by Joby Warrick
“swore he’d never personally beheaded”: Hannah Allum, “Fallujah’s Real Boss: Omar the Electrician,” Knight Ridder Newspapers, June 25, 2004.
“This is a call for help from the depths”: “Al-Zarqawi’s Message to the Fighters of Jihad in Iraq on September 11, 2004,” Middle East Media Research Institute, Sept. 15, 2004, http://www.memri.org/report/en/print1219.htm.
the most “deadly weapons we have”: Muhammad Abu Rumman and Hassan Abu Hanieh, The “Islamic Solution” in Jordan: Islamists, the State, and the Ventures of Democracy and Security (Amman, Jordan: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Jordan & Iraq, 2013).
“I hear and monitor the chaos”: Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, “Support and Advice, Hopes and Pains,” open letter, July 2004, translation provided by MEMRI, http://www.memri.org/report/en/print1473.htm.
“We denounce and condemn extremism”: For the entire “Amman Message” statement, see “The Official Website of the Amman Message,” www.ammanmessage.com.
“The ability of a few extremists”: Abdullah, King of Jordan, Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril (New York: Viking, 2011).
“It should be known”: Bin Laden’s Dec. 15, 2004, statement quoted in “Bin Laden’s Tape: Key Excerpts,” BBC News, Dec. 27, 2004.
“great joy to the people of Islam”: Jeffrey Pool, “Zarqawi’s Pledge of Allegiance to Al-Qaeda: From Mu’Asker Al-Battar, Issue 21,” Terrorism Monitor, vol. 2, no. 24 (Dec. 15, 2004), http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=27305#.VUdYf5N0v64.
Chapter 14
“An apostasy against Allah”: Jeffrey Pool, “Zarqawi’s Pledge of Allegiance to Al-Qaeda: From Mu’Asker Al-Battar, Issue 21,” Terrorism Monitor, vol. 2, no. 24 (Dec. 15, 2004), http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnewsltt_news]=27305#.VUdYf5N0v64.
“Local government is in a state of crisis”: State Department, “Governor in Trouble-Ridden Anbar Province Held Hostage,” cable, Aug. 3, 2004, retrieved from https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/search.php?q=governor+in+trouble-ridden+anbar&qo=0&qc=0&qto=2010-02-28.
“We’re not going to put candidates”: Author interview with Robert S. Ford.
“We are satisfied”: “Iraqi Vice-President on Tackling ‘Security Chaos,’ Coalition Pullout, Government,” Al-Jazeera TV, April 29, 2006.
the drone picked up the deputy’s car: Author interview with a former senior U.S. official familiar with the events.
“Just wreck!”: Author interview with Nada Bakos.
“There was a PowerPoint briefing”: Author interview with a former senior U.S. official familiar with the events.
“The mujahed movement must avoid”: Letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, translation provided by Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/v2/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Zawahiris-Letter-to-Zarqawi-Translation.pdf.
“He does not and should not”: Zarqawi, “Zarqawi Clarifies Issues Raised by Sheikh Maqdisi,” open letter, July 21, 2005, retrieved from http://thesis.haverford.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10066/4760/ZAR20050712.pdf?sequence=3.
“The al-Qaeda Organization”: “Al-Zarqawi Declares War on Iraqi Shia,” Al-Jazeera, Sept. 14, 2005, http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2005/09/200849143727698709.html.
It took place on the morning of June 29, 2005: Author interviews with two senior U.S. officials present at the event.
“Are you going to get him?”: Stanley A. McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2013).
“By design, often the first time”: Author interview with Stanley A. McChrystal.
“If we could apply relentless body blows”: McChrystal, My Share of the Task.
“That was a screw-up”: Author interview with a senior U.S. official present during the event.
Chapter 15
“He put one on me, and wore the other”: “Full Text of Iraqi Woman’s Confession,” Associated Press, Nov. 13, 2005, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/10027725/#.VUdcKZN0v64.
listened quietly: Author interview with senior Jordanian official.
“Everyone got the call”: Author interview with Jordanian intelligence officer.
“This was a criminal cruel act”: Malmoud al-Abed and Mohammad Ghazal, “Thousands Rally in Unity Against Terror,” Jordan Times, Nov. 12, 2005.
