The Longest War

by Peter L. Bergen

  32 the issue of Israel and Palestine: Samuel R. Berger and Mona Sutphen, “Commandeering the Palestinian Cause: Bin Laden’s Belated Concern,” in James F. Hoge Jr. and Gideon Rose, eds., How Did This Happen? Terrorism and the New War (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), p. 123.

  32 “like a burning fire”: Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places,” published in Al Quds al Arabi, August 1996. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/

  terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html.

  32 responsible for its restoration: Coll op. cit., p. 89.

  32 “a routine of his father”: Hamid Mir, interview by author, Islamabad, Pakistan, March 2005. Bin Laden also told the same story to Al Jazeera reporter Jamal Ismail.

  33 “the green light”: Kepel op. cit., p. 72.

  33 first and only press conference: Nic Robertson, “Previously unseen tape shows bin Laden’s declaration of war,” CNN.com, August 20, 2002, http://archives.cnn.com/2002/U.S./

  08/19/terror.tape.main/.

  33 al-Qaeda’s first videotape production: The video was found on a jihadist website, www.moonwarriors.com, that is no longer operational. Author’s collection.

  33 “gave her name of Safia”: Mir interview.

  33 two letters: Intelligence reports, interrogations of KSM, June 3, 2003; February 20, 2004; April 3, 2004. 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 532 fn 178.

  33 a humble man: Noman Benotman, interview by author, London, UK, August 30, 2005.

  34 “a poor slave of God”: Osama bin Laden, December 27, 2001, Al Jazeera.

  34 “afraid that if he does not”: Jamal Khalifa, interview by author, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, September 6 and 9, 2005.

  34 “Jihad is in my mind”: Abdul Sattar, “Osama urges Ummah to continue jihad,” The News, May 7, 2001. Accessed via World News Connection, Dialog® File Number 985 Accession Number 134150902.

  34 “My sons”: bin Laden and Sasson op. cit., pp. 262–263.

  35 “only way to get immunity”: Noman Benotman, interview by author, London, June 13, 2009.

  35 the Koranic injunction: The Holy Koran: Translation, N. J. Dawood (London: Penguin, 1997). Surah 5:51: “The Table.”

  35 “Every Muslim”: Quoted in Bruce Lawrence, Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden (New York: Verso, 2005), p. 87.

  Chapter 3

  36 CIA analyst Gina Bennett: Gina Bennett, National Security Mom: Why “Going Soft” Will Make America Strong (Deadwood, Oregon: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2009), pp. 18–19.

  37 “morning sickness”: Bennett op. cit., p. 24.

  37 developed a plan: Philip Shenon, “FBI knew for years about terror pilot training,” New York Times, May 18, 2002.

  37 memo that Sude had coauthored: 9/11 Commission op. cit., p. 260–262.

  37 “I told my boss”: author interview with Barbara Sude, Washington, D.C., December 16, 2009.

  38 “I’m the kind of guy”: Author interview with Daniel Coleman, Princeton, New Jersey, December 19, 2009.

  38 debriefing the first defectors: FBI Affidavit on Ali Mohamed, submitted by Special Agent Daniel Coleman, September 1998. Author’s collection.

  38 In December 1995: Coleman interview op. cit.

  38 smelled strongly of kerosene: Author interview with Daniel Coleman, op. cit.

  39 “came up right away”: Author interview with Barbara Sude, Washington, D.C., December 16, 2009.

  39 “And I failed you”: Rebecca Leung, “Your government failed you,” CBS News, March 24, 2004. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/24/

  terror/main608526.shtml

  39 immediately relieved: Department of the Navy, “Rear Admiral Husband Edward Kimmel,” http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/

  pers-U.S./uspers-k/h-kimml.htm.

  39 first congressional report: Richard Ben-Veniste, The Emperor’s New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate to 9/11 (New York, Thomas Dunne, 2009), pp. 205–207 describes the Roberts Commission in more detail.

  39 nine official inquiries: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Advancement of Rear Admiral Kimmel and Major General Short on the Retired List, December 1, 1995, “The Pearl Harbor Investigations,” http://www.ibiblio.org/

  pha/pha/dorn/dorn_3.html.

  39 acceded to an investigative commission: Margaret Warner, PBS NewsHour, November 27, 2002. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july–dec02/

  investigation_11-27.html

  39 “circus atmosphere”: Dick Cheney, NBC Meet the Press with Tim Russert, May 19, 2002.

  40 public version of his report: Richard Shultz, “Showstoppers,” The Weekly Standard, January 26, 2004. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/

  Articles/000/000/003/613twavk.asp.

  40 “Clinton wanted a rapier”: Author interview with Michael Scheuer, Washington, D.C. December 23, 2009.

  40 “brand-new Ferrari”: Richard Shultz Jr., “How Clinton let al-Qaeda go,” Weekly Standard, January 19, 2004.

  41 sanctions on the Taliban: “Case Studies in sanctions and terrorism: Afghanistan,” Peterson Institute, Case 99–1. http://www.petersoninstitute.org/research/

  topics/sanctions/afghanistan.cfm.

  41 “imposed an arms embargo: “UN passes arms embargo against Taliban,” Arms Control Association, January/February 2001. http://www.armscontrol.org/node/2891.

  41 followed that up: Neil King Jr. and David Cloud, “On High Alert: Casting a global net, U.S. security forces survive terrorist test.” Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2000; Gutman op. cit., p. 197. Sheehan’s own account can be found in his book, Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism without Terrorizing Ourselves (New York: Random House, 2006), p. 136.

  41 “responsible for any attacks”: Author interview with Michael Sheehan, November 21, 2009, New York.

  41 “nucleus of opposition”: Abu Walid al-Masri, “The History of the Arab Afghans from the time of their arrival in Afghanistan until their departure with the Taliban,” serialized in Al Sharq al Awsat, December 8–14, 2004; was also told: interview with Abdul Hakim Mujahid by author in February 1999.

  41 reopened after the fall off the Taliban: Office of the Inspector General, Department of State, “Inspection of Embassy Kabul, Afghanistan.” http://oig.state.gov/lbry/

  reporthighlights/60040.htm.

  42 only $2 million a year: Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan (Washington, D.C., USIP, 2008), p. 56.

  42 a political challenge: Gutman op. cit., p. 3.

  42 “urgently”: Richard Clarke, “Memorandum for Condoleezza Rice,” January 25, 2001. George Washington University National Security Archive. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

  NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/clarke%20memo.pdf

  42 “Strategy for Eliminating”: Richard Clarke, “Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al Qada: Status and Prospects,” George Washington University Security Archive. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/

  NSAEBB147/clarke%20attachment.pdf.

  42 In the memo: Richard Clarke, “Memorandum for Condoleezza Rice,” January 25, 2001. George Washington University National Security Archive. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

  NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/clarke%20memo.pdf.

  42 businesslike but not urgent pace: Author correspondence with former 9/11 Commission staffer, Warren Bass February 1, 2010; 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 205.

  42 the same one: On March 22, 2004, Rice would write in the Washington Post that “No al-Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration,” which was simply not the case, as the December 2000 strategy paper did just that. Condoleezza Rice, “9/11: For the Record,” Washington Post, March 22, 2004.

  42 during a 2000 interview: Condoleezza Rice, interview with WJR Radio, Detroit, MI, October 2000.

  42 “had succeeded”: Condoleezza Rice, Testimony before the 9/11 Commission. Washington, D.C., May 19, 2004. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLP
OLITICS/

  04/08/rice.transcript/.

  43 “her facial expression”: Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies, (New York: Free Press, 2004). p. 229.

  43 “suspect connections”: Paul Wolfowitz before the House of Representatives National Security Committee, Washington, D.C., September 16, 1998.

  43 “trying to study”: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 259.

  43 thirty-three “principals” meetings: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 509 n. 174.

  43 February 5: Elizabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice: An American Life (New York: Random House, 2007), p. 141.

  43 first cabinet-level meeting: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 212.

  43 regularly briefed: “more than forty briefing items on al-Qaeda” before 9/11 according to Rice’s testimony before the 9/11 Commission, April 8, 2004.

