A History of the World Since 9/11

by Dominic Streatfeild

  Barton, Rod, The Weapons Detective: The Inside Story of Australia’s Top Weapons Inspector (Black Inc. Press, 2006)

  Berntsen, Gary and Pezzullo, Ralph, Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA’s Key Field Commander (Three Rivers Press, 2005)

  Blix, Hans, Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (Bloomsbury 2004)

  Bobbit, Philip, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-first Century (Penguin, 2009)

  Booth, Ken and Dunne, Tim, Worlds in Collision: Terror and the Future of Global Order (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)

  Bremer, L. Paul and McConnell, Malcolm, My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope (Simon & Schuster, 2006)

  Brennan, Frank, Tampering with Asylum: A Universal Humanitarian Problem (University of Queensland Press, 2007)

  Briscoe, Charles H. (ed), Weapon of Choice: ARSOF in Afghanistan (Combat Studies Institute Press, 2003)

  Briskman, Linda et al., Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia (Scribe Publications, 2008)

  Brookes, Tim and Khan, Omar A., The End of Polio?: Behind the Scenes of the Campaign to Vaccinate Every Child on the Planet (American Public Health Association, 2006)

  Clarke, Richard A., Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror (The Free Press, 2004)

  Cockburn, Patrick, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso, 2007)

  Cole, David, Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (The New Press, 2005)

  Coll, Steve, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Penguin, 2005)

  Cook, Robin, The Point of Departure: Why One of Britain’s Leading Politicians Resigned over Tony Blair’s Decision to Go to War in Iraq (Simon & Schuster, 2007)

  Croft, Stuart, Culture, Crisis and America’s War on Terror (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

  Davis, Walter A., Death’s Dream Kingdom: The American Psyche since 9/11 (Pluto Press, 2006)

  DeLong, Lt. Gen. Michael with Lukeman, Noah, A General Speaks Out: The Truth about the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Zenith Press, 2007)

  Dobbins, Ambassador James F., After the Taliban: Nation-Building in Afghanistan (Potomac Books, 2008)

  Drogin, Bob, Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Man Behind Them – The Real Reason America Went to War in Iraq (Ebury Press, 2007)

  Drumheller, Tyler, On the Brink: An Insider’s Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence (Politico’s Publishing, 2007)

  Dudziak, Mary L. (ed), September 11 in History: A Watershed Moment? (Duke University Press, 2003)

  Eisner, Peter and Royce, Knut, The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq (Rodale, 2007)

  Ferguson, Charles H., No End in Sight: Iraq’s Descent into Chaos (Public Affairs, 2008)

  Franks, General Tommy with McConnell, Malcolm, American Soldier (HarperCollins, 2004)

  Galbraith, Peter W., The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End (Simon & Schuster, 2006)

  Gannon, Kathy, I is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror in Afghanistan (Public Affairs, 2006)

  Gordon, Michael, Freeing Ali: The Human Face of the Pacific Solution (University of New South Wales Press, 2005)

  Gordon, Michael and Trainor, Bernard, COBRA II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (Atlantic Books, 2006)

  Grey, Stephen, Ghost Plane: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Secret Rendition Programme (C. Hurst & Co., 2006)

  Halberstadt, Hans, War Stories of the Green Berets (Zenith Press, 2004)

  Hersh, Seymour M., Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (Penguin, 2005)

  Isikoff Michael and Corn, David, Hubris: the Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War (Three Rivers Press, 2006)

  Jackson, Robert J. and Towle, Philip, Temptations of Power: the United States in Global Politics After 9/11 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

  Johnson, Chris and Leslie, Jolyon, Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace (Zed Books, 2004)

  Jones, Seth G., In the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan (W. W. Norton & Co, 2009)

  Kampfner, John, Blair’s Wars (The Free Press, 2003)

  Kevin, Tony, A Certain Maritime Incident: the Sinking of SIEV X (Scribe Publications, 2004)

  Kiriakou, John, The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror (Bantam Books, 2009)

  Langewiesche, William, American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center (Scribner, 2003)

  Leonard, Mark (ed), Re-ordering the World: The Long-term Implications of 11 September (Foreign Policy Centre, 2002)

  Lusher, Haslam, Yearning to Breathe Free: Seeking Asylum in Australia (The Federation Press, 2007)

  McClellan, Scott, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong with Washington (Public Affairs, 2008)

  Mares, Peter, Borderline (University of New South Wales Press Ltd, 2002)

  Marr, David and Wilkinson, Marian, Dark Victory: The Tampa and the Military Campaign to Re-elect the Prime Minister (Allen & Unwin, 2003)

  Mayer, Jane, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday, 2008)

  Meyer, Christopher, DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain’s Ambassador to the US at the Time of 9/11 and the Run-up to the Iraq War (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2005)

  Meyerowitz, Joanne (ed), History and September 11th (Temple University Press, 2003)

  Muñoz, Heraldo, A Solitary War: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons (Fulcrum Publishing, 2008)

  Murray, Craig, Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador’s Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror (Mainstream Publishing, 2006)