“We’re going on the offensive”: Abdullah, King of Jordan, Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril (New York: Viking, 2011).
“This is our 9/11”: Author interview with Robert Richer.
“People who would have never worked”: Author interview with a senior Jordanian official familiar with the investigation.
“Our brothers knew their targets”: “Al-Zarqawi Purportedly Says Wedding Wasn’t Targeted,” Associated Press, Nov. 18, 2005.
“Let us not merely be people of killing”: Letter from Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to Abu Musab al-Zaraqawi, late 2005, translation provided by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/v2/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Atiyahs-Letter-to-Zarqawi-Translation.pdf.
“In Iraq, time is now beginning”: “Text of a Document Found in Zarqawi’s Safe House,” Associated Press, June 6, 2006.
“In public and private”: State Department, “Sectarian Nerves on Edge After Samarra Shrine Explosion,” cable, Feb. 23, 2006, retrieved from https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06STATE29555_a.html.
“lit the match”: Peter Baker, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House (New York: Doubleday, 2013).
Every scene conveyed: Video excerpts can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB0apnoVf8Y.
“my treasured nation”: Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D., “Zarqawi Video (with Subtitles) [Updated: Transcripts],” e Jawa Report, April 26, 2006, http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/173861.php.
“there were some mistakes made”: Edward Wong and John F. Burns, “Iraqi Rift Grows After Discovery of Prison,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 2005.
Chapter 16
“He seemed almost relieved”: Author interview with a senior Jordanian official familiar with the events.
“We were just trying”: Author interview with senior U.S. official present at the meeting.
“We’re trying to hold on to you”: Stanley A. McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2013).
“We watched a guy dressed in all black come out”: Author interview with Stanley A. McChrystal.
An autopsy found no evidence: Final Autopsy Report, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, June 8, 2006.
“Why didn’t we think of that”: Author interview with Rep. Steny Hoyer; see also Peter Baker, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House (New York: Doubleday, 2013).
“I was happy”: Author interview with Nada Bakos.
“I long had this mental image”: Author interview with Abu Haytham.
“Your end is close”: Author interview with Zaydan al-Jabiri.
Chapter 17
small army of men: Author interview with two U.S. officials familiar with the events.
“If they get through that door”: Ibid.
disliked the sight of blood: Joan Juliet Buck, “Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert,” Vogue, Feb. 25, 2011.
“My judgment is that Syria will move”: “John Kerry Praises Syria in 2011 Speech,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace speech, March 2011. For entire speech, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHMiLIZ_iwQ.
“The last country in the world”: Author interview with Robert S. Ford.
twenty-seven interrogation centers: “Torture Archipelago: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances in Syria’s Underground Prisons Since March 2011,” Human Rights Watch, July 3, 2012, retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/07/03/torture-archipelago-0.
“The country’s problems were being exacerbated”: Author interview with Frederic C. Hof.
“The presence of the U.S. ambassador”: “Syria Says US ‘Interfering’ As Ambassador
Visits Hama,” BBC News, July 8, 2011.
“President Assad is not indispensable”: “Clinton Says Syria’s Assad ‘Not Indispensable’,” Voice of America, July 10, 2011, http://www.voanews.com/content/clinton-says-syrias-assad-not-indispensable—125382213/142106.html.
“He has not led”: Macon Philips, “President Obama: ‘The Future of Syria Must Be Determined by Its People, but President Bashar al-Assad Is Standing in Their Way,’ ” White House Blog, Aug. 18, 2011, https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/18/president-obama-future-syria-must-be-determined-its-people-president-bashar-al-assad.
“very disgusted by the behavior”: Author interview with Benjamin Rhodes.
“This kind of ideology lurks in dark corners”: “Syria Speech by Bashar al-Assad,” June 20, 2011, http://www.al-bab.com/arab/docs/syria/bashar_assad_speech_110620.htm.
Chapter 18
Now he would appeal to Assad directly: Author interview with two senior officials familiar with the events.
“There are only a handful of true al-Qaeda types”: Author interview with a senior official familiar with the events.
