The New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., has been my home for almost a decade and I’m grateful to Steve Clemons for bringing me on board. And I am especially lucky to work there with Steve Coll, who read a draft of this book and made some typically acute suggestions about how to improve it significantly. It is a privilege to work with Steve whose smarts and self-effacement are legendary in a town that rarely sees much of those qualities in combination. Thanks also to my other New America colleagues: Brian Fishman, who had helpful feedback on the manuscript, and Patrick Doherty, whom I work with every day on some of the issues that are discussed in this book. And thanks to Simone Frank, Danielle Maxwell, Andrew Lebovich, Matt Caris, and Christina Satkowski.
Ken Ballen, a leading pollster in the Muslim world, read the manuscript not once but twice and had many important suggestions about how to improve it. Similarly, the security expert Andy Marshall made key editorial observations about how to conceptualize the book. The financial historian Liaquat Ahamed and his wife, Meena, also made helpful suggestions about the manuscript. Karen Greenberg at New York University’s Center on Law and Security had useful ideas about improvements to the book and has been a great supporter. Karen’s annual counterterrorism conference at La Pietra in Florence is a constant source of new ideas and connections. Thanks also to Stephen Holmes at NYU.
Some of the reporting for this book first appeared in The New Republic. I am grateful to editor Franklin Foer for that opportunity. The magazine’s executive editor, Richard Just, made my pieces much better and had some excellent ideas about improvements to this book. Meaghan Rady Pesavento, a former student of mine at Harvard, took time out of her busy life to read the manuscript and had a host of ideas about ways to sharpen the manuscript.
Thanks to Jane Mayer, Lawrence Wright, and James Riesen who looked over the manuscript and whose work in the field, along with Steve Coll’s, has been foundational. Thomas Hegghammer, a leading scholar of jihadism, reviewed the manuscript as did Stephen Tankel, an expert on jihadist groups. Gary Ackerman, an authority on the intersection between terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, reviewed the chapter on WMD. I’m very grateful to all of you, while any errors of fact and interpretation remain, of course, my own.
Some of the reporting and ideas for the book took shape while collaborating with other writers, in particular Paul Cruickshank and Katherine Tiedemann, and also Laurence Footer, Michael Lind, Swati Pandey, Alec Reynolds, and Sameer Lalwani. Thanks to you all. Additional thanks to Richard Clarke, who solicited two papers on terrorism for the July 2008 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and to Brian Fishman—then at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center—for commissioning a chapter in the 2008 publication Bombers, Bank Accounts, and Bleedout: Al-Qa’ida’s Road In and Out of Iraq.
Thanks also to all those who agreed to be interviewed for the book. Some of those who were interviewed are leading writers, scholars, and practitioners in the field whose work has been influential on mine, and many of whom have helped me in a myriad of other ways. Their names can be found in the list of interviewees on pages 353–356.
Thanks to Joel Rayburn and Emma Sky for your hospitality and insights in Iraq. In Afghanistan, thanks to Khalid Mafton, Yusuf Masoud, Hamid Hamidullah, and the staff at Gandamack Lodge and in particular to Peter and Hassina Jouvenal. Peter and Richard Mackenzie were my guides on my first trip to Afghanistan in 1993; thanks to you both for almost two decades of friendship. In Pakistan, thanks for repeated help over the years to Rahimullah Yusufzai, Ismail Khan, Jamal Ismail, Imtiaz Ali, and Declan Walsh. Thanks for the hospitable welcome and insights I was given in Saudi Arabia by Khaled Batarfi and Saad al-Jabri. In Egypt thanks to Reem Nada for your help on and off over the past decade. In Milan, thanks to Leo Sisti for your sage advice, and in London to Mohammed al-Shafey for your help.
I have worked at CNN in one capacity or another since 1990 and am grateful to continue to work there today with so many of its excellent reporters, executives, producers, and editors—in particular, David Doss, Kathy Slobogin, Cliff Hackel, Ken Shiffman, Pamela Sellars, Rick Davis, Richard Galant, and Steve Turnham. A special thanks to Charlie Moore, Anderson Cooper, and Phil Littleton for the various trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan we have taken in the past several years. Thanks also to Henry Schuster, now at CBS’s 60 Minutes, who has been a friend and colleague for a decade and a half.
