Dirty Wars

by Jeremy Scahill

  28 Pakistani forces: Dana Priest, “Al Qaeda-Iraq Link Recanted; Captured Libyan Reverses Previous Statement to CIA, Officials Say,” Washington Post, August 1, 2004.

  28 “Shoe Bomber,” Twentieth Hijacker, witness: Mayer, The Dark Side, p. 104.

  28 “handle this”: Ibid.

  28 “genuinely friendly”: Ibid., p. 106.

  28 orders from Cofer Black: John Barry and Daniel Klaidman, “A Tortured Debate,” Newsweek, June 20, 2004.

  28 objected: Garrett M. Graff, The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror (New York: Little, Brown, 2011), p. 359; Jason Vest, “Pray and Tell,” American Prospect, June 19, 2005.

  28 “You know where you are going”: James Risen, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 29.

  28 USS Bataan: “Top al Qaeda Leader Held Aboard U.S. Warship,” CNN.com, January 8, 2002.

  28 tortured, Iraq connection: Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007), pp. 122–123.

  28 Cheney’s office directly intervened: Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson, “The Truth About Richard Bruce Cheney,” Washington Note, May 13, 2009.

  28 “real macho interrogation”: Transcript, interview with Ali Soufan, “The Interrogator,” Frontline, PBS, aired September 13, 2011.

  29 “lacks specific details”: John D. Rockefeller IV and Carl Levin, letter to Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, October 18, 2005. The letter contains two paragraphs of a DIA defense intelligence terrorist summary (DITSUM) from October 3, 2005, concerning claims made by Libi following his interrogation.

  29 given to Secretary of State Powell: Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, p. 187.

  29 “I can trace the story”: Transcript, speech as delivered by Colin Powell before the United Nations, February 5, 2003.

  29 “what you want[ed] to hear”: Transcript, “The Interrogator,” Frontline.

  29 directing a global manhunt: Author interviews with former U.S. officials, August 2010, May 2011.

  29 convened a meeting, shut out: Savage, Takeover, pp. 135–136, 138.

  29 had told President Bush: Katharine Q. Seelye, “A Nation Challenged: The Prisoners; Powell Asks Bush to Review Stand on War Captives,” New York Times, January 27, 2002.

  30 endanger the lives: Colin L. Powell, memorandum to Counsel to the President, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, “Subject: Draft Decision Memorandum for the President on the Applicability of the Geneva Convention to the Conflict in Afghanistan,” January 26, 2002. Powell lists the “pros” and “cons” of applying and not applying the Geneva Conventions to the conflict in Afghanistan. Among the cons of not applying the conventions, Powell notes, is that “it will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice in supporting the Geneva conventions and undermine protections of the law of war for our troops, both in this specific context and in general.”

  30 directive, just after: Barry, Isikoff, and Hirsh, “Roots of Torture.” Bush made his decision in early February, and by “mid-January 2002 the first plane-load of prisoners landed at Gitmo’s Camp X-Ray.”

  30 “We didn’t tell the FBI”: Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., with Bill Harlow, Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives (New York: Threshold Editions, 2012), pp. 116–117.

  30 “near total dependence on CIA”: Donald Rumsfeld, working paper sent to General Myers, “Subject: Afghanistan,” October 17, 2001. Rumsfeld writes, “Given the nature of our world, isn’t it conceivable that the Department ought not to be in a position of near total dependence on CIA in situations such as this?”

  2: Anwar Awlaki: An American Story

  31 Their best hope: Dr. James J. Zogby, “The Arab American Vote in the November 2000 Election,” Arab American Institute, December 14, 2000. In an analysis commissioned by Abu Dhabi Television, Zogby writes that “a recent poll of Arab American voters shows that Arab Americans supported the candidacy of Republican George W. Bush over the candidacy of Democrat Al Gore by a margin of 45.5% to 38%.” He further notes that despite the fact that Arab Americans tended to lean Democratic, “this election took place against the backdrop of escalating Israeli violence against Palestinians,” which “apparently influenced the votes of a number of Arab Americans.”

  31 “Freedom is one of them”: Transcript, interview with Anwar al Awlaki, “Fighting Fear,” NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, October 30, 2001.

  31 Fulbright scholarship: Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, January 2012. Details of Nasser al Awlaki’s family life and the early years of Anwar al Awlaki are from the author’s interview, unless otherwise noted.

