Page 16: …enough of a fingerprint: Department of Defense, Press Availability with Secretary Rumsfeld en Route from Brussels to Washington, DC, June 8, 2006.
Page 16: President George W. Bush publicly thanked McChrystal: Federal News Service, Joint Media Availability with President George W. Bush and Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen, Camp David, Maryland, June 9, 2006.
Page 16: “Michael is writing the article for Rolling Stone”: Author notes, April 2010.
CHAPTER 4. “INTIMIDATED BY THE CROWD”
Page 18: …“the highly classified conversations”: Author phone interview with military official, Washington, DC, April 2010.
Page 18: …“coming to kiss the ring”: Ibid.
Page 18: …“intimidated by the crowd”: Author interview with senior military official, April 2010.
Page 19: …“like a Democrat who thinks he’s walking into a room full of Republicans”: Ibid.
Page 19: A CBS sports announcer: “Golf Analyst Feherty Sorry for Pelosi Joke in Dallas Magazine,” Associated Press, May 10, 2009.
Page 20:…pushing a story that Obama snubbed: Ron Claiborne, “Anatomy of an Attack: How McCain Hit Obama,” ABC News, July 27, 2008.
Page 20: At the embassy, he gives a talk: Abigail Hauslohner, “Obama’s Trip: Substance or Drive-By?” Time, July 21, 2008.
Page 20: “He didn’t want to take pictures with any more soldiers”: Author interview with State Department officials, U.S. Embassy Baghdad, January 2010.
Page 21: Truman can’t run for reelection: David McCullough, Truman (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), p. 913.
Page 22: …Obama orders up his own review: David Ignatius, “Shaping a War on Two Fronts,” The Washington Post, February 22, 2009.
Page 22: He says he’s sending seventeen thousand troops: Helene Cooper, “Putting Stamp on Afghan War, Obama Will Send 17,000 Troops,” The New York Times, February 17, 2009.
Page 22: …upping the number of drone strikes: New America Foundation, “Year of the Drone,” http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones.
Page 22: He doesn’t think Afghanistan can support too many more American troops: Federal News Service, “Special Defense Department Briefing, General David McKiernan, Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force,” Pentagon Briefing Room, Arlington, Virginia, February 18, 2009.
Page 23: McKiernan… is not going to press: Author interview with military officials, Washington, DC, October 2010.
CHAPTER 5. ARC DE TRIOMPHE
Page 24: “We’ll follow them”: Author notes, April 2010.
Page 25: …a few wouldn’t fight after a snowfall: Kenneth Katzman, “Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy,” Congressional Research Service, September 22, 2011.
Page 27: He was of Irish descent: Author interview with General Michael Flynn, May 2010.
Page 28: …spending $4.7 billion in a single year: “Pentagon Sets Sights on Public Opinion,” Associated Press, February 5, 2009.
Page 29: …a bunch of “crazy monkeys”: Michael Yon Facebook posting, April 15, 2010, 4:14 P.M.
Page 30: “Let’s do it”: Author interview with General Stanley McChrystal, Paris, April 15, 2010.
CHAPTER 6. “A VIOLENT ACT”
Page 33: In January, General David McKiernan receives an e-mail from the White House: Author interview with U.S. military official, Washington, DC, March 2011.
Page 33: …poppy eradication: Fisnik Abrashi, “Afghanistan Will Break Opium Growth Record, U.S. Ambassador Says,” Associated Press, July 17, 2007.
Page 33:…engaging in “deviant actions”: Project for Government Oversight, Letter to Hillary Clinton, September 1, 2009.
Page 33: …vodka butt shots: Ibid.; D. Schulman, “Animal House in Afghanistan,” Mother Jones, September 1, 2009.
Page 34: Eikenberry is a three-star general: Political Transcript Wire, Sen. John Kerry Holds a Hearing on the Nomination of Karl Eikenberry to be Ambassador to Afghanistan, March 30, 2009.
Page 34: …almost killed him, he recalls: James Gonser, “Reinforced Glass May Have Saved Ex-Hawai’i General,” Honolulu Advertiser, September 20, 2001.