  Obeidi, Mahdi and Pitzer, Kurt, The Bomb in My Garden: the Secrets of Saddam’s Nuclear Mastermind (John Wiley and Sons, 2004)

  Olcott, Martha Brill, Central Asia’s Second Chance (Brookings University Press, 2005)

  Packer, George, The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq (Faber & Faber Ltd, 2006)

  Paglen, Trevor and Thompson, A. C, Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights (Icon Books, 2007)

  Phillips, David L., Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco (Basic Books, 2007)

  Plame Wilson, Valerie, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House (Simon & Schuster, 2007)

  Poole, Steven, Unspeak Words are Weapons (Little, Brown, 2007)

  Power, Samantha, Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World (Penguin, 2008)

  Rashid, Ahmed, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (Allen Lane, 2008)

  Rich, Frank, The Greatest Story ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina (Penguin, 2006)

  Ricks, Thomas E., Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Allen Lane, 2006)

  Risen, James, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (The Free Press, 2006)

  Rothstein, Hy S., Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare (Naval Institute Press, 2006)

  Runciman, David, The Politics of Good Intentions: History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order (Princeton University Press, 2006)

  Salgado, Sebastiao, The End of Polio: A Global Effort to End a Disease (PixelPress, 2003)

  Sands, Philippe, Lawless World: Making and Breaking Global Rules (Penguin, 2006)

  Scanlon, Jennifer, The Selling of 9/11 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)

  Scheuer, Michael, Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Potomac Books, 2004)

  Schroen, Gary C., First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan (Presidio Press, 2005)

  Schulz, William, Tainted Legacy: 9-11 and the Ruin of Human Rights (Thunder’s Mouth Press,
2003)

  Scraton, Phil (ed), Beyond September 11: An Anthology of Dissent (Pluto Press, 2002)

  Short, Clare, An Honourable Deception?: New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power (The Free Press, 2004)

  Sifry, Micah L. and Cerf, Christopher, The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions (Touchstone, 2003)

  Simpson, David, 9/11: The Culture of Commemoration (The University of Chicago Press, 2006)

  Solomon, David (ed), Howard’s Race: Winning the Unwinnable Election (Harper Collins, 2002)

  Stafford Smith, Clive, Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay and the Secret Prisons (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2007)

  Stiglitz, Joseph, and Bilmes, Linda, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict (Allen Lane, 2008)

  Suskind, Ron, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism (Simon & Schuster, 2008)

  ————, The One Percent Doctrine: Deep inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies since 9/11 (Simon & Schuster, 2006)

  Tenet, George and Harlow, Bill, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA (Har per Press, 2007)

  Weller, Patrick, Don’t Tell the Prime Minister (Scribe Publications, 2002)

  Whitney, Craig R. (ed), The WMD Mirage: Iraq’s Decade of Deception and America’s False Premise for War (PublicAffairs, 2005)

  Wilkie, Andrew, Axis of Deceit: The Story of the Intelligence Officer Who Risked All to Tell the Truth about WMD and Iraq (Black Inc Agenda, 2004)

  Woodward, Bob, Bush at War (Pocket Books, 2003)

  ————, Plan of Attack (Pocket Books, 2004)

  ————, State of Denial (Simon & Schuster, 2006)

  ENDNOTES

  1. Philip Ruddock denies any attempt to vilify asylum seekers. ‘You’re dealing with language that is itself dynamic,’ he told me in 2008. ‘It’s changing. And the language you might use will change according to the circumstances.’ Of the ‘queue jumper’ allegation, he commented: ‘People who simply show up, they are jumping a place in the queue . . . It’s not demonizing them. It’s a statement of fact.’

  2. Ruddock was cagey about the exact source of this suggestion: he told me who the lawyer was, then had second thoughts. ‘I’ve never dobbed her in,’ he said. ‘You can’t include that!’

  3. Howard maintains that Scrafton is mistaken. ‘At no stage was I told by Defence, by Mr Reith or by anybody else that the original advice was wrong,’ he told Parliament on 12 February 2002. A week later, he denied he had been told that the ONA report was unreliable. However, in 2004, a Senate inquiry into Scrafton’s version concluded that his story was ‘credible’. ‘The clear implication,’ it concluded, ‘is that the Prime Minister misled the public in the lead-up to the 2001 federal election.’

  4. Ayman al-Zawahiri, widely regarded as Al-Qaeda’s second in command.

  5. At a meeting in January 2002, one IAEA man decided to see how much Joe T really knew about gas centrifuges. ‘He said that these tubes were exactly like the Zippe centrifuge,’ he recalls, ‘so I said, “Which Zippe centrifuge?”’ When Joe replied that there had been only one Zippe model, the IAEA man pounced. ‘No, that’s not true,’ he told the WINPAC man. And you should know that’ Joe appeared unfazed. Officials present were filled with a combined sense of embarrassment – that Joe was so far out of his depth – and shock at his near-evangelical certainty.