  31 “My studies in the United States”: Ibid. All quotations from Nasser al Awlaki are from interview with author, unless otherwise noted.

  31 “meet people of the New World”: Personal, unpublished essay written by Nasser al Awlaki and shown to the author in January 2012.

  32 April 22, 1971: An FBI report about Anwar lists his birthday as April 21, but Nasser says in an interview with the author that Anwar was born on the 22nd. News reports have used both dates.

  32 University of Minnesota: “Interview: Dr. Nasser al-Awlaki on the Killing of His Son, Anwar, and His Grandson,” National Yemen, October 6, 2012.

  33 O’Hare Airport: Catherine Herridge, The Next Wave: On the Hunt for Al Qaeda’s American Recruits (New York: Crown Forum, 2011), p. 78.

  33 civil engineering: Bruce Finley, “Muslim Cleric Targeted by U.S. Made Little Impression During Colorado Years,” Denver Post, April 11, 2010.

  33 “not [a] fully practicing Muslim”: Anwar al Awlaki, “Spilling Out the Beans; Al Awlaki Revealing His Side of the Story,” Inspire 9 (winter 2012), released May 2012.

  33 Muslim Student Association: Ibid.

  34 “staying in the US”: Ibid.

  34 grades were slipping: Ibid.

  34 “termination of my scholarship”: Ibid.

  34 “I was a fundamentalist now!”: Ibid.

  35 asked him to deliver a sermon: Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, January 2012; Scott Shane and Souad Mekhennet, “Imam’s Path from Condemning Terror to Preaching Jihad,” New York Times, May 8, 2010.

  35 “very promising person”: Author interview, Sheikh Saleh bin Fareed, January 2012.

  35 graduated from CSU: Finley, “Muslim Cleric Targeted by U.S.”

  35 Denver Islamic Society: Ibid.

  35 Malcolm X: Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, January 2012.

  35 “He had this magic”: Finley, “Muslim Cleric Targeted by U.S.”

  35 “a beautiful tongue”: Shane and Mekhennet, “Imam’s Path.”

  35 September 13, 1995: Author copy of Abdulrahman al Awlaki’s birth certificate.

  35 Masjid al Ribat al Islami: Shane and Mekhennet, “Imam’s Path.”

  35 education leadership: Union-Tribune and Associated Press, “Anwar al-Awlaki, al-Qaida-Linked Cleric with San Diego Ties, Killed,” UTSanDiego.com, September 30, 2011.

  35 “very outgoing and cheerful”: Memorandum for the record: telephone interview of Lincoln Higgie, prepared by Dieter Snell, FBI-San Diego Field Office, November 19, 2003. Available at the National Archive and Records Administration website, http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00449.pdf.

  35 “albacore fishing”: Transcript, The Situation Room, CNN, September 30, 2011.

  36 first run-in with the FBI: Shane and Mekhennet, “Imam’s Path.”

  36 “blind sheikh”: Ibid.

  36 Holy Land Foundation: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (Philip Zelikow, Executive Director; Bonnie D. Jenkins, Counsel; Ernest R. May, Senior Advisor), The 9/11 Commission Report (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), p. 517.

  36 Charitable Society for Social Welfare: Susan Schmidt, “Imam from Va. Mosque Now Thought to Have Aided al-Qaeda,” Washington Post, February 27, 2008.

&nb
sp; 36 “front organization”: Tom Hays (AP), “FBI Eyes NYC ‘Charity’ in Terror Probe,” washingtonpost.com, February 26, 2004.

  36 Abdul Majeed al Zindani: Schmidt, “Imam from Va. Mosque.”

  36 US Department of Labor: US Department of Labor, International Labor Affairs Bureau, Technical Cooperation Project Summary, for project “Alternatives to Combat Child Labor Through Education and Sustainable Services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region,” www.dol.gov/ilab/projects/europe_mena/MidEast_LebanonYemen_EI_CLOSED.pdf; “Project Status—Europe, Middle East, and North Africa,” Department of Labor website, accessed October 2010, www.dol.gov/ilab/projects/europe_mena/project-europe.htm.

  36 raising money for orphans: Author interviews with Awlaki family members, January 2012.

  36 “does not meet the criterion”: J. M. Berger, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2011), p. 119.

  37 Two men: Schmidt, “Imam from Va. Mosque.”

  37 Nawaf al Hamzi: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, Hearings Before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, 107th Cong., 2nd Sess., September 26, 2002, p. 178.

  37 “spiritual adviser”: Ibid.