Page 34:…with master’s degrees: Karl Eikenberry biography on webpage of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
Page 35: …McKiernan speaks to Obama only twice: Author interview with senior military official, March 2011.
Page 35: …briefs…Mullen…and Gates in a video teleconference: Ibid.
Page 36: Gates takes the decision to the White House in April: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Pentagon Worries Led to Command Change; McKiernan’s Ouster Reflected New Realities in Afghanistan,” The Washington Post, August 17, 2009.
Page 37: …Gates is asked at a press conference: CQ Transcriptions, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates Holds a Defense Department News Briefing, May 11, 2009.
Page 38: “McKiernan was on the wrong team”: Author interview with senior military official, May 2009.
Page 39: Privately, McKiernan will tell: Author interview with senior military official, March 2011.
Page 39: …“of course that’s what Petraeus would say”: Author interview with Pentagon official, April 2010.
Page 39: …a “dirty” move: Author interview with military official, May 2009.
Page 39:…a chance to “reset”: Author interview with military official, April 2010.
Page 39: “Gates was the mastermind”: Author interview with military official, April 2010.
CHAPTER 7. ON THE X
Page 40: …handle the Sync Matrix: Author interview with Lieutenant Commander Dave Silverman, April 2010.
CHAPTER 8. THE A-TEAM
Page 45: …Charlie Flynn is sitting at his desk: Author interview with Colonel Charles Flynn, April 16, 2010.
Page 47: …Casey Welch walks into his grandmother’s house: Author interview with Major Casey Welch, April 17, 2010.
Page 48: It’s crazy, says Pitta: Author interview with Lieutenant Commander John Pitna, May 2010.
Page 48: “Cardinal Richelieu”: S. Weinberger, “McChrystal Gaffe Spotlights New Breed of Media Advisor,” Aol News, June 23, 2010. http://www.aolnews.com/2010/06/23/mcchrystal-gaffe-spotlights-new-breed-of-media-adviser.
Page 49: …“one of the general’s old army drinking buddies”: G. Porter, “Switch to Petraeus Betrays War Crisis,” Asia Times online, June 25, 2010.
Page 49: “I’ve always seen myself as a bit of a martini”: Author interview with Sir Graeme Lamb, May 2010.
CHAPTER 9. “BITE ME”
Page 52: The staff gathered in room 314: Author notes, April 16, 2010.
CHAPTER 10. THE PHOTO OP
Page 55: At four thirty P.M. on May 19, 2009: “The POTUS Tracker,” The Washington Post online, Obama Meets with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, May 19, 2009, 4:30 P.M., Oval Office, White House.
Page 55: …Stan McChrystal walks into the Oval Office: “Obama to Meet with New U.S. Commander for Afghanistan,” The New York Times Caucus Blog, May 18, 2009.
Page 55: When the music stops in Washington, it’s McChrystal: Author interview with General Stanley McChrystal, April 18, 2010.
Page 56: That’s what he’d told the National Security Council: Author interview with military officials, April 2010.
Page 56: McChrystal’s team knows that detainee abuse is going to come up: Author interview with military officials, April 2010.
Page 56: A Human Rights Watch report: Human Rights Watch, “‘No Blood, No Foul’: Soldiers’ Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq,” Human Rights Watch, July 2006.
Page 56: The New York Times reported that soldiers there: Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall, “In Secret Unit’s ‘Black Room,’ a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse,” The New York Times, March 19, 2006.
Page 56: An investigation by Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby: Human Rights Watch, “‘No Blood, No Foul’: Soldiers’ Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq,” Human
Rights Watch, July 2006.
Page 57: An interrogator who was there: Ibid.
Page 57: McChrystal’s team has a preemptive strike: Spencer Ackerman, “McChrystal Paints Bleak Picture of Afghanistan War,” The Washington Independent, June 2, 2009.
Page 57: The Tillman thing… : Jake Tapper, “Pat Tillman’s Mom Wants General Stanley McChrystal Removed from Chairing White House Initiative,” ABC News, April 14, 2011.
