The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
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“Belmokhtar is probably in the crowd”: Huddleston interview.
“He looked the part of a desert warrior”: Huddleston interview.
“You’d better not be involved”: Huddleston interview.
Chapter Eight
“O infidels and apostates, your joy will be brief”: Habib Trabelsi, “Zarqawi death ‘relief’ for rival rebels: experts,” Lebanonwire, June 9, 2006.
“a bone in the throat of American”: Hall Gardner, Averting Global War: Regional Challenges, Overextension, and Options for American Strategy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p. 133.
“There is a commercial aspect to what he does”: “Desert Storm Brewing,” Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor, November 2, 2010.
“for his Christianizing activities”: Ahmed Mohamed, “Christopher Leggett Death: al Qaida Says It Killed American In Mauritania For Prosletyzing,” The World Post, July 26, 2009.
“He was relatively slight”: Robert Fowler, A Season in Hell (New York: HarperCollins, 2011).
“They would sit chanting in the full Sahara sun”: Ibid.
“I recoiled with horror at the sight”: Ibid.
“it strengthens our determination never to concede”: Alan Cowell and Souad Mekhennet, “Al Qaeda Says It Has Killed Briton,” The New York Times, June 3, 2009.
“was attracting the dregs of the society”: Author interview with Tiéman Coulibaly, former Malian foreign minister, Bamako, February 15, 2014.
“Esprit de corps did not exist”: Author interview with Colonel Didier Dacko, Bamako, February 18, 2014.
“termination of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”: Huddleston interview.
“one, rather unimpressive soldier”: Craig Whitlock, “U.S. counterterrorism effort in North Africa is defined by decade of missteps,” The Washington Post, February 4, 2013.
“We won’t train the guys to look for Al Qaeda”: Phone interview with Gillian Milovanovic, former U.S. Ambassador to Mali, March 6, 2014.
“It was a huge canard”: Milovanovic interview.
“their own people”: Huddleston interview.
“Don’t turn the radio on”: Author interview with William W. (Marshall) Mantiply, former defense attaché, U.S. Embassy Mali, April 16, 2014.
“The French realized AQIM was a growing threat”: Huddleston interview.
“As a quick response to the despicable French act”: “Al-Qaeda in North Africa ‘kills French hostage,’ ” BBC News, July 26, 2010.
“The [government’s] attitude was, ‘it was best’ ”: Mantiply interview.
“The level of inaction at the presidency”: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, “As Northern Crisis Deepens, Mali Drifts,” U.S. Embassy, Bamako, April 14, 2008, confidential diplomatic file released by Wikileaks.
“I want to be near the Great Mosque”: Ansar interview.
“I don’t think he was flipped there”: Yochi Dreazan, “The New Terrorist Training Ground,” The Atlantic, October 2013.
“Are you sure you’re not heading down”: Ansar interview.
“You are going where?”: Ansar interview.
“Arabs with short beards, Tuaregs with turbans”: Charlotte Wiedemann, “From Holes in the Sand to a Digital Library,” trans. Katy Derbyshire, Qantara.de, April 21, 2010.
Chapter Nine
“The Westerners come over here”: Wiedemann, “From Holes in the Sand.”
“I tried to remain as modest as I could”: Author interview with Abdel Kader Haidara, Brussels, December 16, 2014.
“The only time I ever saw him frazzled”: Author interview with anonymous Haidara friend in Bamako, January 20, 2014.
“Haidara is a man obsessed with the written word”: Peter Gwin, “The Telltale Scribes of Timbuktu,” National Geographic, January 2011.
“impure as beads of sweat”: Ambassador Terence P. McCulley, “The ‘Frere Guide’ Qadhafi Causes a Stir in Mali,” U.S. Embassy, Bamako, April 17, 2006, confidential diplomatic file released by Wikileaks.
“We knew that we had no chance”: Author interview with “Yusuf,” former Tuareg rebel, Timbuktu, February 15, 2014.
“It’s an age favorable to war”: Jonathan Curiel, “ ‘Desert Blues’ Never Sounded So Good as it Does with Terakaft,” KQED Arts, October 8, 2012.
