history6thedition.pdf.
WikiLeaks, Cable from U.S. Secretary of State to U.S. Embassy in Islamabad dated October 9, 2008.
Document Sets and Reports
Brian Fishman, “Redefining the Islamic State: The Fall and Rise of Al-Qaeda in Iraq,” The New America Foundation, August 18, 2011, http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/redefining_the_islamic_state.
Holloway Report, August 23, 1980, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB63/doc8.pdf.
“Nomination of Michael Leiter to be Director, National Counterterrorism Center,” http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2008_hr/leiter.pdf.
“Pervez Musharraf on U.S.-Pakistan Relations,” Council on Foreign Relations, October 26, 2011, http://carnegieendowment.org/files/1026carnegie-musharraf.pdf.
“Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on July 7, 2005,” Intelligence and Security Committee, May 2006, http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/isc_7july_report.pdf, this page and this page.
Camille Tawil, “The Other Face of al-Qaeda,” trans. Maryan El-Hajbi and Mustafa Abulhimal, Quilliam Foundation, November 2010.
Katherine Tiedemann and Peter Bergen, “The Year of the Drone,” New America Foundation, February 24, 2010, http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/bergentiedemann2.pdf.
Court Documents
Interrogation of al-Qaeda recruit Nizar Trabelsi, who was questioned in French in June 2002. The text of his interrogation was later provided in Italian to pro
secutors in Milan investigating one of Trabelsi’s associates. Documents acquired and translated by investigative journalist Leo Sisti of L’Espresso. Author’s collection.
U.S. v. Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul, May 7, 2008.
U.S. v. Moussaoui, Cr. No. 01-455-A, exhibit ST-0001.
U.S. v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed et al. (Indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York [S14] 93 Cr. 180 [KTD], December 14, 2009).
U.S. v. Najibullah Zazi, Eastern District of New York, 09-CR-663, Memorandum of law in support of the government’s motion for a permanent order of detention (Via IntelWire).
SPEECHES BY WESTERN OFFICIALS
Dick Cheney, remarks, “Town Hall Meeting,” CQ Transcriptions, October 19, 2004.
Henry A. Crumpton, speech at CSIS Smart Power Series, Washington, DC, January 14, 2008, http://csis.org/files/media/csis/press/080114_smart_crumpton.pdf.
Jonathan Evans, address to the Society of Editors, Manchester, England, November 5, 2007, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/security-speech-mi5?version=1.
Robert Gates, remarks, Kutzenov Naval Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia, March 21, 2011.
John McCain, speech after his win in the Wisconsin Primary, C-SPAN, February 19, 2008, http://www.c-spanvideo.org/appearance/290354897.
Admiral Michael Mullen, U.S. Navy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, September 22, 2011, http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2011/09%20September/Mullen%2009-22-11.pdf.
Barack Obama, “Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” White House press release, December 1, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-address-nation-way-forward-afghanistan-and-pakistan.
Barack Obama, at Democratic Debate, Los Angeles, CA, January 31, 2008, http://articles.cnn.com/2008-01-31/politics/dem.debate.transcript_1_hillary-clinton-debate-stake/29?_s=PM:POLITICS.
Barack Obama, “Obama’s Nobel Remarks [transcript],” New York Times, December 10, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12.
Barack Obama, speech at Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, DC, August 1, 2007, http://www.cfr.org/us-election-2008/obamas-speech-woodrow-wilson-center/p13974.
“Transcript: the Republican Candidates Debate,” New York Times, August 5, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/us/politics/05transcript-debate.html?pagewanted=all.
Paul Wolfowitz, Defense Department Briefing, December 10, 2001.
STATEMENTS BY AL-QAEDA LEADERS AND OTHER ALLIED MILITANTS
Abd al-Halim Adl, letter to Khalid Sheikh Mohamed: translation from Counterterrorism Center at West Point, Harmony Program, http://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Al-Adl-Letter_Translation.pdf.
Abu Musab al-Suri, “The Call to Global Islamic Resistance,” published on jihadist websites, 2004.
Osama bin Laden, “Letter to Mullah Mohammed Omar from bin Laden,” Undated, AFGP-2002-600321. Available at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/letter-to-mullah-mohammed-omar-from-bin-laden-english-translation.
Osama bin Laden, “Statement,” October 7, 2001. Aired on Al Jazeera.
Osama bin Laden interview with Al Jazeera, 1998. Available via http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1358734/Ever-since-I-can-recall-I-despised-and-felt-hatred-towards-Americans.html.
“Note to Zarqawi,” November 12, 2005, available at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/CTC-AtiyahLetter.pdf.
“The Solution: A Video Speech from Usama bin Laden Addressing the American People on the Occasion of the Sixth Anniversary of 9/11—9/2007,” SITE Group translation, September 11, 2007, http://counterterrorismblog.org/site-resources/images/SITE-OBL-transcript.pdf.
“Al-Zarqawi: The Second al-Qa’ida Generation,” Fu’ad Husayn, Al-Quds al-Arabi, May 21–22, 2005.
NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, JOURNALS, NEWS AGENCIES, AND BROADCAST NEWS
Newspapers
Al-Hayat, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Asharq Al-Awsat, Australian, Chicago Tribune, Daily Times (Pakistan), Dawn (Pakistan), Der Spiegel, Express Tribune, Friday Times, Guardian, Harvard University Gazette, Independent, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, McClatchy Newspapers, The News (Pakistan), New York Times, New York Daily News, Sunday Times, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times, Weekly Standard, USA Today
Magazines
Al-Majallah (Saudi Arabia), Atlantic Monthly, Bloomberg Business Week, Mother Jones, National Journal, New Republic, New Yorker, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Time, Washingtonian, Wired
Journals
Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Security Studies
News Agencies
Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuters, ProPublica
Broadcast News and Radio
ABC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBS, CNN, France24, Al Jazeera, Middle East Broadcasting Corporation, MSNBC, NBC, PBS, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
DOCUMENTARIES
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Al Qaeda Family, February 22, 2004.
CNN, In the Footsteps of bin Laden, August 23, 2006.
History Channel, Targeting Bin Laden, September 6, 2011.
National Geographic, The Last Days of Osama bin Laden, November 9, 2011; George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview, August 30, 2011.
NBC, “Inside the Terror Plot That ‘Rivaled 9/11,’ ” Dateline, September 14, 2009.
PBS, Frontline, “Dana Priest: Top Secret America” (2011); “Campaign Against Terror” (2002).
Laura Poitras, The Oath, Praxis Films (2010).
INTERVIEWS
Abdullah Anas
Abdel Bari Atwan
Hutaifa Azzam
Jeremy Bash
Khaled Batarfi
Noman Benotman
Gary Berntsen
Tony Blinken
John Brennan
Robert Cardillo
Glenn Carle
James “Hoss” Cartwright
Shamila Chaudhary
James Clapper
Hillary Clinton
Henry A. Crumpton
Dell Dailey
Robert Dannenberg
Khaled al-Fawwaz
Ari Fleischer
Michèle Flournoy
Yosri Fouda
Tommy Franks
Dalton Fury
Brad Garrett
Susan Glasser
Eric Greitens
Robert Grenier
Jamal Ismail
Art Keller
Jamal Khalifa
Ihsan Mohammad Khan
Khalid Khawaja
Khalid Khan Kheshgi
David Kilcullen
Osama bin Laden
Michael Leiter
David Low
Stanley McChrystal
Denis McDonough
John McLaughlin
Hamid Mir
Vahid Mojdeh
Philip Mudd
Michael Mullen
Asad Munir
Arturo Munoz
Muhammad Musa
Vali Nasr
Leon Panetta
David Petraeus
Paul Pillar
Mohammed Asif Qazizanda
Nick Rasmussen
Ben Rhodes
Robert Richer
Bruce Riedel
Michael Scheuer
Shabbir (Bin Laden neighbor)
Ali Soufan
Cindy Storer
Barbara Sude
Abu Musab al-Suri
Camille Tawil
Frances Fragos Townsend
Wisal al-Turabi
Michael Vickers
Junaid Younis
Rahimullah Yusufzai
Mohammed Zahir
Ahmad Zaidan
Juan Zarate
NOTES
PROLOGUE: A COMFORTABLE RETIREMENT
1 Major Abbott was beloved: For a description of Major James Abbott, see Charles Allen, Soldier Sahibs: The Men Who Made the North-West Frontier (London: Abacus, 2001), p. 205.
2 “I remember the day”: Sebastian Abbot, “Pakistani Town Copes with Infamy After Bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 24, 2011, www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9661254.
3 “City of Schools”: Khalid Khan Kheshgi, interview by author, Pakistan, July 2011.
4 U.S. Special Forces soldiers were posted there: Cable from U.S. Secretary of State to U.S. embassy in Islamabad dated October 9, 2008, obtained from WikiLeaks.
5 The vacation high season begins: Abbot, “Pakistani Town Copes with Infamy.”
6 Western adventurers: Author’s own observations during visit to Abbottabad, July 2011.
7 wealthy Afghan refugees: M Ilyas Khan, “Bin Laden Neighbours Describe Abbottabad Compound,” BBC, May 2, 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13257338.
8 The Kuwaiti purchased the land: “Pakistani Owner of Bin Laden’s Hideaway Aided Him,” Associated Press, May 4, 2011, dailytimespakistan.com/pakistani-owner-of-bin-laden%E2%80%99s-hideaway-aided-him/.
9 “very simple, modest, humble type of man”: Ibid.
10 “One of my students could have”: Junaid Younis, interview by author, Abbottabad, Pakistan, July 20, 2011.
11 Locals estimate that: Saeed Shah, “At End, Bin Laden Wasn’t Running Al-Qaeda, Officials Say,” McClatchy Newspapers, June 28, 2011, www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/28/v-print/116666/at-end-bin-laden-wasnt-running.html.
12 No planning permission was sought for this addition: Junaid Younis interview.
13 exclusive use: Christina Lamb, “Bickering Widows Blame Young Wife for Alerting US,” Sunday Times, May 22, 2011, www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Asia/article631884.ece.
14 rarely left the second and third floors: Author interview with Pakistani intelligence officials, July 2011.
15 only to take a walk: Ibid.
16 A makeshift tarpaulin: Ibid.
17 last for more than twelve hours: Najwa bin Laden, Omar bin Laden, and Jean Sasson, Growing Up bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009), p. 173.
18 quite adept at volleyball: Khalad al-Hammadi, “Bin Ladin’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed on al Qaida Strategies,” al-Quds al-Arabi, in Arabic, August 3, 2004.
19 Nor was he suffering from debilitating kidney disease: Ibid.
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