Page 57: His mother, Mary Tillman, sends a letter: Mary Tillman, “Pat Tillman’s Mother on Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal: I Told You So,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2010.
Page 57:…participated in a “falsified homicide investigation”: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-06-24/news/27067978_1_pat-tillman-mary-tillman -friendly-fire.
Page 57: One of the interrogators from Iraq won’t shut up: Spencer Ackerman, “Former Interrogator Presses for McChrystal’s Stance on Abuse,” The Washington Independent, June 2, 2009.
Page 58: He gets only one question about Camp Nama—from Senator Carl Levin: Transcript of U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services Hearing, Washington, DC, June 2, 2009.
Page 58: He’s got a line prepared on Tillman: Ibid.
Page 58: The headlines from the confirmation: Anne Mulrine, “McChrystal Not Sure If More U.S. Forces Needed in Afghanistan,” U.S. News & World Report, June 2, 2009.
Page 58: McChrystal gets unanimous confirmation: “Full Senate Approves McChrystal’s Confirmation,” Associated Press, June 10, 2009.
CHAPTER 11. TOTALLY SHIT-FACED
Page 59: A man I’ll call C.: Author notes, April 16, 2010.
Page 63: After dinner, the gang headed to Kitty O’Shea’s: Author notes, April 16, 2010.
CHAPTER 12. “DEAD SILENCE”
Page 67: On June 12, Charlie Flynn takes a bus: Author interview with Colonel Charles Flynn, April 16, 2010.
Page 67: …Casey is at the headquarters: Author interview with Major Casey Welch, April 17, 2010.
Page 68: There’s some Italian guy with an office: Ibid.
Page 69: A NATO bomb kills seventy Afghan civilians: “Afghan Alcohol Ban after NATO Staff Were ‘Too Hungover’ to Give Explanation for Air Strike That Killed 70 Civilians,” Daily Mail, September 9, 2009.
Page 70: “We must avoid the trap”: ISAF Revised Tactical Directive, July 6, 2009.
Page 70: The previous general…had a set of tactical directives: ISAF Revised Tactical Directive, September 2, 2008.
Page 71: “What we’re doing is moving to a more classic counterinsurgency”: Eric Schmitt, “U.S. General Maps New Tactic to Pursue Taliban and Al-Qaeda,” The New York Times, February 18, 2004.
CHAPTER 13. THE HORROR, THE HORROR
Page 73: One hundred thousand flights were canceled: Omar R. Valdimarsson, “Icelandic Volcano Lava Flow Stops, Ash Eruptions Diminish, University Says,” Bloomberg, May 22, 2010.
Page 73: The airlines were estimated to lose $1.7 billion: Ibid.
Page 73: Seven hundred fifty tons of ash had spewed into the air: Stuart Biggs and Jeremy van Loon, “Icelandic Volcano Unlikely to Change the Weather,” Bloomberg, April 19, 2010.
Page 73: It was the first time the volcano had erupted since 1821: Henry Fountain, “Eruption Wasn’t That Powerful, but Effects May Linger,” The New York Times, April 15, 2010.
Page 73: A reporter for The New York Times spent a few days in Kabul with him: Dexter Filkins, “Stanley McChrystal’s Long War,” The New York Times, October 14, 2009.
Page 74: A writer from The Atlantic had enjoyed a good stay: Robert Kaplan, “Man Versus Afghanistan,” The Atlantic, April 2010.
Page 74: Time magazine had put him as runner-up for Person of the Year: Joe Klein, “Person of the Year: General Stanley McChrystal,” Time, December 16, 2009.
Page 74: 60 Minutes spent the most personal time with him: “McChrystal’s Frank Talk on Afghanistan,” CBS News, September 24, 2009.
Page 74: …a “Jedi Knight,” as Newsweek called him: Michael Hirsh and John Barry, “The Hidden General: Stan McChrystal Runs ‘Black Ops.’ Don’t Pass It On,” Newsweek, June 26, 2006.
