Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America
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Smith pointed to the Arabic words she’d written on the chalkboard in front of Qahtani: Liar, Coward, Failure.
“This is you!” she shouted.
Qahtani closed his eyes and shook his head. “Na’am.” No.
Romeo leaned in from behind him and shouted into his ears.
“Look at the pictures, Qahtani! You are the twentieth hijacker! Tell me about your training! Tell me about your commanders! Where is bin Laden?”
Qahtani jumped at Romeo’s voice. He looked down at the pictures and began to quietly sob. Romeo knew he must be feeling guilty for not completing his mission. Guilt was something he could use.
“Who was your leader?”
“Osama bin Laden.”
Romeo stopped. For the first time in nearly a year of captivity, prisoner 063 had provided a truthful answer.
“Why did you go to Orlando?”
“I wasn’t told the mission.”
“Who was meeting you?”
“I don’t know.”
Romeo spun around and slammed his hands on the table, the carefully spread photos bouncing into the air and landing askew, some skittering to the floor.
“Who was on the plane with you?”
“I was by myself.”
“You’re wasting my time!” he lied. The truth was that these answers were, for the first time, getting them somewhere.
“Give me one name! One name of someone who trained you!”
Qahtani looked up, tears streaming down his face.
“I have to use bathroom. Please.”
“One name!”
“Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. Taught me Internet.”
“Internet? You’re going to fly an airplane into the White House and you give me the name of your tech support guy?”
Romeo walked out of the room, calling over to Smith. “I’m done with him. Make him go to the bathroom in the bottle in front of you.”
Returning to his cube, Sergeant Romeo quickly entered this new name, al-Kuwaiti, into the database: 063 claims Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti taught him how to use the Internet. Follow up with Defense and Central Intelligence Agencies.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Seven years, nine months later: August 4, 2010
CIA paramilitary operative “Ron” listened intently to the voice on the intercept.
For years, Ron and his teammates had been trolling for any usable scrap of information—but, like the tip lines the police use after a serious crime, most of the information they’d received was only marginally useful at best. Ron was on the lookout for names of highly placed operatives or mentions of weapons of mass destruction. But long ago, when the hunt for bin Laden had first begun, they’d decided that messengers would help lead to the ultimate quarry.
“We’ve got someone talking about a courier!” Ron said to the small group huddled in the plywood-paneled communications room of the safe house.
“What’s the name? We need a name!” the station chief answered.
“He’s calling him Sheik al-Kuwaiti.”
“That’s got to be the same guy.”
“I’ve got his number and recorded voice. We’re triangulating his position right now,” Ron confirmed, simultaneously relaying the information and coordinates to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
“Abbottabad, Pakistan,” Ron reported. Quickly the satellite spun to the location on the outskirts of the capital of Islamabad. It was a large compound framed by a trapezoidal wall.
Looks fit for a sheikh, Ron thought to himself.
Abbottabad, Pakistan
May 2, 2011
2:00 A.M.
The point man from Navy SEAL Team Six’s Red Team had rehearsed it a thousand times, but he was still shocked when he saw the unmistakable face of Osama bin Laden staring right back at him.
The SEAL fired his Heckler & Koch 416 carbine as bin Laden dove back into his bedroom. While the SEAL’s index finger reflexively squeezed the trigger, he thought about Jeremy Glick and the brave passengers on Flight 93, all those who had perished in the 9/11 attacks, and all those who had come before him in the wars.
Stepping into the bedroom, he saw that bin Laden was on his back, two of his wives shouting at him. A teammate shot one of the women in the leg and pushed them away. Another pumped two more rounds into bin Laden’s heart.
The point man made the call over his radio: “Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo!”
Osama bin Laden was finally dead. And while it may have been a Navy SEAL’s bullet that struck the fatal blow, it was a long-ago airport encounter between a young Saudi extremist and Jose Melendez-Perez, a veteran who continued to serve his country, that first sealed his fate.