“Where is this Islamic state”: Cole Bunzel, “From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State,” Brookings Institute, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, March 2015.
“Here in your midst”: Wikimedia Foundation, Foreign Affairs Committee, The ISIS Threat: The Rise of the Islamic State and Their Dangerous Potential (Google eBook, Sept. 25, 2014).
astonishing array of electronic sleuthing tools: Author interviews with three U.S. officials who participated in these events at the time.
“near-strategic defeat”: Joby Warrick, “U.S. Cites Big Gains Against Al-Qaeda,” Washington Post, May 30, 2008.
“We didn’t become like them”: Author interview with a senior U.S. official who helped oversee the operations.
“long, gloomy night and dark days”: Steven Lee Myers, “New Qaeda ‘War Minister’ Warns of ‘Days Colored in Blood,’ ” New York Times, May 14, 2010.
Chapter 19
“There were not more than seven or eight of us”: “Al-Jazeera Interview with Abu Mohamed Golani, the Head of al-Nusra in Syria,” Dec. 18, 2013, retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8uTGdun5Fg.
“It was to be the face of the organization”: Author interview with a senior U.S. official familiar with intelligence profiles on Baghdadi.
“He always had religious”: Janine di Giovanni, “Who Is ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?,” Newsweek, Dec. 8, 2014.
“promoting of virtue and preventing of vice”: Pieter van Nostaeyen, “The Biography of Sheikh Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, Amir of the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham,” World Press, July 2013, https://pietervanostaeyen.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-a-short-biography-of-the-isis-sheikh.
“It actually feels like you’re in a microwave”: Lt. Commander Vasilios Tasikas, “The Battlefield Inside the Wire,” Military Review, Sept.–Oct. 2009.
“Extremists mingled with moderates”: Ibid.
“Deal with America and its allies”: Paul Vale, “Islamic State’s Al-Baghdadi Says Group Will Fight to ‘Last Soldier,’ ” Associated Press, Nov. 13, 2014.
“Zarqawi was closer than a brother”: Ruth Sherlock, “How a Talented Footballer Became World’s Most Wanted Man,” Telegraph [London], Nov. 11, 2014.
Khlifawi urged Baghdadi to accept: Matthew Barber, “New ISIS Leaks Reveal Particulars of al-Qaeda Strategy,” from “Syria Comment” blog of the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Middle East Studies, Jan. 12, 2014.
“He cloaked himself”: Author interview with senior U.S. official.
“We have crossed the boundaries”: “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria Shall Remain,” audio message posted June 6, 2013; translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“There was a sense that this thing”: Author interview with a senior U.S. official present during the debates.
“It was that slow car crash”: Author interview with Mouaz Moustafa.
“All the different sects were there”: Author interview with Noura al-Ameer.
Chapter 20
“We hereby bring the Islamic nation”: Video posting, “New Jihad Group in Syria Announces Its Establishment,” Middle East Media Research Institute, Jan. 24, 2012.
“We said from the beginning, this is terrorism”: Quoted in Alexandra Zavis and Katie Paul, “Syria Capital Hit by Massive Bombings,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 24, 2011.
“Give your money to the ones who will spend it on jihad”: David D. Kirkpatrick, “Qatar’s Support of Islamists Alienates Allies Near and Far,” New York Times, Sept. 7, 2014.
“It’s anyone’s game”: Author interview with a senior Middle Eastern diplomat.
“In their view, it’s Assad”: Author interview with a senior Middle Eastern intelligence official.
“This is not abstract”: Author’s confidential interview with a senior aide to King Abdullah II.
“We thought going with the Americans”: Adam Entous, “Covert CIA Mission to Arm Syrian Rebels Goes Awry,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 26, 2015.
“Where are these revolutions going to stop?”: Author interview with senior official familiar with the exchange.
“I have my red lines”: Ibid.
“I didn’t think they were going to kill me”: Author interview with Robert S. Ford.
“The regime was losing control”: Ibid.
“The intelligence, frankly, was very worrisome”: Author interview with Leon E. Panetta. See also Leon E. Panetta, Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace (New York: Penguin Press, 2014).
“every option appears worse than the next”: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014).
“We’re outside the game”: Author interview with Panetta.
