Exceptional

by Dick Cheney

  “about getting out”: Gates, Duty, p. 378.

  “summer in 2012”: President Barack Obama, Remarks on the Way Forward in Afghanistan, June 22, 2011, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/22/remarks-president-way-forward-afghanistan.

  Pakistani border: General Jack Keane, Testimony before the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, January 27, 2015.

  “tide of war is receding”: President Barack Obama, Remarks on the Way Forward in Afghanistan, June 22, 2011, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/22/remarks-president-way-forward-afghanistan.

  “It was not”: Justin Fishel, “Obama Troop Cuts Went Beyond Largest Withdrawal Offered by Top General,” Fox News, June 28, 2011, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/28/obama-troop-cuts-went-beyond-largest-withdrawal-offered-by-top-general/.

  beyond military ones: See Stephen F. Hayes, “General Reveals That Obama Ignored Military’s Advice on Afghanistan,” Weekly Standard, June 28, 2011; Mark Mazetti and Scott Shane, “Petraeus Says Afghan Pullout Is Beyond What He Advised,” New York Times, June 23, 2011; Robert Siegel, Host, “Petraeus Faces Senate Confirmation Hearing,” NPR, June 23, 2011.

  “as we’ve done in Iraq”: President Barack Obama, Statement on Afghanistan, May 27, 2014, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/27/statement-president-afghanistan.

  throughout the country: Lauren McNally and Paul Bucala, “The Taliban Resurgent: Threats to Afghanistan’s Security,” Institute for the Study of War, March 2015, p. 26, http://www.understandingwar.org/report/taliban-resurgent-threats-afghanistans-security.

  clear the Taliban: Ibid., p. 14.

  “in the community”: Ibid.

  “threaten our security”: Vali Nasr, The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat (New York: Random House, 2013), p. 14.

  “al Qaeda has been decimated” Fred Lucas, “President Obama Has Touted Al Qaeda’s Demise 32 Times Since the Benghazi Attacks,” CNSNews.com, November 1, 2012, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-touts-al-qaeda-s-demise-32-times-benghazi-attack-0.

  “flat out lying”: James Kitfield, “Flynn’s Last Interview: Iconoclast Departs DIA with a Warning,” Breaking Defense, August 7, 2014, http://breakingdefense.com/2014/08/flynns-last-interview-intel-iconoclast-departs-dia-with-a-warning/.

  “and its affiliates”: Seth G. Jones, “A Persistent Threat: The Evolution of Al Qa’ida and Other Salafi Jihadists,” Rand Corporation, 2014, p. x, http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR637.html.

  “10 percent”: Ibid.

  “mixture of groups”: Ibid., p. xi.

  “we knew that”: Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn, “How America Was Misled on al Qaeda’s Demise,” Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/stephen-hayes-and-tomas-joscelyn-how-america-was-misled-on-al-qaedas-demise-1425600796.

  “bin Laden is dead”: President Barack Obama, Remarks Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination, Charlotte, North Carolina, September 6, 2012, American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=101968.

  “is unacceptable”: Secretary Hillary Clinton, Remarks at Andrews Air Force Base, September 14, 2012, http://insider.foxnews.com/2012/09/14/transcript-video-hillary-clinton-speaks-at-ceremony-as-bodies-of-americans-killed-in-libya-arrive-in-the-us.

  “grew very violent”: Ambassador Susan Rice, Remarks on September 16, 2012, appearances on Fox News Sunday, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CNN State of the Union, http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/11/16/flashback-what-susan-rice-said-about-benghazi/.

  “common humanity”: President Barack Obama, Remarks at the United Nations General Assembly, September 25, 2012, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly.

  claimed credit: Stephen F. Hayes, “The Benghazi Talking Points and How They Were Changed to Obscure the Truth,” Weekly Standard, May 13, 2013, http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/benghazi-talking-points_720543.html?page=3.

  Islamic militants: Ibid.

  involved in the attack: AIS Beth Jones email, September 12, 2012 http://chaffetz.house.gov/sites/chaffetz.house.gov/files/US%20Department%20of%20State%20-%20Beth%20Jones%20emails_O.pdf.