Thanks to Carsten Oblaender of Storyhouse Productions with whom I have worked on four intellectually stimulating documentaries about various aspects of the “war on terror.” And thanks to producer Simon Epstein who helped me to better understand the world of IEDs. And at Discovery thanks to Bill Smee, Ed Hersh, and Ron Simon. Some of the reporting for this book first took shape in a number of different magazines and newspapers. Thanks to Cullen Murphy at the Atlantic, Paul Glastris at Washington Monthly, Adam Katz at The Nation, Gideon Rose at Foreign Affairs, Marie Arana, Warren Bass, and Jonathan Pomfret at The Washington Post, David Shipley and Tobin Harshaw at The New York Times, Bobby Ghosh at Time, David Goodhart at Prospect, Will Dana at Rolling Stone, and Monika Bauerlein at Mother Jones. At Vanity Fair, thanks to Graydon Carter, Chris Garrett, Wayne Lawson, and Cullen Murphy for taking a continuing interest in my work on al-Qaeda.
In addition to those reporters acknowledged elsewhere in this book, the work of the following was especially helpful in reconstructing the events of the “war on terror”—at the New York Times: Mark Mazzetti, Scott Shane, Eric Schmitt, Pir Zubair Shah, Jane Perlez, Peter Baker, Carlotta Gall, C.J. Chivers, Dexter Filkins, Alissa Rubin, Jeffrey Gettleman, and David Rohde, and at the Washington Post: Craig Whitlock, Joby Warrick, Sudarsan Raghavan, Karen DeYoung, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Peter Finn, Barton Gellman, Walter Pincus, Dana Priest, and Bob Woodward.
Teaching graduate students at Harvard and at Johns Hopkins University has been instrumental in helping to form my thinking about the “war on terror.” Thanks to Juliette Kayyem for introducing me to Ash Carter at Harvard’s Kennedy School and to Ash for hiring me to teach a class there in 2008. A particular thank you is due to teaching assistant Hope LeBeau without whom I could not have taught the class. Thanks also to all the students in that class. Also thanks to Sunil Khilnani, who hired me to teach at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins in 2003, and to the students I have taught there over the years.
Thanks to Bruce Hoffman for involving me in his scholarly journal, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism and for our work together for the National Security Preparedness Group, and to its co-chairs Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, and director Michael Allen. And thanks to Susan Glasser, Blake Hounshell, and Rebecca Frankel of Foreign Policy for their collaboration on the AfPak Channel. And thanks to Katherine Tiedemann for her key work on that project. Thanks also to Marin Strmecki of the Smith Richardson foundation, Nancy Chang of the Open Society Institute, and Barmak Pazhwak of the United States Institute of Peace for their funding of our counterterrorism work at the New America Foundation.
Thanks to Chris Clifford of Keppler Speakers, Clark Forcey, and Steve Sadicario of NS Bienstock for their advice and help over the years. Thanks also to Shaun Waterman, Eason Jordan, Walter Purdy, Gregory Saathoff, Brent Stirton, Tim Hetherington, Scott Wallace, Richard Parry, Gina Bennett, George P. Luczko, Oubai Shahbandar, Thomas W. Collins, and Erroll Southers.
Thanks to Martha Levin and Dominick Anfuso of Free Press for commissioning and publishing my work since 1999. The contract for this book was signed in 2004. Martha and Dominick have waited patiently since then for the appearance of this book. In between came another book, The Osama bin Laden I Know, which mushroomed into a much larger project than was initially conceived. Thanks to Dominick, who edited both books and had a number of valuable ideas about how this book should be shaped. Maura O’Brien, Dominick’s assistant, was a great help. Thanks to Carol de Onís for overseeing the complicated copy edit, Tom Pitoniak for his excellent work on that copy edit, Elisa Rivlin for her legal review, Ca
risa Hays for her always sage advice, and Jill Siegel. Thanks also to Gene Thorp for the handsome maps and to Keith Sinzinger.
My agent Tina Bennett of Janklow & Nesbit has been a joy to work with since 2001, both as a friend and as an intellectual sounding board. Also at Janklow, thanks to Svetlana Katz.
Thanks to my family: Tom Bergen—who died before he could read this—Sarah Bergen, Katherine Bergen, and Con Coughlin—in whose house some of this book was written—Margaret Bergen and the McCanns: Charlotte (who helped to organize some of my research), Isabel and Brendan. Thanks also to all the Mabile family: Clebert and Alberta Mabile; Donnavan, Denise, Ahsly, Mia, and Reese Mabile; Heidi, Clay, Andrew, and Bella Gould—in whose house I wrote some of this book—and Daphane, George, and Ian Takacs.