“645 kilograms of Semtex plastic explosives”: “Nigeria Militants a growing threat across Africa: UN,” Reuters, January 26, 2012.
“He was a good friend of Amadou Toumani Touré”: “Yusuf” interview.
“talked for hours”: “Yusuf” interview.
“It happened at night”: “Yusuf” interview.
“I knew Al Qaeda”: “Yusuf” interview.
Chapter Ten
“The vehicle made a single tour”: Author interview with a young eyewitness (not for attribution), Timbuktu, February 14, 2014.
“I heard the dog barking”: Author interview with a hotel receptionist (not for attribution), Timbuktu, February 14, 2014.
“at a leisurely pace”: Young eyewitness interview, February 14, 2014.
“It was a journey of revelation”: John Gentile, “Robert Plant Documents His Time in Mali,” Rolling Stone, November 11, 2013.
“Swords turn to guitars, democracy blooms”: Tom Freston, “Showtime in the Sahara,” Vanity Fair, July 2007.
“The festival has been vital in bringing foreigners”: James Truman, “Mali: Where the Music Lives,” Condé Nast Traveler, October 12, 2008.
“You invite nonbelievers to your festival”: Andy Morgan, Music, Culture & Conflict in Mali (Copenhagen: Freemuse, 2013), p. 44.
“Manny [Ansar] congratulates us”: Freston, “Showtime in the Sahara.”
“Mali’s most popular female singer”: Ibid.
“The entire etat-major of the Malian military”: Ansar interview.
“The concert had been going on for an hour”: “Mali: à Tombouctou, un festival avec la star Bono fait oublier Al-Qaïda,” Jeune Afrique, January 15, 2012.
“Music is stronger than war”: Ibid.
“It was us or them”: Author interview with Adam Thiam, Malian journalist, Bamako, January 19, 2014.
“putting an end to the incompetent regime”: Afua Hirsch, “Mali rebels claim to have ousted regime in coup,” The Guardian, March 22, 2012.
“Turn off your headlights”: Author interview with Abdel Kader Ascofaré, director of Radio Communal Bouctou, Timbuktu, February 16, 2014.
“I cannot”: Ascofare interview.
Chapter Eleven
“Abdel Kader, you mustn’t go now”: Haidara interview.
“Where are you coming from?”: Haidara interview.
“They’re going to break into our libraries”: Haidara interview.
“Twelve bearded terrorists from all over the world”: Author interview with Boubacar Touré, owner of the Hotel Bouctou, for The New York Review of Books, August 5, 2013.
“Who are your clients?”: Boubacar Touré interview.
“Mr. Abou Zeid, tourism has been ruined”: Boubacar Touré interview.
“No, no, that’s not acceptable”: Boubacar Touré interview.
“You take out all the bottles”: Boubacar Touré interview.
“Peuple de Tombouctou”: Second author interview with Boubacar Touré, Timbuktu, February 14, 2014.
“Don’t talk like that”: Second Boubacar Touré interview.
“We’re going to have to replace the imams”: Second Boubacar Touré interview.
“We used to go into forty-seven villages”: Ascofaré interview.
“I went to this celebration”: Author interview with Ibrahim Khalil Touré, Timbuktu, for The New York Review of Books, August 5, 2013.
“Shariah is going to come little by little”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“Abou Zeid had a preternatural calm”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“Everything happened little by little”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“I saw three members of the Islamic police”: Human
Rights Watch, “Collapse, Conflict, and Atrocity in Mali: Human Rights Watch Reporting on the 2012–13 Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath,” p. 88.
“he frantically tried to hit the answer button”: Ibid.
“They removed the memory card”: Ibid., p. 89.
“they are a bad influence for children”: Ibid., p. 90.
“The north feels dead”: Ibid., p. 89.
“They’ve taken all the joie de vivre”: Ibid., p. 72.
“We were ordered to wear our beards”: Second author interview with Ibrahim Khalil Touré, Timbuktu, February 15, 2014.
“They sentenced people to be flogged”: Author interview with Hôtel La Maison manager, August 5, 2013.
“When someone is arrested, the person is brought to the commissariat”: Human Rights Watch, “Collapse, Conflict, and Atrocity in Mali,” p. 86.