This story is dedicated to all of the American heroes who’ve fought in the War on Terror. Melendez-Perez is a perfect example of how an ordinary person can make an extraordinary difference, but he’s not the only one. Each of us has the opportunity to prove that every single day.
About the Writing of This Book
This book comprises twelve stories that took place over a period of about 230 years. Not one person alive today was alive when even half of these events actually took place. That means we are left with history books, biographies, oral accounts and, in some cases, court transcripts and official reports to tell us what happened. Like anything that spans so much time and, in some cases, is so controversial, these accounts often conflict with each other. It is up to all of us to read all of the evidence and discern what is fully true, what is exaggerated, and what is a lie.
This section is meant to help you better understand the research and writing process for each story, including any key decisions we made regarding major facts, characters or scenes. A chapter-by-chapter accounting is below, but there are also a few things that apply to the entire book that I want to point out.
1. We sometimes modified quotations for clarity. This mainly applies to quotes from the revolutionary period, but we occasionally modified more modern quotes as well if we felt that they left the reader confused. We tried to be as delicate as possible and we never changed the meaning of any direct quotations.
2. In some cases we imagined characters or scenes. Whenever we did this we were careful to ensure that nothing we created contradicted anything that we knew to be true from the historical record.
3. Dialogue and character thoughts were often imagined based on the historical record. None of this dialogue contradicts anything about the characters or story that we know to be true.
Chapter 1: Jack Jouett: The Ride That Saved America
Most of the facts used to create this story came from the following sources:
“Charles S. Yordy, III: The Pennsylvania Line Mutiny, its Origins and Patriotism.” Unearthing the Past: Student Research on Pennsylvania History, Pennsylvania State University. http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/pahistory/folder_2.html.
Crews, Ed. Captain Jack Jouett’s Ride to the Rescue. Colonial Williamsburg. http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer06/ride.cfm.
Jack Jouett: Louisa County’s Revolutionary Hero. Louisa County, Virginia. http://www.louisacounty.com/LCliving/jouett.htm.
“Jack Jouett of Virginia: The ‘Other Ride.’ ” Valley Compatriot. February 1984. Donal Norman Moran, ed. http://americanrevolution.org/jouett.html.
Jack Jouett’s Ride. History Happens: Stories from American History on Music Video. http://www.ushistory.com/story_jack.htm.
Jack Jouett’s Ride. Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jack-jouetts-ride.
Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/cowp/historyculture/lieutenant-colonel-banastre-tarleton.htm.
The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress: 1781. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/1781.html.
Timeline of the Revolutionary War. Ushistory.org. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.htm.
Visit the Home of the “Paul Revere of the South.” Jack Jouett House Historic Site. http://ww
w.jouetthouse.org.
Notes on specific scenes and characters:
The scene in which Jouett overhears a conversation in the tavern is factual, but some of the dialogue is imagined to provide historical context.
The scene with Tarleton and a young, unnamed soldier at the campfire is imagined, though all of the information conveyed in the scene is factual.
The scene in which Jouett arrives at Monticello is factual, but the dialogue is fictional. There is no record of what he actually said to Jefferson, but the imagined dialogue is supported by reports of how Jefferson reacted.
The scene in which the Dragoons arrive in Monticello is based on the records that we believe are most authentic. That said, there are varying accounts of how Jefferson responded to Jouett’s news (some have him eating breakfast before heading out) and where he rode to first (one account says that he rode up the mountain and hid in the hollowed-out shell of an oak tree).
The scene at the end with Jouett and Stevens is factual, but the dialogue is imagined.
Chapter 2: Shays’ Rebellion: A Loud and Solemn Lesson
Most of the facts used to create this story came from the following sources:
Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts Passed by the General Court: 1786–87. http://archive.org/details/actsresolvespass178687mass.
Allen, Herbert S. John Hancock: Patriot in Purple. Beechhurst Press, 1953.