Above all, thanks to my wife, Tresha Mabile. I apologize for all the missed weekends and vacations and promise to make it up. Thanks for reading this book many times over and constantly steering me away from the trivial to focus on the important, as you have done in the widest sense possible in all spheres of life. This book is dedicated to you with admiration and with love.
Index
Abbasi, Feroz Ali, 9, 24
ABC, 176, 26, 50, 83, 316, 329–30
Abdalla, Shadi, 25, 144
Abdullah, Dr., 9, 65, 328
Abdulmutallab, Umar Farouk, 209, 304, 306, 338
Abizaid, John, 52, 273, 294
Abu Ghraib, 109, 113, 157
Abu Jandal, 19–20, 25, 89, 113–14, 340, 348, 349
Abu Omar, 98–100, 102–3
Abu Zubaydah, 109–13
Ackerman, Gary, 223
Adel, Saif al-, 7, 90, 161, 347
Afghan Eradication Force, 191
Afghanistan, 36
aid to, 41–42, 177, 182–83
al-Qaeda’s haven in, xv—xvi, xvii
Bonn conference on, 66, 67, 154
British invasion of, 316
civil war in, 177, 179–80, 317, 323
corruption in, 311
cruise missile strikes in, 4, 46–47
drug trade in, 178, 179, 192–93, 320
elections in, 176, 314, 321, 328
lack of U.S. intelligence on, 40
Obama’s plan to stabilize, 321–26
war against Soviets in, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14–16, 17, 20, 23, 69, 78, 81, 133, 158, 160–61, 162, 177, 179, 190, 240, 316, 320
Afghan National Security Force, 310
Afghan War, xv, 59, 61–67, 309–34
Afghan casualties of, 217, 316–17
air strikes in, 186, 313
bin Laden’s view of, 27
congressional authorization of, 59
insurgency and counterinsurgency in, 310, 312–13, 315, 317–18, 321, 323, 325–26, 329, 330–31
Iraq War’s alleged interference with, xvii, 81, 155, 340
lack of “off-the-shelf” plans for, 54–55
“light footprint” of U.S. in, 52, 73, 180–81
official U.S. military history of, 82, 83
peacekeeping force in, 180–81
planning of, 52, 54–56, 180
reviews of, 194–95, 321–29
start of, 10, 27, 61, 63, 92
suicide bombers in, 183–85, 187, 188–89
surge in troop numbers in, 73, 195–96, 314–16, 323–24, 327, 333
U.S. casualties in, 67, 80, 264, 326
U.S. supplying Karzai in, 63
Zarqawi in, 161–62 see also Tora Bora, battle of
African Union, 238
Agence France-Presse, 141
Air Force, U.S., 45, 80, 124, 144
Al-Aqsa Mosque, 32
Al Arabiya, 297
Al-Azhar University, 14, 30, 297
Al-Badr camp, 29
Albright, Madeleine, 41
Alexandria, Egypt, 99
al-Farouq training camp, 4, 88
Algeria, 100, 141
Algiers, 211
Ali, Abdullah Ahmed, 206–7
Ali, Hazarat, 70, 72, 74, 76
Al Jazeera, 7, 26, 27, 28, 61, 84, 92, 114, 119, 188, 217, 341–42, 348
Allawi, Ali, 157
Allison, Graham, 227
Allouni, Taysir, 61
Almari, Saleh, 118
al-Qaeda, 244, 297, 323, 341
Afghanistan haven of, xv—xvi, xvii
alleged sleeper cells of, 121, 124–27
anthrax program of, 116–17
attempted terrorist acts of, 206–9
in battle of Tora Bora, 70–85
bin Laden’s dictatorial powers over, 25
bureaucracy of, 88–90, 202–3, 204
casing notes on American buildings of, 128–29
cells in U.S. of, 49
Cole attack of, 26, 30, 45–46, 50, 127, 128, 134, 253, 304, 307
control over affiliates by, 211–12
defectors from, 38
drone strikes against, 62, 127–28, 313, 331, 345, 346, 347
Egyptian Jihad’s merger with, 24, 116
in escape from Tora Bora, 78–90
founding meeting of, 18
Iraq War seen as deterrence to, 154–55
Islamic criticism of, 298–300
London bombings and, 199, 201, 206, 239
mission statement of, 28
recruits of, 32, 87–88, 89, 246