  CIA station chief: Guy Taylor, “CIA Officer Confirmed No Protests Before Misleading Benghazi Account Given,” Washington Times, March 31, 2014, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/31/cia-ignored-station-chief-in-libya-when-creating-t/?page=all.

  “prior to the attacks”: U.S. Department of State, Accountability Review Board on Benghazi, December 19, 2012, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/202446.pdf.

  by the CIA: Hayes, “The Benghazi Talking Points and How They Were Changed to Obscure the Truth.”

  “in the attacks”: Ibid.

  After an interagency meeting: Ibid.

  should have been focused: David Blair and Alex Spillius, “US Consulate Attack in Libya: The Warning Signs Were There in Benghazi,” Daily Telegraph, September 12, 2012, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9539148/US-consulate-attack-in-Libya-the-warning-signs-were-there-in-Benghazi.html.

  “difficult challenges”: Ben Rhodes email, September 14, 2012, http://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/rhodes-email/.

  at least twenty attacks: U.S. Department of State, Accountability Review Board on Benghazi, December 29, 2012, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/202446.pdf.

  Ambassador Chris Stevens had asked: Gregory Hicks, “Benghazi and the Smearing of Chris Stevens,” Wall Street Journal, January 22, 2014, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304302704579332732276330284.

  cut U.S. security staff: Jay Solomon and Dion Nissenbaum, “Security Cut Before Libya Raid,” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2012, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444799904578048344154761294.

  Libyan government had asked: Editorial Board, “How to Help Libya’s New Government,” Washington Post, July 9, 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-help-libyas-new-government-succeed/2012/07/09/gJQAuhcCZW_story.html.

  “zero sum thinking”: Ambassador Ryan Crocker, interview, “Losing Iraq,” PBS Frontline, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/losing-iraq/transcript-66/.

  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had become the leader: Anthony Shadid, “Iraqi Insurgent Group Names New Leaders,” New York Times, May 16, 2010, http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/iraqi-insurgent-group-names-new-leaders/.

  quickly spread: Joe Sterling, “Da’ara, the Spark That Lit the Syrian Flame,” CNN, March 1, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/01/world/meast/syria-crisis-beginnings/.

  “believe he is a reformer”: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, appearance on CBS Face the Nation, March 27, 2011, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-no-military-action-in-syria-for-now/.

  “democratic transition”: President Obama, Remarks on the Middle East and North Africa, May 19, 2011, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-middle-east-and-north-africa.

  “to step aside”: President Obama statement on Syria, August 18, 2011, https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/18/president-obama-future-syria-must-be-determined-its-people-president-bashar-al-assad.

  “change my equation”: President Obama, Remarks to the White House Press Corps, August 20, 2012, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/08/20/remarks-president-white-house-press-corps.

  “scotch any action”: Panetta, Worthy Fights, p. 450.

  “to the world”: Ibid.

  “believe you next time”: Amr Al-Azm, interview, “Obama at War,” PBS Frontline, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/obama-at-war/transcript-84/.

  “regional allies”: Oubai Shahbandar interview, “Obama at War,” PBS Frontline, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/obama-at-war/transcript-84/.

  “one hundred percent of their chemical weapons”: Secretary of State John Kerry, interview, NBC Meet the Press, Sunday, July 2
0, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-transcript-july-20-2014-n160611.

  chlorine gas attacks: Elliott Abrams, “Chlorine Warfare in Syria Continues, Unpunished,” Newsweek, May 26, 2015, http://www.newsweek.com/chemical-warfare-syria-continues-unpunished-335592.

  intelligence reports: Former secretary of defense Leon Panetta, interview, and former ambassador James Jeffrey, interview, “Rise of ISIS,” PBS Frontline, October 28, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/rise-of-isis/transcript-70/.

  “jayvee team”: David Remnick, “Going the Distance, On and off the road with Barack Obama,” New Yorker, January 27, 2014, http: //www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/01/27/going-the-distance-remnick?currentPage=all.

  “stretched across territory”: Ibid.

  “interpretation of Islam”: Graeme Wood, “What ISIS Really Wants,” Atlantic, March 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/.