Barry, John Stetson. The History of Massachusetts. Ulan Press, 2012.
Buckley, Kerry W. A Place Called Paradise: Culture and Community in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1654–2004. University of Massachusetts Press, 2004.
Clogston, William, and Moses King. King’s Handbook of Springfield, Massachusetts: A Series of Monographs, Historical and Descriptive. Ulan Press, 2012.
Copeland, Alfred Minott. “Our County and Its People”: A History of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Vol. 1. Ulan Press, 2012.
Cushing, Thomas. History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men. Vol. 1. J. B. Beers, 1885.
Danver, Steven L., ed. Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO, 2010.
Davis, Kenneth C. America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation. Harper Perennial, 2009.
Everts, Louis H. History of the Connecticut Valley, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Louis H. Everts, 1879.
Feer, Robert A. Shays’ Rebellion. Garland, 1988.
Field, David Dudley. A History of the County of Berkshire, Massachusetts, in Two Parts: The First Being a General View of the County: the Second, an Account of the Several Towns. Ulan Press, 2012.
Fiske, John. The Critical Period of American History, 1783 to 1789. Kessinger, 2010.
“Friday December 1st. 1786.” National Archives. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/03-02-02-0001-0011-0001.
Harlow, Ralph Volney. Samuel Adams, Promoter of the American Revolution. Henry Holt, 1923.
Hart, Albert Bushnell, ed. American History Told by Contemporaries. Vol. 3. University of Michigan Library, 1917.
Herrick, William Dodge. History of the Town of Gardner, Worcester County, Massachusetts from the Incorporation, June 27, 1785, to the Present Time. Ulan Press, 2012.
Holland, Josiah Gilbert. History of Western Massachusetts: The Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire, Embracing an Outline, or General History, of the Section, an Account of its Scientific Aspects and Leading Interests, and Separate Histories of its One Hundred Towns. Repressed, 2012.
Kaufman, Martin, ed. Shays’ Rebellion: Selected Essays. Institute for Massachusetts Studies, 1987.
Leibiger, Stuart. Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic. University of Virginia Press, 2001.
Lockwood, John Hoyt. Westfield and Its Historic Influences, 1669–1919: The Life of an Early Town, with a Survey of Events in New England and Bordering Regions to which it was Related in Colonial and Revolutionary Times. Vol. 2. Nabu Press, 2012.
Masur, Louis P. Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865. Oxford University Press, 1991.
Minot, George Richards. The History of the Insurrections, in Massachusetts, in the Year 1786 and the Rebellion Consequent Thereon. British Library, 2010.
Munroe, James Phinney. The New England Conscience: With Typical Examples. Richard G. Badger, 1915.
Richards, Leonard L. Shays’ Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
Sears, Lorenzo. John Hancock: The Picturesque Patriot. Gerbert Press, 2008.
Starkey, Marion L. A Little Rebellion. Knopf, 1955.
Stewart, David O. The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Szatmary, David P. Shays’ Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. University of Massachusetts Press, 1984.
Thompson, Francis McGee. History of Greenfield: Shire of Franklin County, Massachusetts. History of Greenfield Ulan Press, 2012.
Trumbull, James Russell. History of Northampton Massachusetts from Its Settlement in 1654. Forgotten Books, 2012.
Willard, David. Willard’s History of Greenfield. Kneeland & Eastman, 1838.
Most of the dialogue in this chapter was imagined, but the following quotations were taken in whole or in part from the historical record:
“We are either a united people, or we are not”: Stan V. Henkels, Washington-Madison Papers Collected and Preserved by James Madison, Estate of J. C. McGuire. 1892, p. 25.
“Tell ’em we can’t afford to pay neither debts nor taxes”: Fiske, 179.
“Gentlemen: By information from the General Court”: Holland, 250.
“They say Captain Shattuck has perished in his prison cell”: Richards, 21.
“The men of property”: Hart, 191–93.