Page 75: “First, I wondered why”: Author interview with State Department official, State Department, May 2010.
Page 75: “It’s not going to look like a win, smell like a win, or taste like a win”: Author interview with General Bill Mayville, Paris, April 18, 2010.
Page 75: “The main thing I learned”: “The Surprising Lessons of Vietnam,” Newsweek, November 6, 2009.
Page 76: …McChrystal watched a man on a video feed in his headquarters for seventeen days: Dexter Filkins, “Stanley McChrystal’s Long War,” The New York Times, October 14, 2009.
Page 77: Or the president himself, who had visited the front only once: Alissa Rubin and Helene Cooper, “In Afghan Trip, Obama Presses Karzai on Graft,” The New York Times, March 28, 2010.
CHAPTER 14. WE’RE ACTUALLY LOSING
Page 78: On June 26, Gates asks McChrystal: Nancy A. Youssef, “McChrystal Says He Won’t Pull Punches on Afghan Proposals,” McClatchy Newspapers, July 12, 2009.
Page 78: “I was back to save the war”: Author interview with Andrew Exum, May 2010.
Page 79: He’s planned a vacation at the Basin Harbor Club: Author interview with Steven Biddle, April 2010.
Page 79: …“scare the hell out of them”: Author interview with Andrew Exum, May 2010.
Page 80: “It hurt,” one soldier lamented: Alissa Rubin, “U.S. Forces Close Post in Afghan ‘Valley of Death,’ ” The New York Times, April 14, 2010.
Page 80: “It confuses me why it took so long”: Ibid.
Page 81:… they’ve stocked up on influential reporters: Tara McKelvey, “Too Close for Comfort?” Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2009.
Page 81:… “it jeopardizes the mission”: Author interview with Stephen Biddle, April 2010.
Page 81:… “out of my sandbox”: Interview with White House official, October 2010.
Page 82: “We were just for show”: Interview with assessment team member, May 2010.
Page 82: Jones has a message from the White House: Bob Woodward, “U.S. Says Key to Success Is Economy, Not Military,” The Washington Post, July 1, 2009.
Page 82:… Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: Ibid.
Page 82: “My strong view”: Jon Meacham, “A Highly Logical Approach,” interview with President Obama, Newsweek, May 15, 2009.
Page 83: “retired general time”: Richard Wolffe, Revival (New York: Crown, 2011), p. 244.
Page 83: “Is this a modern Crusade?”: Author interview with Major Casey Welch, April 17, 2010.
CHAPTER 15. PETRAEUS CAN’T DO AFGHANISTAN, AND WE AREN’T GOING TO GET BIN LADEN
Page 85: Ocean 11 wasn’t allowed to leave France: Author notes, April 18, 2010.
Page 89:… adding that he felt “betrayed”: Author interview with General Stanley McChrystal, April 18, 2010.
CHAPTER 16. THE ELECTIONS, PART I
Page 95: “I don’t know how much sense”: Author interview with U.S. official, May 2010.
Page 95: The election will cost about $300 million: Jon Boone, “The Great Afghan Election Swindle,” The Guardian, October 20, 2009.
Page 96: Matthew Hoh works for the State Department: Author interview with Matthew Hoh, November 2010.
CHAPTER 17. TEXTS TO BERLIN
Page 100: “How is your trip progressing”: Author’s text messages, April 18–19, 2010.
CHAPTER 18. THE ELECTIONS, PART II
Page 102:… Holbrooke offers him a job: Author interview with Ambassador Peter Galbraith, February 17, 2011.
Page 103:… he tells Galbraith to knock it off: Ibid.
Page 103:… it’s clear to those UN officials gathered: Author interview with UN officials, January 2011.
Page 105:… “those who are out to get you are out to get me”: Document obtained by author, The United Nations Dispute Tribunal, Galbraith V. Secretary General of the United Nations, April 23, 2010.
&n
bsp; Page 105: At two thirty A.M., Galbraith gets a text message from Eide: Ibid.
The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan Page 37