  “would order it”: Remarks by President Obama at G20 Press Conference, November 16, 2014, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/16/remarks-president-obama-g20-press-conference-november-16-2014.

  “not defeat ISIS”: General Jack Keane, Testimony, U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, May 21, 2015.

  “deluding ourselves”: Ambassador Ryan Crocker, “Islamic State Is Getting Stronger and It’s Targeting America,” Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2014, http://www.wsj.com/articles/ryan-crocker-islamic-state-is-getting-stronger-and-its-targeting-america-1410218507.

  “price of war”: President Harry S. Truman, Remarks to a Joint Session of Congress, “Special Message to the Congress on the Threat to the Freedom of Europe,” March 17, 1948.

  CHAPTER 5: APPEASING ADVERSARIES

  handed over the briefcase: Gordon Corera, Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of the A. Q. Khan Network (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 59–63.

  weapons-grade levels: David Albright and Andrea Stricker, “Iran’s Nuclear Program,” Iran Primer, U.S. Institute for Peace, http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/irans-nuclear-program.

  Tehran Research Reactor: Arms Control Association, “Timeline of Nuclear Diplomacy with Iran,” p. 1, https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheet/Timeline-of-Nuclear-Diplomacy-With-Iran.

  world has now signed: United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, “Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),” http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/NPT.shtml.

  safeguards agreement: https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/documents/infcircs/1974/infcirc214.pdf.

  share of the Iranian economy: Emanuele Ottolenghi, The Pasdaran: Inside Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Washington, DC: FDD Press, 2011), p. 1.

  American casualties: Kimberly Kagan, The Surge: A Military History (New York: Encounter Books, 2009), pp. 160–61.

  Geneva nuclear talks: U.S. Department of Defense, “Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” October 2014, p. 98, http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/afghanistan-security-stability_201410.pdf.

  across the Middle East: Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, USA (Ret.), Testimony, Joint Foreign Affairs and HASC Subcommittees, June 10, 2015.

  secret nuclear facilities: Alireza Jafarzadeh, Remarks on New Information on Top Secret Projects of the Iranian Regime’s Nuclear Program, August 14, 2002, http?//www.iranwatch.org/library/ncn-new-information-top-secret-nuclear-projects-8-14-02.

  room for 50,000: Albright and Stricker, “Iran’s Nuclear Program,” p. 4.

  matter of weeks: Matthew Kroenig, A Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), p. 62.

  “equipment in Isfahan”: Prime Minister Netanyahu, Speech to the UN General Assembly, October 1, 2013, http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-netanyahus-2013-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly/.

  broke the IAEA seals on: “Iran Breaks Seals at Nuclear Plant,” CNN, August 10, 2005, http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/10/iran.iaea.1350/.

  at Natanz: “Iran Breaks Seals at Nuclear Sites,” BBC, January 10, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4597738.stm.

  resolution 1696: http://www.un.org/press/en//2006/sc8792.doc.htm.

  most often in New York: Juan C. Zarate, Treasury’s War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare (New York: PublicAffairs, 2013), p. 26.

  “a death sentence”: “A Fearful Number,” Economist, June 5, 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21653673-bank-rejects-american-accusations-it-abetted-financial-crime-fearful.

  four resolutions: Jason Starr, “The U.N. Resolutions,” Iran Primer, United States Institute of Peace, http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/un-resolutions.

  that very bank: Zarate, Treasury’s War, pp. 300–301.

  “raise suspicions”: Ibid., p. 301.

  to Iranian businesses: Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Testimony, Senate Committee on Finance, April 1, 2008, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp898.aspx.

  terrorist-financing institution: U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Cuts Iran’s Bank Saderat Off from U.S. Financial System,” September 8, 2006, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp87.aspx.

  Bank Sepah: U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Iran’s Bank Sepah Designated by Treasury Sepah Facilitating Iran’s Weapons Program,” January 9, 2007, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp219.aspx.

  Bank Mellat: U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Iranian State-Owned Bank for Facilitating Iran’s Proliferation Activities,” May 17, 2011, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1178.aspx.

  Bank Melli: Zarate, Treasury’s War, p. 304.

  as did the Chinese: Robin Wright, “Stuart Levey’s War,” New York Times, October 31, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/magazine/02IRAN-t.html?pagewanted=all.

  IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Defense: Zarate, Treasury’s War, p. 307.

  work isolating Iran on hold: Ibid., p. 324.

  “we were the problem”: Vice President Joe Biden, Remarks at the Rabbinical Assembly Convention, May 8, 2012, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/08/biden-defends-iran-stance-we-were-the-problem/.

  was overrun: Gates, Duty, p. 178.

  Madeleine Albright apologized: Kenneth Pollack, The Persian Puzzle: Deciphering the Twenty-Five Year Conflict Between Iran and America (New York: Random House, 2004), loc. 190.

  “nation any good”: Ibid., loc. 219.

  holiday of Nowruz: President Barack Obama, Videotaped Remarks in Celebration of Nowruz, March 20, 2009, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/VIDEOTAPED-REMARKS-BY-THE-PRESIDENT-IN-CELEBRATION-OF-NOWRUZ/.

  “Death to America”: Stephen F. Hayes, “Iran Responds: ‘Death to America,’ ” Weekly Standard, March 21, 2009.

  sent a letter: “Exclusive: U.S. Contacted Iran’s Ayatollah Before Election,” Washington Times, June 24, 2009, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/24/us-contacted-irans-ayatollah-before-election/print/.

  62.6 percent of the vote: Thomas Erdbrink, “Ahmadinejad Re-elected in Iran as Demonstrators Protest Results,” Washington Post, June 14, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/13/AR2009061300627.html.

  in jeopardy: Ryan Lizza, “The Consequentialist: How the Arab Spring Remade Obama’s Foreign Policy,” New Yorker, May 2, 2011, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/02/the-consequentalist.

  outside Qom: Karen DeYoung and Michael D. Shear, “U.S., Allies Say Iran Has Secret Nuclear Facility,” Washington Post, September 26, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/25/AR2009092500289.html.

  “a nuclear expert”: Ibid.

  ending the round of negotiations: Nasr, Dispensable Nation, p. 118.

  remained on hold: Zarate, Treasury’s War, pp. 329–3
0.

  set of sanctions on Iran: Joel Winton, “Rewriting History: The Real Hillary Record on Iran Sanctions,” Weekly Standard, June 9, 2014, http://www.weeklystandard.com/keyword/Joel-Winton.

  Steinberg sent a letter: Ron Kampeas, “Obama and Kerry Slowing Iran Sanctions Legislation Push,” Jewish Journal, December 15, 2009, http://www.jewishjournal.com/iran/article/obama_and_kerry_slowing_iran_sanctions_legislation_push_20091215.

  “crippling sanctions”: David Lerman, “Senators Call for Crippling Sanctions on Iran Central Bank,” Bloomberg Business, August 9, 2011, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-08-09/senators-call-for-crippling-sanctions-on-iran-central-bank.

  between the United States and Iran: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), loc. 7142.

  “threw them a lifeline”: Authors’ meeting with senior government official in the Middle East, April 2014.

  secret meetings: Associated Press, “How a Series of Secret Meetings Between U.S. and Iran Led to Historic Deal,” November 25, 2013, PBS Newshour, The Rundown blog, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-a-series-of-secret-meetings-between-us-and-iran-led-to-historic-agreement/.

  began in mid-2011: Associated Press, “How a Series of Secret Meetings Between U.S. and Iran Led to Historic Deal,” November 25, 2013, PBS Newshour, The Rundown blog, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-a-series-of-secret-meetings-between-us-and-iran-led-to-historic-agreement/.

  Oman in July 2012: Clinton, Hard Choices, loc. 7518.

  continue to enrich: Michael Doran, “Obama’s Secret Iran Strategy,” Mosaic, February 2, 2015, http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2015/02/obamas-secret-iran-strategy/.

  Assad or his forces: Jay Solomon and Carol E. Lee, “Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran’s Khamenei About Fighting Islamic State,” Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2014, http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291.

  months to delay: Hillel Fradkin and Lewis Libby, “Iran Inspections in 24 Days? Not Even Close,” Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/Iran-inspections-in-24-days-not-even-close-1437521911.