  37 recording CDs: Shane and Mekhennet, “Imam’s Path.”

  37 extremely popular: Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, January 2012.

  37 more than a hundred CDs: J. M. Berger, “Gone but Not Forgotten,” Foreign Policy, September 30, 2011.

  37 “free of obvious radicalism”: Shane and Mekhennet, “Imam’s Path.”

  37 “very pleased”: Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, “As American as Apple Pie: How Anwar al-Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad,” The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, London, 2011.

  37 sent “moles”: Awlaki, “Spilling Out the Beans.”

  37 busted twice: “Radical Cleric Killed by Drone Was Twice Arrested with Prostitutes in San Diego,” L.A. Now (blog), Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2011, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/anwar-awlaki-the-american-born-cleric-and-jihadist-killed-by-a-us-backed-drone-strike-in-yemen-spent-several-years-in-san.html.

  38 “I was surrounded by police officers”: Awlaki, “Spilling Out the Beans.”

  38 “move somewhere else”: Ibid.

  38 partial scholarship: Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, January 2012.

  38 chaplain: Ibid.

  38 “full force of faith”: Transcript, “Connections Between Radical Cleric, Hasan Closely Examined,” NewsHour, PBS, November 12, 2009.

  39 backseat of a taxi: “Former Islamic Spiritual Leader Defends Mosque,” Copley News Service, September 28, 2001.

  39 screamed threats: “Muslim Americans Suffer Terrorist Backlash,” Scripps Howard News Service, September 12, 2001.

  39 closed for three days: William Branigin, “Terror Hits Close to Home; Mix of Emotions Sweeps over Area’s Residents,” Washington Post, September 20, 2001.

  39 “How should we react?”: Susan Morse, “First Source of Comfort; When Events Overwhelm, Clergy, Not Doctors, Are on the Front Lines,” Washington Post, September 18, 2001.

  39 security firm: Debbi Wilgoren and Ann O’Hanlon, “Worship and Worry; Fear for Other Muslims Mixes with Support for US,” Washington Post, September 22, 2001.

  39 Local churches: Ibid.

  39 baseball bat: Ibid.

  39 “heinous”: Branigin, “Terror Hits Close to Home.”

  39 “Best Buy”: Brian Handwerk and Zain Habboo, “Attack on America: An Islamic Scholar’s Perspective—Part 1,” National Geographic, September 28, 2001.

  40 “knocking on my door”: Awlaki, “Spilling Out the Beans.”

  40 showed him pictures: Federal Bureau of Investigation file on “Anwar Nasser Aulaqi,” September 26, 2001. Document obtained by Intelwire, intelwire.com.

  40 attended an Awlaki sermon: 9/11 Commission Report, p. 229.

  40 “did not recognize”: Ibid., p. 221.

  40 Awlaki also said: Ibid., pp. 229–230.

  40 “described Hazmi”: Ibid., p. 221.

  40 “a loner”: Federal Bureau of Investigation file on “Anwar Nasser Aulaqi.”

  40 “very religious person”: Ibid.

  40 got a lawyer: Awlaki, “Spilling Out the Beans.”

  40 “Investigation continues”: Federal Bureau of Investigation file on “Anwar Nasser Aulaqi.”

  40 series of phone conversations: 9/11 Commission Report, p. 517.

  40 “evidence is thin”: Ibid., p. 221.

  41 Nidal Malik Hasan: Author interview, Nasser al Awlaki, January 2012. That Hasan attended Dar al Hijrah has been documented in press reports, such as David Johnston and Scott Shane, “U.S. Knew of Suspect’s Tie to Radical Cleric,” New York Times, November 9, 2009.

  41 worst massacres: Robert D. McFadden, “Army Doctor Held in Ft. Hood Rampage,” New York Times, November 5, 2009.

  41 “tolerance”: “Al-Awlaki Assassinated in Drone Attack,” blog post on Dar al Hijrah website, September 30, 2011, www.daralhijrah.net/ns/?p=6258.

  41 “overtly political or radical”: Matthew Barakat, “Relief, Anger at Va. Mosque Where al-Qaida Figure Preached,” Associated Press, September 30, 2011.

  41 “right to defend itself”: Transcript, “Fighting Fear,” interview by Ray Suarez, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, October 30, 2001.

  41 “go-to Muslim cleric”: Shane and Mekhennet, “Imam’s Path.”