  6. ‘[T]his resolution contains no “hidden triggers” and no “automaticity” with respect to the use of force,’ John Negroponte, the ambassador for the United States, said of 1441. ‘If there is a further Iraqi breach . . . the matter will return to the Council for discussions.’ The UK ambassador agreed: ‘There is no “automaticity” in this resolution. If there is a further Iraqi breach of its disarmament obligations, the matter will return to the Council for discussion as required in paragraph 12.’ Colin Powell apparently agreed. ‘There is nothing in the resolution,’ he assured the Syrian ambassador, ‘to allow it to be used as a pretext to launch a war on Iraq.’

  7. Actually, these were not the first spin tests that the CIA had commissioned. On 16 September the year before, a single tube had been spun successfully to a speed of 60,000 rpm – a fact that was included in the National Intelligence Estimate as ‘a rough indication that the tube is suitable for a centrifuge rotor’.

  8. ‘It wasn’t true that they didn’t have the right information,’ according to Carl Ford. ‘In this particular case, they simply didn’t tell the truth . . . they took and manipulated the data.’

  9. For years after the invasion, small stashes of Iraqi uranium oxide (‘yellow cake’) showed up around the world. Some was found in Turkey in 2003. The following year, another batch was discovered in Rotterdam, buried in a container full of looted SA-2 rocket motors.

  10. According to Tom Fuentes, the FBI agent who first investigated the UN bombing, the core of the bomb was a looted 500–1,000kg Soviet air-drop device. This was surrounded with layers of further ordnance to create a lasagne effect’. The builder of the bomb, Abu Omar al Kurdi, was captured on 15 March 2005. Questioned by UN staff he stated that his bombs had been made out of materiel looted from Nahir Yusifiyah by a friend, Abu Al Abbas. Generally, they were constructed on farms around Yusifiyah, then driven to their targets at the last moment. Certainly, al Kurdi was around Yusifiyah at the time: Yusuf recalled meeting him. Abu Abbas, already in custody admitted looting 200-300 rockets and more than 320 cases of plastic explosive from Yusifiyah in early 2003. He buried them at three locations around town. Fuentes was later flown to the site suspected of having been the source of the UN materiel. A military-industrial complex south-west of Baghdad, not far from the airport, it was huge and contained mortar shells, artillery shells and industrial-sized bags of rust-coloured plastic explosive. All of these facts suggest the source of the materiel that killed UN permanent representative Sergio Vieira de Mello was Al Qa’qaa.

  11. Like all good lies, this one contains a grain of truth. Chris Nelson, who broke the story on the Internet, concedes that his anonymous tip-off did indeed come from a source within the IAEA. The source was not ElBaradei. Actually it was an old acquaintance who, afraid the Agency would not report the loss of the explosives, had apparently taken it upon himself to get the story out so that the materiel could be traced and removed from the hands of insurgents. The leak came in spite of IAEA policy, not because of it.

  12. There was some confusion here. Iraq and the IAEA worked in metric tonnes; the United States used the imperial system: 341 metric tonnes is approximately 377 US tons – the figure most reporters and politicians would use in the United States.

  13. In the case of the Uzbek snatch team, ‘the ethnicity was wrong, the language was wrong. They would stick out like a blonde Swedish American in Kandahar’, according to one CIA officer involved. Further teams were recruited through Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. Problems here were even worse: ‘The Pakistanis took the training and the money as they should from the suckers, and they had no intention of doing anything.’

  14. Debates about the true nature of Akramiya rage to this day. ‘So far as we can tell,’ said John G. Fox, Director of the US State Department’s Office of Caucasus and Central Asian Affairs, ‘the Akramiya group is neither extremist nor terrorist.’ Professor Frederick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Programme at Johns Hopkins University is less charitable. To him, the group typified the kind of racketeering operation that flourished in Uzbekistan in the 1990s – which did, in some cases, lead to political and religious extremism. As he observed in 2006, ‘It’s not the Rotary Club of Andijan.’

  15. Karimov’s anger about the US response to Andijan may have a further justification. According to some, on the morning of the Andijan uprising – before troops opened fire on civilians – the Uzbek president requested assistance in handling the situation from the United States in the form of aerial surveillance pictures. The response was a flat ‘no’.

  16. According to the Lancet, 654
,965 ‘excess deaths’ occurred in Iraq from 2003 to 2006 – approximately 2.5 per cent of the entire population. These figures have been disputed. Four years on, other estimates range from 95,000 to well over 1 million.

  Other sources

  ‘Adrift in the Pacific, the Implications of Australia’s Pacific Refugee Solution’, Oxfam (February, 2002)

  Akiner, Shirin, ‘Violence in Andijan, 13 May 2005. An Independent Assessment’, CACI Silk Road Paper (July 2005)

  Albright, David, Iraq’s Aluminium Tubes: Separating Fact from Fiction, ISIS (5 December 2003)

  Assessing Damage, Urging Action, Report of the Eminent Jurists’ Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights (2009).

  Beehner, Lionel, Documenting Andijan, Council on Foreign Relations, 26 June 2006