“He was willing to consider options”: Author interview with Benjamin Rhodes.
“I think, candidly, that a lot of people”: Ibid.
“But all of these steps were Band-Aids”: Clinton, Hard Choices.
“We know how to do this”: Author interview with Panetta.
Chapter 21
“You’re Shiites, right?”: “Who Is the ISIL Iraqi Terrorist Who Executed the Three Syrian Truckers in Syrian–Iraqi border in 2013?,” Liveleak.com, retrieved March 2015. More at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8d1_1398584978#mjwHKBEOjIWYc8Ou.99.
He told a story: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, “Give Good News to the Believers: The Declaration of the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham,” audio speech, World Press, April 2013, retrieved from https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/shaykh-abc5ab-bakr-al-e1b8a5ussaync4ab-al-qurayshc4ab-al-baghdc481dc4ab-e2809cannouncement-of-the-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-shc481m22-en.pdf.
“Al-Nusra Front’s banner will remain”: “Jabhat Al-Nusra Leader Abu Muhammad al-Joulani Pledges Allegiance to Al-Zawahiri,” audio message, posted April 10, 2013; translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“Muslim blood is off-limits”: “Al-Qaeda Chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Letter to the Leaders of the Two Jihadi Groups,” April 2014, retrieved from https://archive.org/stream/710588-translation-of-ayman-al-zawahiris-letter/710588-translation-of-ayman-al-zawahiris-letter_djvu.txt.
“I prefer the command of Allah”: Baghdadi statement as translated by Middle East Media Research Institute, Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (blog), June 16, 2013.
freed more than five hundred inmates: Mushreq Abbas, “Al-Qaeda Militants Raid Iraq’s Abu Ghraib, Taji Prisons,” Al Monitor, July 2013.
“These were the hardest days”: Author interview with Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi. For his blog, see Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, “Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently,” http://www.raqqa-sl.com/en; retrieved April 2015.
“Some are boys younger than sixteen”: Author interview with al-Raqqawi.
“What’s that [video] game called”: “British Jihadi Compares Syria War to Call of Duty,
” BBC News, June 13, 2014.
“I’m here to represent the Islamic State”: Author interview with Mouaz Moustafa.
“Am I supposed to throw pizzas”: Author interview with congressional official present at the meeting.
“We need to have a game-changing action”: Chris Wallace, “Sen. McCain Talks US Action in Syria,” Fox News, May 5, 2013.
“something that the civilized world has recognized”: President Barack Obama news conference, May 16, 2013, White House; retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/16/joint-press-conference-president-obama-and-prime-minister-erdogan-turkey.
“Increase the assistance”: Author interview with Robert S. Ford.
McCain questioned Ford’s grasp: Syria Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, Oct. 31, 2013).
Chapter 22
“The ones who are leading now were thieves”: Author interview with Zaydan al-Jabiri.
“This is a tribal revolution”: Hamza Mustafa, “There Is a ‘Tribal Revolution’ in Iraq: Anbar Tribal Chief,” Asharq Al-Awsat, June 17, 2014.
“They stole everything”: Author interview with Abdalrazzaq al-Suleiman.
“ISIL probably will attempt to take territory”: Transcript, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, director, DIA, Statement Before Senate Armed Services Committee, Feb. 11, 2014.
“These are children of Zarqawi”: Author interview with Michael Flynn.
“In my entire battalion”: Ned Parker, Isabel Coles, and Raheem Salman, “Special Report: How Mosul Fell,” Reuters, Oct. 14, 2014.
“As for your mujahedin brothers”: “English Subtitles of Full Sermon by ISIS’s Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, Caliph of the ‘Islamic State,’ ” transcript, YouTube.com, July 2014, retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxJSm7XwxqA.
“Unfortunately, from the beginning”: Author interview with a senior Jordanian official.
“There’s a snowball effect”: Ibid.
Epilogue
“I am First Lieutenant Muath Safi Yusef al-Kasasbeh”: “ISIS Burns Hostage Alive: Raw Video,” Fox News, Feb. 3, 2015.
“This counterterrorism campaign”: President Barack Obama, “Statement by the President on ISIL,” retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/statement-president-isil-1.