421 “Unemployment Ffalls to 10.3 —Minister,” Reuters, March 31, 2008.
422 “Khamenei Urges Ahmadinejad to Rein In Soaring Inflation,” Agence France-Presse, August 25, 2008.
423 See World Fact Book, Central Intelligence Agency; Human Development Reports: 2007–2008, U.N. Development Program, http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_IRN.html, accessed June 26, 2008.
424 See “90 Percent of Population Under Poverty Line: MP,” Iran Focus, January 21, 2005.
425 What is particularly offensive about the shambles of Iran’s socialist and woefully mismanaged economy is that it squanders the value of Iran’s greatest national asset—human capital. When free to develop their skills and reach their God-given potential, Iranian workers are some of the brightest and most resourceful in the world. In the free market environment of the United States, for example, American families of Iranian ancestry, on average, earn 20 percent more money than the average American family. Nearly one-third of Iranian-Americans earn $100,000 a year or more. No fewer than ten Iranian-Americans have been founders of or senior executives in U.S.-based businesses worth a combined $1 trillion, including Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, who had a net worth of $7.7 billion in 2008. (See Ali Mostashari, “Fact Sheet on the Iranian-American Community,” Iranian Research Studies Group Series, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 2003, http://isg-mit.org/projects-storage/census/Factsheet.pdf)
426 Hamid Sarami, Iranian Office to Combat Drugs, Education and Prevention Unit; quoted in “In Iran, One New Person Gains Drug Addiction Every 3 Minutes,” Iran Focus, July 7, 2005; see also “Iran Tops World Drug Addiction Rate,” Iran Focus, September 24, 2005; see also Karl Vick, “Opiates of the Iranian People: Despair Drives World’s Highest Addiction Rate,” Washington Post, September 23, 2005.
427 See 2007 World Drug Report, U.N. Office on Drug and Crime, p. 241, http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/wdr07/WDR_2007.pdf, accessed June 26, 2008.
428 See Vick, “Opiates of the Iranian People.”
429 Ibid.
430 See “Nine Million Drug Addicts Nationwide by 20 Years,” Agence France-Presse, October 31, 2002.
431 Interview with a senior Western intelligence official, on the condition of anonymity, fall of 2005.
432 See Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival, p. 213.
433 All cited from a wonderful book by an Iranian dissident whose pseudonym is Nasrin Alavi. The book is entitled We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs.
434 Cited by Peter Bergen, The Osama Bin Laden I Know, p. 400.
435 See “Poll: Bin Laden Tops Musharraf in Pakistan,” CNN, September 11, 2007.
436 Ibid.
437 “Pakistani Support for al Qaeda, bin Laden Plunges,” polling report conducted for Terror Free Tomorrow, January 2008, http://www.terrorfreetomorrow.org/upimagestft/TFT%20Pakistan%20Poll%20Report.pdf, accessed August 4, 2008; see also Griff Witte and Robin Wright, “Musharraf’s Approval Rating Plummets,” Washington Post, February 11, 2008.
438 Author interview with a Christian relief worker on the condition of anonymity, summer 2008.
439 Cited by Nick B. Mills, Karzai, pp. 50–51. Mills’s biography, based on extensive interviews with the Afghan president and a personal relationship between the two men dating back to 1987, was an enormously helpful resource in drafting this chapter. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding Karzai’s thinking and the tremendously challenging geopolitical environment in which he is operating.
440 Ibid, p. 64.
441 Ibid, p. 91.
442 Ibid, p. 98.
443 Ibid, p. 99.
444 Ibid, p. 105.
445 Hamid Karzai, interview, PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, January 28, 2002.
446 See Mills, p. 112.
447 Hamid Karzai, “Home Free,” Time magazine, August 18-25, 2003 issue.
448 Ibid.
449 See Mills, pp. 154–155.
450 See Karzai essay in Time magazine.
451 Cited by Carlotta Gall, “At the Polls in a Southern Village, Afghans Vote with Confidence and Yearn for Security,” New York Times, October 10, 2004
452 Ibid.
453 Cited by Mills, Karzai, p. 201.
454 Ibid.
455 Cited by Eric Quiñones, “Karzai Lauds International Cooperation in Rebuilding Afghanistan,” Princeton University news Web site, September 26, 2003, http://www.princeton.edu/pr/home/03/0926_karzai/hmcap.html, accessed July 6, 2008.
456 See John Fischer, “Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan to Receive Award,” About.com, http://philadelphia.about.com/od/history/a/liberty_medal_b.htm?p=1, accessed July 6, 2008.
457 Ibid.
458 See address by His Excellency President Hamid Karzai, National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 4, 2004, http://www.constitutioncenter.org/libertymedal/recipient_2004_speech.html, accessed August 30, 2008.
459 See transcript of keynote address by President Karzai at the U.S.-Islamic Forum, Doha, Qatar, February 16, 2008.
460 See “Hamid Karzai: Shrewd Statesman,” BBC, June 14, 2002.
461 See Arshad Mohammed, “U.S. Expected to Pledge Some $10 Billion for Afghans,” June 10, 2008; “Donors to Give Billions in Afghan Aid,” Agence France-Presse, June 12, 2008.
462 For more, see NATO report.
463 See Laura Bush, “What I Saw in Afghanistan,” Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2008.
464 “Hamid Karzai Becomes Father at 49,” BBC, January 26, 2007.
465 See transcript of open forum discussion with President Karzai, Council on Foreign Relations, September 21, 2006, http://www.cfr.org/publication/11507/, accessed June 27, 2008.
466 From 2007–2009, women held 94 of 535 total seats in the U.S. House and Senate. See http://womenincongress.house.gov/data/wic-by-congress.html?cong=110.
467 See Council on Foreign Relations transcript.
468 See transcript from an interview with Hamid Karzai, Council on Foreign Relations, September 26, 2006.
469 See Council on Foreign Relations transcript.
470 See transcript from an interview with Hamid Karzai, Council on Foreign Relations, September 26, 2006.
471 “Massive Prison Break in Afghanistan,” Reuters, June 13, 2008.
472 See Weblog posting by Joel C. Rosenberg, “U.S. to Launch New ‘Surge’—This Time in Afghanistan,’” June 18, 2008, http://joelrosenberg.blogspot.com/2008/06/us-to-launch-new-surge-this-time-in.html; Steven Lee Myers and Thom Shanker, “Pentagon Considers Adding Forces in Afghanistan,” New York Times, May 3 2008; “Progress in Afghanistan,” NATO report, April 2008, http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/epub/pdf/progress_afghanistan.pdf; “U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Number More Than 32,000,” Associated Press, April 10, 2008; “Canada to Boost Troops in Afghanistan,” Xinhua news agency, July 26, 2008; “UK to Send More Troops to Afghanistan,” Afghanistan News Network, August 8, 2008; “Pentagon Plans to Send More Than 12,000 Additional Troops to Afghanistan,” U.S. News & World Report, August 19, 2008.
473 See NATO report, p. 9.
474 Information based on author interviews with U.S. and Afghan officials on the condition of anonymity, conducted in October of 2008.
475 25. “Karzai Takes Over Afghan Vote-Fraud Panel,” Washington Times, February 23, 2010.
476 26. Thomas L. Friedman, “This Time We Really Mean It,” New York Times, March 30, 2010.
477 “Purported al-Zarqawi Tape Vows to Fight [Iraqi] Election,” MSNBC, January 24, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6855496/, accessed August 2, 2008.
478 Cited by Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer, “Insurgent Leader al-Zarqawi Killed in Iraq,” Washington Post, June 8, 2006.
479 “Statement by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on the Killing of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi,” U.S. Embassy in Iraq, June 8, 2006.
480 See “Insurgent Leader al-Zarqawi Killed in Iraq,” Washington Post, June 8, 2006.
481 See Cesar Soriano, “Iraqi Leaders: Memo Details al-Qaeda Plans,” USA Today, June 15, 200
6; see also “Officials Give Details on al-Zarqawi Strike,” U.S. Multi-National Force Iraq news service, June 18, 2006.
482 “Iraq Announces Info from al-Zarqawi Raid,” Associated Press, June 15, 2006.
483 Ibid.
484 See Jonathan Weisman, “Iraqi Prime Minister Presses for More Aid,” Washington Post, July 27, 2006.
485 Ibid; see also David Stout, “Maliki Expresses Thanks in Address to Congress,” New York Times, July 26, 2006.
486 “Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Calling for Political Change in Iraq,” http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=281188&& (accessed October 24, 2008); “Clinton Urges Ouster of Iraq’s al-Maliki,” Associated Press, August 23, 2007.
487 Ibid.
488 “Iraq PM Hits Out at Critics,” Aljazeera TV, August 26, 2007.
489 “Maliki Returns Fire at US critics,” BBC News, August 26, 2007.
490 “Interview: Iraqi Official Mourns Sons, Vows to Fight ‘The Ghosts of Death,’” transcript of interview by Radio Free Iraq, posted on the Web site of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 8, 2005, http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1057351.html, accessed August 1, 2008.
491 Mithal Al-Alusi, member of the Iraqi parliament, interview with author, August 1, 2008.
492 See Kimberly Kagan, “The Anbar Awakening: Displacing Al-Qaeda from Its Stronghold in Western Iraq,” The Weekly Standard, March 30, 2007, http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/IraqReport03.1.pdf, accessed August 2, 2008.
493 Cited by Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival, p. 178. For an excellent analysis of Sistani, see Nasr’s entire chapter “The Tide Turns,” which was very helpful to me in writing this section.
494 Assyrians, Turkomans, and other minorities make up the other 5 percent.
495 Christians, Zoroastrians, and other religious minorities make up the other 5 percent.
496 See “Barak Shakes Hands with Iraqi President,” Ynet News, July 1, 2008; “Iraq: MPs Slam Talabani-Barak Handshake,” Ynet News, July 4, 2008
497 See “Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says Israeli President Peres ‘welcome in Iraqi Kurdistan,’” Yaqen News Agency, November 14, 2007.
498 Data in this section are based on the author’s interviews with senior Iraqi and U.S. government officials throughout 2008.
499 In English, Erbil is also occasionally spelled “Irbil” or “Arbil.” In Arabic, the city is known as “Hawler.”
500 See official biography of President Jalal Talabani, Web site of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, http://www.puk.org/web/htm/about/talab.html, accessed October 29, 2008.
501 “Woman Testifies on Alleged Saddam Attack,” Associated Press, September 11, 2006.
502 Cited by Bushra Juhi and Jamal Halaby, “At Saddam’s Trial, Kurdish Doctor Describes Gas Attack,” Associated Press, December 8, 2006.
503 See Ahmed Rasheed, “Saddam Says Responsible for Any Iran Gas Attacks,” Reuters, December 18, 2006.
504 Ibid.
505 Cited by Ross Colvin, “Iraq Trial Revives Bitter Memories of ‘U.S. Betrayal,’” Reuters, August 21, 2007.
506 Cited by Dian McDonald, “U.S. Won’t Intervene in Iraq’s Civil War,” U.S. Information Agency report, April 4, 1991.
507 Ibid.
508 Mala Bakhtyar, spokesman for President Jalal Talabani, interview with the author, February 25, 2008.
509 See Bob Woodward, State of Denial, pp. 174–176.
510 The seven leaders were Jalal Talabani, Massoud Barzani, Ayad Allawi (a Shia who would later become the first appointed, though not elected, prime minister), Ahmad Chalabi (a Shia), Naseer Chaderchi (a Sunni), Ibrahim al-Jaafari (a Shia), and Abdul Aziz Hakim (a Shia).
511 See Amb. L. Paul Bremer III, My Year in Iraq, pp. 355–356.
512 Ibid, p. 376.
513 See “An Hour with Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar,” Charlie Rose Show, December 6, 2006, http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2004/12/06/1/an-hour-with-iraqi-president-ghazi-al-yawar, accessed July 3, 2008.
514 Cited in “Kurd Leader Talabani New Iraq President,” Dawn News Service (Pakistan), April 7, 2005. See also “Iraq Parliament Elects Jalal Talabani as President,” Bloomberg, April 6, 2006.