  42 “merging East and West”: Laurie Goodstein, “A Nation Challenged: The American Muslims; Influential American Muslims Temper Their Tone,” New York Times, October 19, 2001.

  42 “perverted their religion”: Handwerk and Habboo, “Attack on America.”

  42 webcast: Travis Fox, video, “Understanding Ramadan: A Day in the Life of an Imam,” www.washingtonpost.com, November 18, 2001.

  42 “Our position needs to be reiterated”: Anwar al Awlaki sermon, excerpted in “Fighting Fear,” NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, October 30, 2001.

  42 “attack on US foreign policy”: Wilgoren and O’Hanlon, “Worship and Worry.”

  42 “killing of civilians in Afghanistan”: “Muslim Students Are Wary of the War,” Washington Times, October 11, 2001.

  42 “not going to happen”: Ellen Sorokin, “Area’s Muslims Facing a Somber Ramadan; Terror Attack, War in Afghanistan Create ‘Gloomy Mood,’” Washington Times, November 16, 2001.

  42 “rushed into this war”: Video interview from November 2001, provided to the author by Travis Fox.

  43 “freedom to the people”: Transcript, Morning Edition, National Public Radio (hereafter NPR), November 1, 2001.

  43 “casualties from the civilians”: Video interview from November 2001, provided to the author by Travis Fox.

  43 “radical understanding”: Ibid.

  44 vigilantes and federal agents: See Human Rights Watch USA, “‘We Are Not the Enemy’: Hate Crimes Against Arabs, Muslims, and Those Perceived to Be Arab or Muslim After September 11,” November 14, 2002; “NPR Special Report: Muslims in America; Part One: Profiling the Proud Americans of ‘Little Mecca,’” NPR, October 21, 2001, www.npr.org/news/specials/response/homefront/features/2001/oct/muslim/011022.muslim.html.

  44 “element of feeling”: Transcript, Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan, NPR, November 15, 2001.

  44 “crude fashion”: Joe Cantlupe and Dana Wilkie, “Former San Diego Islamic Spiritual Defends Mosque,” Copley News Service, September 28, 2001.

  44 “radical voices”: Transcript, Morning Edition, NPR, November 1, 2001.

  44 “American Muslims”: Jean Marbella, “Ramadan Raises Conflicting Loyalties; US Muslims Feel Pull of Nation, Solidarity; War on Terrorism,” Baltimore Sun, October 28, 2001.

  44 “enemy of Islam”: Transcript, Morning Edition, NPR, November 1, 2001.

  45 “privilege”: E-mail from undisclosed sender t
o undisclosed recipients, subject: “RE: Luncheon Speaker—Islam and Middle Eastern politics and culture—February 5th—Response date—1/31,” sent February 1, 2002, obtained by public intelligence, http://publicintelligence.net/dod-email-discussing-anwar-al-awlakis-2002-presentation-at-the-pentagon/.

  45 “secretary of the Army’s”: Catherine Herridge, “Exclusive: Al Qaeda Leader Dined at the Pentagon Just Months After 9/11,” FoxNews.com, October 20, 2010.

  45 “attended a luncheon”: Ibid.

  45 “East Side West Side”: E-mail from undisclosed sender, “RE: Luncheon Speaker.”

  45 PBS documentary: Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, PBS, 2002, produced by KiKim Media and Unity Productions Foundation/A KQED Presentation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

  45 sweeping raids: Jerry Markon, “Muslim Anger Burns over Lingering Probe of Charities,” Washington Post, October 11, 2006.

  46 Operation Green Quest: Associated Press, “Feds Launch ‘Operation Green Quest,’” CBSNews.com, October 25, 2001.

  46 International Institute of Islamic Thought: Judith Miller, “A Nation Challenged: The Money Trail; Raids Seek Evidence of Money-Laundering,” New York Times, March 21, 2002.

  46 Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences: Riad Z. Abdelkarim and Basil Z. Abdelkarim, “Islam in America: As American Muslims Face New Raids, Muslim Charities Fight Back,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2002, pp. 80–81.

  46 property seized: Markon, “Muslim Anger Burns.”

  46 five hundred boxes: Ibid.

  46 “attack on every one of us”: Audio recording of Anwar al Awlaki sermon, Virginia, March 2002, transcription by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, “As American as Apple Pie: How Anwar al-Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad,” The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, London, 2011.

  46 “struggle for those rights”: Ibid.

  46 active subject: Herridge, The Next Wave, p. 91.