  44 “Team B”: Intelligence Community Experiment in Competitive Analysis: Soviet Strategic Objective—An Alternative View. Report of Team “B.” December 1976. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/

  NSAEBB139/nitze10.pdf.

  44 wrongly: Anne Cahn, Killing Détente: The Right Attacks the CIA (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).

  44 “the Vulcans”: The phrase Vulcan came from the large statue of the Roman god Vulcan that looms over Rice’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. See James Mann, The Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet (New York: Penguin, 2004), p. x.

  44 stood down: Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies (New York: Free Press, 2004), pp. 220–221; and Barton Gellman, “A strategy’s cautious evolution,” Washington Post, January 20, 2002.

  44 turned down: James Risen and David Johnston, “FBI was warned it could not meet counterterrorism threat,” New York Times, June 1, 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/01/

  national/01INQU.html. Adam Clymer. “How September 11 changed goals of Justice Dept.,” Florida State University, February 28, 2002.

  44 top ten priorities: Philip Shenon, The Commission: the Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. (New York: Hachette Book Group, 2008), p. 246.

  45 had filmed bin Laden: Lisa Myers, “Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities,” NBC News, March 17, 2004. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4549030/

  45 $3 million each: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 211.

  45 “was pounding on the [CIA]”: Michael Sheehan interview New York, November 21, 2009; “had built a replica”: Roger Cressey interview, Washington, D.C., November 24, 2009; and Gellman 2002 op. cit.

  45 “I was at the meeting at the Agency”: Cressey interview.

  45 “We knew one hundred percent”: Author interview with Ali Soufan, Manhattan, New York, December 17, 2009.

  45 “preliminary judgment”: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 195.

  46 simple exhaustion: My own analysis based on discussions with U.S. national security officials familiar with the handling of the Cole incident.

  46 “possibility of a missile attack”: The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has released a series of documents and analyses relating to al-Qaeda; this document comes from that series. Document AFGP-2002-801138 from West Point’s release of “Harmony” documents. http://ctc.usma.edu/harmony/

  harmony_menu.asp; http://ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/AFGP-

  2002-801138-Trans.pdf.

  46 split up: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 191.

  46 Cheney was briefed: Gellman 2002 op. cit.

  46 “We know all we need to”: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 509, fn 180. Around this time, Clarke wrote Rice and Hadley that the Yemeni prime minister told a State Department official that while Yemen was not saying so publicly the Yemeni government was 99 percent certain that bin Laden was responsible for the Cole operation.

  46 “no enthusiasm, no interest”: Roger Cressey interview, Washington, D.C. November 24, 2009.

  46 strongly implying its responsibility: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 509, fn 180.

  47 “inadequate, ineffective responses”: Stephen Hadley, interview by author, Washington, D.C., December 15, 2009.

  47 “we are untouchables”: Ali Soufan interview by author, Manhattan, New York, December 17, 2009.

  47 had renewed in June 2001: “Bush decides to keep Afghan sanctions,” Reuters, July 3, 2001. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/03/world/bush-

  decides-to-keep-afghan-sanctions.html.

  47 “blinking red”: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 259; “unprecedented”: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 262.

  47 a representative sampling: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., pp. 533–535.

  48 repeatedly warned: 9/11 Commission, op. cit., p. 199, and interview by author with Warren Bass, February 1, 2010.

  48 “Multiple and simultaneous attacks”: George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), pp. 150–153.

  48 “battle stations”: Rice 9/11 Commission testimony, op. cit.

  48 On August 6: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit. p 260 and p. 534 fn 35.

  48 only “historical”: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 260.

  48 “Was the piece historical”: Barbara Sude, interview by author, December 16, 2009, Washington, D.C.

  48 seventy ongoing investigations: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 262.

  49 never publicly discussed: Michael Allen and Dana Milbank, “Bush gave no sign of worry in August 2001,” Washington Post, April 11, 2004.

  49 longest presidential vacation: Jim VandeHei, Peter Baker, “Vacationing Bush poised to set a record,” Washington Post, August 3, 2005. http://www.washington-post.com/wp-dyn/content/

  article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201703.html.