515 See transcript, President Talabani’s first White House press conference with President Bush, www.whitehouse.gov, September 13, 2005.
516 Ibid.
517 Cited in “Talabani: U.S. Troops Should Stay 3 More Years: Iraqi President Denies Civil War in Iraq but Asks for Help Defeating Terrorists,” Reuters, November 2, 2006; see also Katrinn Bennhold, “Talabani: U.S. Troops Should Stay 3 More Years,” International Herald Tribune, November 2, 2006.
518 See “McCain: Deploy More Troops to Iraq,” Associated Press, December 14, 2006.
519 See transcript of President Bush’s address to the nation, CNN, January 10, 2007.
520 Ibid.
521 See transcript of interview with Sen. Obama on MSNBC’s “Response to the President’s Speech on Iraq,” January 10, 2007.
522 See transcript of interview with Sen. Obama on CNN’s Larry King Live, January, 10, 2007, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/10/lkl.01.html, accessed July 18, 2008.
523 See “Interview with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani,” Dar al-Hayat (Lebanon), January 22, 2007.
524 Cited in “Iraq War is ‘Lost’: US Democrat Leader,” Agence France-Presse, April 19, 2007.
525 Cited by Jeff Mason, “Clinton Says ‘We Cannot Win’ Iraq War,” Reuters, March 17, 2008.
526 Cited by Ivan Moreno, “Albright Visits University of Denver, Slams Bush,” Associated Press, May 28, 2008.
527 Based on author interviews with Iraqi officials. Also see “U.S. Ground Forces End Strength,” fact sheet, GlobalSecurity.org, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_es.htm, accessed July 18, 2008; Jim Michaels, “19,000 Insurgents Killed in Iraq Since ’03,” USA Today, September 27, 2007.
528 See Dexter Filkins, “Exiting Iraq, Petraeus Says Gains Are Fragile,” New York Times, August 21, 2008.
529 Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, interview with author, July 10, 2008.
530 See ABC News and Time magazine transcript of press availability with Sen. Obama, Watertown, South Dakota, May 16, 2008, http://thepage.time.com/transcript-of-obama-presser-2/, accessed June 27, 2008.
531 Cited by “Iraq Study Group Chairs Defend Report,” Reuters, December 11, 2007.
532 Cited by James Kitfield, “Democracy Stalled,” National Journal, May 3, 2008.
533 Cited by John Bersia, “Iraq President’s Son: U.S. Role Half-Complete,” Orlando Sentinel, March 29, 2006.
534 Zalmay Khalilzad served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007, after which he became the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. From 2003 to 2005, he served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
535 On April 6, 2005, Iraq’s initial interim president, Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, peacefully handed over power to Jalal Talabani, the first democratically elected president of Iraq under the country’s newly ratified constitution. Likewise, the following day—April 7, 2005—Iraq’s initial interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, peacefully handed over the office to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who became prime minister under the Iraqi Transitional Authority. Then, on May 20, 2006, al-Jafaari peacefully handed over power to Nouri al-Maliki, who become the first democratically elected prime minister of Iraq under the country’s newly ratified constitution.
536 Most Moroccan Sunnis, Dr. Abaddi included, are Sufi Muslims, as opposed to Wahhabi Muslims. That is, they practice something called “Sufism.” This is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as a “mystical movement within Islam that seeks to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.” Sufism began probably in Morocco sometime after the death of Muhammad in AD 632 and later migrated to Iraq. Though scholars disagree on the exact nature of the movement’s origins—whether it was a spiritualization of Islam, an evolution toward mysticism, an attempt to escape a stifling religiosity, etc.—and despite heavy re
sistance over the years both from inside and outside Islam, “the importance of Sufism in the history of Islam is incalculable.” Today Sufism is practiced worldwide in numerous variations. See http://www.answers.com/topic/sufism.
537 “Moroccans recognized the Government of the United States in 1777,” says the U.S. State Department. “Formal U.S. relations with Morocco date from 1787, when the two nations negotiated a Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Renegotiated in 1836, the treaty is still in force, constituting the longest unbroken treaty relationship in U.S. history” (see State Department country profile of Morocco, November 2003).
Inside the Revolution Page 61