regrouping in Pakistan by, 247–48, 255, 262, 322
renditions feared by, 101
in rumors of impending 9/11 attack, 4–5
Saddam Hussein’s alleged links with, xvii, 43, 51, 52, 132–52, 224, 294
“Second Wave” of attacks considered by, 117–18, 121–24, 128–30, 206–8
Somalia terrorism of, 20
strategic errors of, xv—xvi, xvii
suicide bombing against CIA by, 211
Taliban’s relationship with, 89–90
Taliban’s responsibility for crimes of, 40–41, 51
Tora Bora settlement of, 68–69
training camps of, 4, 25, 86, 87–88, 89, 91, 126, 144, 146, 147, 200, 235, 242
U.S. embassies in Africa bombed by, 4, 21, 40, 50, 59, 127, 135, 220, 253, 304
weaknesses of, 300–302
websites of, 87, 204, 212–13
WMDs desired by, 213, 214–30, 247
Zazi, 234
Al Qaeda in Iraq, xvi, 158, 160, 164, 167–69, 171, 187–88, 210, 211, 267, 268, 270–71, 288, 289, 291, 295, 296
Golden Mosque bombed by, 269, 272
Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, 211–12, 300–301
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, 211
Al-Quds al-Arabi, 22
Al Shabab, 237–39, 242
Al-Sharq al-Awsat, 298
Alwan, Sahim, 126
American Enterprise Institute (AEI), 116, 135, 138, 273, 279, 281, 284
Amerine, Jason, 63–65, 67
Amman, 210, 300
Amriki, Abu Mansoor al-, 238
Anas, Abdullah, 15, 297, 298
Anbar, Iraq, 267–68, 269, 275
Anbar Awakening, 267–68, 288, 289, 290, 292–93
Ani, Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-, 142–43, 148–49
Annan, Kofi, 181
Ansar al-Islam, 144–45
anthrax, 96, 116–17, 143, 216, 223
Apple, R. W. “Johnny,” 60
Armitage, Richard, 142
Arnett, Peter, 131
Ashcroft, John, 44, 54, 56, 124, 125
Asiri, Abdullah Hassan al-, 305
Atef, Mohammed, 4, 46, 62, 219–20
Atkinson, Rick, 295
Atta, Mohammed, 30, 84, 93, 107, 115, 123, 252
in alleged meeting with al-Ani, 142–43, 148–49
“Manual for a Raid” of, 31
9/11 planning by, 3, 5
Attash, Walid bin, 253
Atwan, Abdel Bari, 69, 85, 340
Atyani, Bakr, 4, 61
Aviano Air Base, 102, 103
Awadi, Hussein al-, 293
Awdah, Salman al-, 19, 152, 298–99
Axelrod, David, 313
“axis of evil,” 153
Aziz, Amer, 61
Azzam, Abdullah:
as bin Laden’s mentor, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 87, 298
Zawahiri’s differences with, 17, 18
Azzam, Hutaifa, 87, 160–61
Baath Party, Iraqi, 156
Badr, battle of, 75
Badr Corps, 291
Baghdadi, Rashid al, 270
Baghdad International Airport, 160
Bagram Air Base, 71, 81, 187, 188, 346
Bahlul, Ali Hamza al-, 5, 106
Bahrain, 127, 225–26
Baker, James, 281, 282
Bakr, Abu, 75
Bakri, Mukhtar al-, 127
Balawi, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-, 211
Balkan civil war, 180, 309
Banna, Raed al-, 245
Barcelona, Spain, 210
Barno, David, 182, 196
Barot, Dhiren, 128, 224
Basic Principles in Making Preparations for Jihad, The (Sharif), 299
Basit, Abdul, 136
Basra, Iraq, 292–93
Bass, Warren, 47–48
Batarfi, Ayman Saeed Abdullah, 75
Batarfi, Khaled, 11, 15, 133
BBC, 6, 120, 176
BBC/ABC, 316, 329–30
Beauty Supply Warehouse, 233–34
Beers, Rand, 154, 155
Beeston cell, 198
beheadings, 163, 200
Beirut, U.S. Marines bombed in, 6
Beit al-Ansar, 29
Bennett, Gina, 36–37, 39
Benotman, Noman, 7, 24, 35, 86, 340–41
Berg, Nicholas, 163
Berger, Sandy, 49
Berntsen, Gary, 60, 70–71, 72–73, 76, 77–78
Bhutto, Benazir, 262–63, 331
Biddle, Stephen, 273, 274–75, 280, 288–89, 318
Biden, Joe, 287, 311, 313, 322–23
Bigley, Kenneth, 163
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