“He hit me forty times”: Ibid., p. 88.
“I like smoking”: Ibid., p. 87.
“urinated on himself”: Ibid., p. 87.
“I see them running, sometimes with their guns”: Ibid., p. 92.
“How does he have the strength to fire it?”: Chris Simpson, “Time to Rekindle Timbuktu’s Flame,” IRIN, February 12, 2014.
“We had no choice”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“We are a city that has had Islam”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“They would pray with their rifles”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“Please take care of the Prince”: Author interview with Moussa Isuf Maiga, Gao resident, in Gao, February 11, 2014.
Chapter Twelve
“They went on television and assured us”: Author interview with Sane Chirfi Alpha, Timbuktu, February 14, 2014.
“We could read between the lines”: Chirfi interview.
“These manuscripts show a community”: Phone interview with Deborah Stolk, Prince Claus Fund, August 30, 2013.
“wonderful books about playing the lute”: Author interview with Emily Brady, Timbuktu, January 23, 2014.
“Abdel Kader called me”: Brady interview.
“What do we have to do?”: Haidara interview.
“I ran the library”: Author interview with Mohammed Touré, Bamako, February 17, 2014.
“It looks like ordinary baggage”: Mohammed Touré interview.
“Listen. . . . I want to bring some trunks”: Haidara interview.
“We moved them by night”: Author interview with anonymous mule-cart driver, Timbuktu, August 6, 2013.
“They were owners”: Mohammed Touré interview.
“If I talk about”: Haidara interview.
Chapter Thirteen
“They said that saints are not acceptable”: Chirfi interview.
“Beware of those who preceded you”: Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi, Rethinking the Mosque in the Modern Muslim Society (Kuala Lumpur: Institut Terjemahan & Buku Malaysia Berhad, 2014), p. 191.
“We pray to them for everything we look for in life”: Human Rights Watch, “Collapse, Conflict, and Atrocity in Mali,” p. 94.
“Over the period of several days”: Ibid., p. 113.
“We knew we would be next”: “Yusuf” interview.
“We lost our dream of Azawad”: “Yusuf” interview.
“We do not want Satan’s music”: Morgan, Music, Culture & Conflict in Mali, p. 21.
“saw my sound system and my instruments”: Lloyd Gedye, “Tuareg Blues: A Struggle for Life, Land and Freedom,” The Con, September 4, 2013.
“When I heard the sentence I got weak”: Author interview with Muhamen Bebao for The New York Review of Books, January 26, 2013.
“People think it’s done with a single stroke”: Author interview with eyewitness to amputation, in Bamako, for The New York Review of Books, January 26, 2013.
“At around three p.m. they took me to the public square”: Human Rights Watch, “Collapse, Conflict, and Atrocity in Mali,” p. 83.
“It was horrible”: NBC News Staff and Wire Reports, “Mali al-Qaida-linked group stones couple to death over alleged adultery,” NBC News, July 31, 2012.
“Aliou took two butcher knives”: Human Rights Watch, “Collapse, Conflict, and Atrocity in Mali,” p. 84.
“You will not do this in Gao”: Moussa Isuf Maiga interview.
“He lived in the house”: Mohammed Touré interview.
“These manuscripts are at risk”: Haidara interview.
“Why are you whipping women”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“What are the reasons that you women”: Author interview with Tina Traoré, Timbuktu, February 15, 2014.
Chapter Fourteen
“It’s still not time”: Brady interview.
“You have to get them out”: Haidara interview.
“This is clear”: Jemal Oumar and Essam Mohamed, “From Mashreq to Maghreb: al-Qaeda shifts focus,” Magharebia, August 26, 2012.
“I knew we didn’t have much time”: Haidara interview.
“We began to panic”: Brady interview.
“We’re desperate”: Brady interview.
“What are you carrying?”: Mohammed Touré interview.
“I had so many worries”: Haidara interview.
“I saw him with the manuscripts”: Brady interview.
“That is the only reason”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“You cannot come in”: Mohammed Touré interview.