  49 no evidence: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 262.

  49 wide-ranging and emblematic interview: Fox Special Report with Brit Hume, August 6, 2001. Interview with Jim Angle.

  49 daily meetings: Clarke op. cit., p. 213, Michael Sheehan interview, New York City, November 21, 2009, and Roger Cressey interview and Bruce Riedel, The Search for al-Qaeda (Brookings: Washington, D.C., 2008), p. 96.

  49 “an adversary that poses a serious threat”: Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 118.

  Chapter 4

  51 “A second plane”: Bob Woodward, Bush At War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 15.

  51 “kick their asses”: Woodward, Bush At War, op. cit., p. 18.

  52 “not only UBL”: Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 25, and 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 559, fn. 63.

  52 “Not Iraq”: David Cloud and Greg Jaffe, The Fourth Star (New York: Crown Publishing, 2009). p. 125.

  52 “see if Saddam was involved”: Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies (New York: Free Press, 2004), p. 32.

  52 “their frontal lobe issue”: Roger Cressey interview Washington, D.C., November 24, 2009.

  52 worked up a memo: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 334.

  53 “I can hear you”: George W. Bush, New York, NY, September 14, 2001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/

  releases/2001/09/20010914-9.html.

  53 “poll ratings”: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, “Backing for War on Terrorism,” September 20, 2001. http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/

  865a1%20Bush%20Address.pdf

  53 personal interest: Interview by author with Amb. Cofer Black, Washington, D.C., February 6, 2003.

  53 a matter of weeks: Tenet op. cit., pp. 175–176.

  53 “flies walking across their eyeballs”: Woodward op. cit., 2004, p. 52.

  53 several of the key arguments: Douglas J. Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), pp. 13–16.

  53 Rumsfeld sent a directive: Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, COBRA II (New York: Vintage, 2006), p. 22.

  54 many assignments around South Asia: Schroen op. cit., pp. 57–60.

  54 “take
a small team”: Schroen op. cit., pp. 15–16.

  54 at Camp David: Tenet op. cit., p. 177.

  54 the future outlines: Karen DeYoung, Soldier: the Life of Colin Powell (New York: Vintage, 2007), p. 350.

  54 meeting was somber: John McLaughlin, interview by author, December 7, 2009, Washington, D.C.

  54 off-the-shelf-plan: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 332.

  55 no military plan ready: Feith op. cit., p. 88.

  55 “airpower-based approach”: Stephen Hadley, interview by author, Washington, D.C., December 15, 2009.

  55 one hundred sources and sub sources: Hank Crumpton, “Intelligence and War: Afghanistan, 2001–2002,” in Jennifer Sims and Burton Gerber, Transforming U.S. Intelligence (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2005). p. 163, and Hank Crumpton interview Washington, D.C. November 6, 2009.

  55 the plan Tenet presented to Bush: Woodward op. cit., 2004, p. 51.

  55 “the color drained”: Condoleezza Rice, PBS Frontline, “Campaign Against Terror,” July 12, 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/

  campaign/interviews/rice.html

  55 “10 to 50 percent”: Woodward op. cit. 2004, p. 83.

  56 the lack of hard evidence: See chapters 9 and 10 in this book for more on this point.

  56 “this round”: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 335.

  56 “projecting a spectacular attack”: John McLaughlin, PBS Frontline, “The Dark Side,” January 11, 2006. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/

  darkside/interviews/mclaughlin.html.

  56 voted to go to war: Rumsfeld abstained and Cabinet voted; Tenet op. cit., p. 306.

  56 Iraq was involved: Woodward op. cit., 2004, p. 99, and Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, “Combating terrorism: it starts today,” Washington Post, February 1, 2002. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/

  article/2006/07;sh18/AR2006071800703_pf.html (which says the president made this comment the following morning of September 17).

  56 a sing-along: Bumiller op. cit., p. 166.

  56 “the CIA in there first”: John McLaughlin, interview by author, December 7, 2009, Washington, D.C.

  56 Bush also signed: Glenn Kessler, “U.S. decision on Iraq has puzzling past; opponents of war wonder when, how policy was set,” Washington Post, January 12, 2003.