“You know it. Your very manner tells me you know it”: Starkey, 130.
“If the matter isn’t settled by sunset”: Starkey, 131.
“If you advance”: Lockwood, 109.
Luke Day’s letter: Lockwood, 107–8.
“Barracks and stores”: Herrick, 95.
“That’s all we want, by God!”: Feer, 367.
“Take the hill”: Szatmary, p. 102.
“Fire o’er the rascals’s heads!”: Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Edward J. Blum, and Jon Gjerde, eds., Major Problems in American History, vol. 1, Cengage Learning, 2011, p. 141.
“March on! March on!”: Stewart, 13.
“Another volley—this time waist height”: Minot, 111.
“I’m afraid I’ve only four”: Copeland, 97.
“Whether you are convinced or not of your error”: Charles Oscar Parmenter, History of Pelham, Mass. From 1738 to 1898, Including the Early History of Prescott, Ulan Press, 2012, p. 379.
“My boys, you are going to fight for liberty”: Everts, 77.
“Sir: However unjustifiable the measures”: Holland, 268–69.
“I must have a word with you”: Richards, 31.
“And discipline breaking down”: Richards, 31.
“In monarchies, the crime of treason”: Ira Stoll, Samuel Adams: A Life, Free Press, 2008, p. 224.
“What country can preserve its liberties”: North American Review, January–April 1830, p. 524.
“As you have set yourselves against”: Caleb Smith, The Oracle and the Curse: A Poetics of Justice from the Revolution to the Civil War, Harvard University Press, 2013, p. 76.
“Our fate is a loud and solemn lesson”: Smith, 75.
Chapter 3: The Virginia Convention: Compromising for the Constitution
Most of the facts used to create this story came from the following sources:
Bailyn, Bernard, ed. The Debate on the Constitution: Federalist and Antifederalist Speeches, Articles, and Letters During the Struggle over
Ratification, Part Two: January to August 1788. Library of America, 1993.
Beeman, Richard R. Patrick Henry: A Biography. McGraw-Hill, 1974.
Beveridge, Albert J. The Life of John Marshall. Vol. 1. Cosimo Classics, 2013.
Broadwater, Jeff. George Mason, Forgotten Founder. University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
Brookhiser, Richard. James Madison. Basic Books, 2011.
DeRose, Chris. Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe: The Bill of Rights, and the Election That Saved a Nation. Regnery History, 2011.
Grigsby, Hugh Blair. The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, with Some Account of Eminent Virginians Who Were Members of that Body, Vol. 1. Forgotten Books, 2012.
Gay, Sydney Howard. James Madison. Ulan Press, 2012.
Gutzman, Kevin R. James Madison and the Making of America. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013.
Hunt, Gaillard. The Life of James Madison. Ulan Press, 2012.
Ketcham, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. University of Virginia Press, 1990.
Kidd, Thomas S. Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots. Basic Books, 2011.
Maier, Pauline. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788. Simon & Schuster, 2011.
Mayer, Henry. A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic. Grove Press, 2001.
Mayo, Bernard. Myths and Men: Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. University of Georgia Press, 2010.
Meade, Robert Douthat. Patrick Henry: Practical Revolutionary. Lippincott, 1969.
Robertson, David. Debates and Other Proceedings of the Convention of Virginia, Convened at Richmond . . . June 1788: For the Purpose of Deliberating on the Constitution. Ulan Press, 2012.
Rowland, Kate Mason. Life of George Mason, 1725–1792. Ulan Press, 2012.
Smith, Jean Edward. John Marshall: Definer of a Nation. Holt Paperbacks, 1998.
Tyler, Moses Coit. Patrick Henry. Echo Library, 2009.
Unger, Harlow Giles. Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation. Da Capo Press, 2010.
Willison, George F. Patrick Henry and His World. Doubleday, 1969.
Writ, William. Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.
Most of the dialogue in this chapter was imagined, but the following quotations were taken in whole or in part from the historical record: