by Scott Shane
One dividend of writing this book was the flexibility to spend a little extra time with my wife, Francie Weeks, and our children, Martha, Laura, and Nathan. We shared some memorable adventures in my year away from the newspaper. Francie supported the book and its author in countless ways. While I’m kind of used to that by now, I’m moved by and grateful for her love.
NOTES
A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
Anwar al-Awlaki initially spelled his surname in English Aulaqi, as most of his family does now. Later, on his CDs and his blog, he switched to Awlaki, and that spelling was picked up by most Western journalists. Various US government agencies have used both of those spellings and other variations, including Awlaqi. For consistency and clarity, and with no disrespect intended to family members who prefer a different spelling, I have stuck to Awlaki throughout. In quoting government documents I have also used Awlaki in the text of the book, but any researcher searching government archives should try Aulaqi and Awlaqi as well. The same goes for Osama bin Laden (Usama bin Ladin in many government documents) and a few other names.
MAP
US Strikes in Yemen The statistics on the Yemen map are from the count by the New American Foundation, http://securitydata.newamerica.net/drones/yemen/analysis. The sole exception is the count of two American strikes in 2010, which is based on my own reporting.
PROLOGUE
Nasser al-Awlaki The information about Nasser al-Awlaki, his years as a graduate student in the United States, and the family’s trip to California in 1984 comes from an interview by the author with Dr. al-Awlaki at his home in Sanaa on February 1, 2014; several interviews and e-mail exchanges with his son, Anwar’s younger brother, Ammar al-Awlaki; written answers Nasser provided to questions sent by the author in January 2014; and a lengthy interview with Nasser in Sanaa by Medea Benjamin, a peace activist and cofounder of Code Pink, recorded on video in June 2013.
Barack Obama in 1984 See, for instance, David Remnick, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), 118–21.
an unseemly whiff of Nazism The columnist Peggy Noonan advised the George W. Bush administration to choose a different name, saying homeland “grates on a lot of people, understandably,” and quoting a friend as calling it “creepy.” Her advice was ignored, and the embrace of the term reflects the sea change in American attitudes in the wake of 9/11. Peggy Noonan, “Rudy’s Duty: Plus, Homeland Ain’t No American Word,” Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2002.
“I have no grudge toward the American people” Nasser al-Awlaki, interview by Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, June 2013.
EPIGRAPHS
The Prophet beckoned with his hand towards Yemen Islamic Hadith (English Translation) (Hamlet Book Publishers, 2013), Google e-book, no. 5670. xix But what is one to say to an act of destructive ferocity Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (1907), Google e-book, 40.
Perfection of means and confusion of aims Albert Einstein, message to the London Conference on Science and World Order, quoted in The Humanities Chart Their Course: Report of the Second Annual Conference Held by the Stanford School of Humanities (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1945).
1. MERRY CHRISTMAS
Sheikh Anwar had instructed him This and other details about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s time in Yemen come largely from documents in his criminal case, Case 2:10-cr-20005 in US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, especially the opening statement of the lead prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Tukel, on October 11, 2011, and the sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors on February 10, 2012. Those documents in turn were based on at least eighteen days of FBI interviews with him between December 25, 2009, and April 30, 2010. The FBI refused the author’s request for the interview transcripts.
three straight weeks This and other details come from an interview by Detroit’s WXYZ television station with two FBI agents involved with the case. Scott Lewis, “Exclusive: FBI Agents Reveal Underwear Bomber Abdulmutallab Wore Explosive Underwear for Three Weeks,” WXYZ Detroit, September 27, 2012, http://www.wxyz.com/news/local-news/investigations/fbi-agents-underwear-bomber-abdulmutallab-wore-underwear-for-3-weeks.
he had seen it, in a visit to Houston for an Islamic conference the previous year “Terror Suspect Attended 2008 Islamic ‘Knowledge Fest’ in Houston,” CNN, December 30, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/30/terror.suspect.seminar/.
“I know many of you missed Thanksgiving with your families” 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing Commander, “From Hunter 1: Thank You and Continue to Press Forward,” memo, Creech Air Force Base website, December 2, 2009, http://www.creech.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123180301.
the Djibouti government had not yet permitted the United States to load missiles Two American officials, confidential interviews, 2014.
The Associated Press had called it “Obama’s aloha low-key holiday” Philip Elliott, “Obama’s Low-Key Holiday Away from Washington,” Associated Press, December 25, 2009.
White House spokesman Bill Burton told the gaggle of reporters aboard Air Force One “Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton Aboard Air Force One en Route Honolulu, Hawaii,” White House, Briefing Room, December 24, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/gaggle-deputy-press-secretary-bill-burton-aboard-air-force-one-en-route-honolulu-ha.
remarks to the Turkish parliament in April “Remarks by President Obama to the Turkish Parliament,” Ankara, Turkey, April 6, 2009, White House, Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-President-Obama-To-The-Turkish-Parliament/. The best source for Obama’s public comments is usually http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/Speeches-and-Remarks/. The items are grouped by year and month in the right-hand column.
a long-awaited speech at Cairo University “Remarks by the President on a New Beginning,” Cairo University, June 4, 2009, White House, Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09.
Onion headline The Onion, November 5, 2008.
2009 had been the rockiest year on the domestic terrorism front See Scott Shane, “A Year of Terror Plots, Through a Second Prism,” The New York Times, January 13, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/us/13intel.html.
the former president had said that his successor “deserves my silence” On the different approaches of Bush and Cheney, see Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Unemployed, Unapologetic and Unrestrained: It’s Cheney Unbound,” The New York Times, April 23, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/us/24cheney.html.
Cheney on Obama’s “dithering” Helene Cooper, “Afghan War Is New Topic of Dispute with Cheney,” The New York Times, October 23, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/world/asia/23cheney.html.
Cheney on “aid and comfort to the enemy” Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, “Dick Cheney Slams President Obama for Projecting ‘Weakness,’ ” Politico, December 1, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/30024.html.
Cheney told Sean Hannity “Former Vice President Dick Cheney on ‘Hannity,’ ” interview by Sean Hannity, Hannity, December 9, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/12/09/former-vice-president-dick-cheney-on-hannity/.
they were especially loath to link violent attacks explicitly to Islam See, for example, John O. Brennan’s speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, August 6, 2009: “Nor does President Obama see this challenge as a fight against jihadists. Describing terrorists in this way, using the legitimate term ‘jihad,’ which means to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal, risks giving these murderers the re
ligious legitimacy they desperately seek but in no way deserve. Worse, it risks reinforcing the idea that the United States is somehow at war with Islam itself. And this is why President Obama has confronted this perception directly and forcefully in its speeches to Muslim audiences, declaring that America is not and never will be at war with Islam.” John O. Brennan, “A New Approach to Safeguarding Americans,” August 6, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-john-brennan-center-strategic-and-international-studies.
Obama on Fort Hood shootings Obama’s public comments on Fort Hood are excerpted from the White House website’s “Briefing Room,” under “Speeches and Remarks,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/Speeches-and-Remarks/, for the month of November 2009.
Ralph Peters, a retired Army lieutenant colonel “Obama Can’t Be Bothered by Islamic Terrorism,” New York Post, November 8, 2009, http://nypost.com/2009/11/08/obama-cant-be-bothered-by-islamic-terrorism/.
“Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing,” Anwar al-Awlaki wrote Awlaki’s blog, http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com/, was taken down not long after his Fort Hood comments. But this post, dated November 9, 2009, is archived at several locations on the web, including cryptome.org, http://cryptome.org/anwar-alawlaki/09-1109.htm.
Awlaki’s two e-mails to Hasan See William H. Webster Commission, Final Report of the William H. Webster Commission on the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counterterrorism Intelligence, and the Events at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009, http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/final-report-of-the-william-h.-webster-commission, 50–51.
he had specifically condemned as a “heartless beast” Awlaki’s blog post “Fighting Against Government Armies in the Muslim World,” July 14, 2009, http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com, archived at http://anwar-awlaki.blogspot.com/2011/10/fighting-against-government-armies-in.html.
“The fact that he had an influence” James L. Jones, interview, April 19, 2012.
they had collected multiple, damning pieces of information about the perpetrator See the White House report on the Flight 253 episode, “White House Review Summary Regarding 12/25/2009 Attempted Terrorist Attack,” January 7, 2010, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/white-house-review-summary-regarding-12252009-attempted-terrorist-attack; and the Senate Intelligence Committee report, Attempted Terrorist Attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, May 24, 2010), http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs/111199.pdf.
I spoke a few days after Christmas with Tom Kean Scott Shane, “Shadow of 9/11 Is Cast Again,” The New York Times, December 31, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31intel.html.
The lives of the 290 people aboard Northwest Flight 253 Details of passengers’ and flight attendants’ and Abdulmutallab’s statements are from the prosecutor’s opening statement in Case No. 2:10-cr-20005 in Michigan’s Eastern District.
America and the Final Trap Video released May 26, 2010, accessed on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/AmericaAndTheFinalTrap_918.
avid supporter of the Irish Republican Army Scott Shane, “For Lawmaker Examining Terror, a Pro-I.R.A. Past,” The New York Times, March 8, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/us/politics/09king.html.
“This was an assault on the United States” Rep. Peter T. King quoted in “Airline Bombing Suspect Goes Before Judge; Tighter Security Measures at Airports; New Violence in Iran,” CNN, December 26, 2009, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0912/26/cnr.10.html.
“We, the United States’ political and media culture” A senior White House official, confidential interview, 2014.
the president went before the cameras “The President Addresses the Public on the Attempted Terrorist Attack,” White House Blog, December 28, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/28/president-addresses-public-attempted-terrorist-attack.
a brutal statement to Politico Mike Allen, “Dick Cheney: Barack Obama ‘Trying to Pretend,’ ” Politico, December 30, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31054.html.
Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, fired back Dan Pfeiffer, “The Same Old Washington Blame Game,” White House Blog, December 30, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/30/same-old-washington-blame-game.
On January 2, still in Honolulu, Obama used his weekly presidential address “Remarks of President Barack Obama, Weekly Address, January 2, 2010,” White House, Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/weekly-address-president-obama-outlines-steps-taken-protect-safety-and-security-ame.
Every recent president had been ambushed by terrorist acts The Stanford scholar Martha Crenshaw makes this point in an intriguing essay, “Reaction Time: Why Terrorism Derails Every Administration,” Foreign Policy, November 13, 2012, http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/11/13/reaction-time.
He had blown himself up at the CIA base in Khost The bombing in Khost came five days after Abdulmutallab’s airliner attack. See Alissa J. Rubin and Mark Mazzetti, “Suicide Bomber Killed C.I.A. Operatives,” The New York Times, December 30, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world/asia/31khost.html.
January 5, 2010, Situation Room meeting This account is based on the recollections of four people who were present, who described it on condition of anonymity.
Secretary of State Clinton Confidential interviews with two former Clinton aides, 2012 and 2014.
“Part of his point was that the pressure on us would be to do a lot more in Yemen” Ben Rhodes, interview, October 17, 2013.
its legal opinions on torture became fodder for news stories The torture opinions, Jay S. Bybee et al., “Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 USC 2340-2340A” and “Interrogation of al Qaeda Operative,” August 1, 2002, are available with many other relevant documents at the National Security Archive, http://www.aladin0.wrlc.org/gsdl/collect/torture/torture.shtml.
even an hour’s research on waterboarding A useful history and other information on waterboarding can be found at the website waterboarding.org.
The memos were repudiated by Obama when he took office “Executive Order 13491—Ensuring Lawful Interrogations, January 22, 2009,” White House, Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/EnsuringLawfulInterrogations.
a two-part tour de force in the Harvard Law Review Martin S. Lederman and David Jeremiah Barron, “The Commander in Chief at the Lowest Ebb,” Harvard Law Review 121 (2008): 941–1111.
2. YOU ARE STILL UNSAFE
“Phew. Maaaaaan—that was close” The message was sent to Morten Storm, a Danish former Islamic militant who, unbeknownst to Awlaki, had become disillusioned and gone to work for Western intelligence. Morten Storm with Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda and the CIA (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2014), 190. Storm also described to me Awlaki’s communication methods.
a message from Bin Laden implausibly claimed credit for the plot “ ‘Bin Laden Tape’ Warns Obama of More Attacks,” BBC News, January 24, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8477413.stm.
message from Al Qaeda’s founder lambasted America for its inaction on climate change Jack Healy, “Bin Laden Adds Climate Change to List of Grievances Against U.S.,” The New York Times, January 29, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/world/middleeast/30binladen.html.
twelve-minute “Call to Jihad” in mid-March “Purported al-Awlaki Message Cal
ls for Jihad Against U.S.,” CNN, March 17, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/17/al.awlaki.message. The full transcript of Awlaki’s message was obtained from a SITE Intelligence Group report of March 20, 2010.
in one of his most popular tracts, Awlaki had offered the sarcastic lament Awlaki made the wisecrack in “44 Ways of Supporting Jihad” (January 5, 2009) in entry no. 42, “Learning Arabic.” The entire text of “44 Ways” can be found at http://cryptome.org/anwar-alawlaki/09-0105.htm, copied into the comments section of this blog entry at comment 36. It can be found in many other places on the web as well.
Awlaki had first recorded his inflammatory message on video See J. M. Berger’s post on his invaluable website Intelwire.com, “Anwar Al-Awlaki Video Release Rehashes 2010 ‘Message to America,’ ” December 20, 2011, http://news.intelwire.com/2011/12/new-awlaki-message-in-aqap-video.html.
mocking Obama’s “short leash” Awlaki had first used this phrase in a written post on his blog: “A Message to the American People,” October 13, 2009, http://anwar-awlaki.blogspot.com/2011/10/message-to-american-people, reported by the SITE Intelligence Group on that day. He often recycled passages in a series of messages over many months.
as George W. Bush had famously put it “Address to a Joint Session of Congress and to the American People,” September 20, 2001, White House Archives, “News and Policies,” http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html.
January 21, 2010, Senate Foreign Relations Committee report US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Al Qaeda in Yemen and Somalia: A Ticking Time Bomb, report, January 21, 2010 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2010), http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Yemen.pdf, 9.