Chapter Fifteen
“the chaos and violence in Mali [threatens] to undermine the stability”: Hillary Clinton, “Transcript: Clinton’s remarks at UN Secretary General Meeting on the Sahel,” U.S. Africom Public Affairs, September 26, 2012.
“As each day goes by”: Eric Schmitt, “American Commander Details Al Qaeda’s Strength in Mali,” The New York Times, December 3, 2012.
“We warn all the countries”: “Les Islamistes prêts au combat contre le CEDEAO et l’OTAN,” exclusive interview on Malian television, October 22, 2012.
“It was no longer a place for sin”: Author interview with Manny Ansar for The New York Review of Books, January 26, 2013.
“They are off to war”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“The military returned to their camp to eat around dawn”: Author interview with Boubacar Dialo, in Konna, Mali, February 9, 2014.
“They ate, they were exultant”: Dialo interview.
“They flanked them”: Dialo interview.
“Your town was long terrorized”: Author interview with Osman Ba, in Sévaré, Mali, for The New York Review of Books, January 29, 2013.
Chapter Sixteen
“Bring me more tea”: Brady interview.
“The French were disgusted”: Huddleston interview.
“The French people are ready”: Steven Erlanger, “The French Way of War,” The New York Times, January 19, 2013.
“At first we thought”: Ba interview.
“This flag lived only for nineteen hours”: Dialo interview.
“intelligence, equipment, financing, and training”: Vicki Huddleston, “Why We Must Help Save Mali,” The New York Times, January 14, 2013.
Chapter Seventeen
“The Niger, with its vast and misty horizons”: Dubois, Timbuctoo the Mysterious, p. 18.
“When the jihadis arrived”: Author interview with Mohannan Sidi Maiga, Toya, Mali, for Smithsonian, August 5, 2014.
“Toya is off the track”: Maiga interview.
“We killed and injured hundreds of them”: Ascofaré interview.
“Normally our marabouts read”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“That holiday does not exist”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“Fine. . . . But you still can’t do it”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
“The moments of sunset upon the river”: Dubois, Timbuctoo the Mysterious, p. 35.
“Open the footlockers”: Haidara interview.
“a huge basin of water”: Dubois, Timbuctoo the Mysterious, p. 30.
“It is in truth a singular elem
ent”: Ibid., p. 33.
“We will keep these”: Brady interview.
“Trust me on this”: Haidara interview.
“75 FOOTLOCKERS GOING THROUGH”: Brady interview.
“We still call this place ‘Chirac’s Dune’ ”: Author interview with Azima Ag Ali Mohammed for The New York Review of Books, August 6, 2014.
“This is where Abou Zeid held his meetings”: Azima Ag Ali Mohammed interview.
“There can be no mockery of us”: Ibrahim Khalil Touré interview.
Chapter Eighteen
“A caretaker saw smoke rising”: Author interview with Bouya Haidara, Timbuktu, for Smithsonian, August 6, 2014.
“All of them—untouched”: Bouya Haidara interview.
“The only response can be”: Author interview with Abdel Kader Haidara, Brussels, December 16, 2014.
“These Wahhabis who came to Timbuktu”: Haidara interview.
“spectacular attacks”: Shura Council of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to Shura Council of the Masked Brigade, “Al-Qaida Papers,” Associated Press, October 3, 2012.
Chapter Nineteen
“Go to the Ametettaï Valley”: Author interview with General Bernard Barrera, Paris, March 18, 2014.
“desolate, near-desert country under a burning sun”: M. J. Joffre, Opérations de la colonne Joffre avant et après l’occupation de Tombouctou (Paris: Berger-Levrault & Cie., 1895).
“We are going to suffer losses”: Laurent Larcher, “La Bataille de L’Ametettai du général Barrera au Mali,” la Croix, May 28, 2013.
“They push everything to the extreme”: Author interview with Captain Raphaël Oudot de Dainville, May 10, 2014.
“It was a disaster without precedent”: Louis Frèrejean, Objectif Tombouctou: Combats contre les Toucouleurs et les Touareg (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996), p. 258.
“The French have hit us very badly”: Barrera interview.
“In the next few days”: Barrera interview.
“with courage and tenacity”: Barrera interview.