by Scott Shane
Yemenis were flabbergasted in September 2014 when Obama said the US strategy in Yemen had proven so successful “Statement by the President on ISIL,” September 10, 2014, White House, Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/statement-president-isil-1.
“For every missile America launches to kill terrorists, we want five missiles for development” Abdullah al-Jumaili, interview, January 28, 2014, Sanaa.
Petraeus and his lover, Paula Broadwell, had communicated secretly by saving drafts of notes to a shared e-mail account Kimberly Dozier and Pete Yost, “Petraeus Said to Be Shocked by Girlfriend’s Emails,” Associated Press, November 13, 2012, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/info-emerges-about-2nd-woman-petraeus-case.
In a thirteen-hour, stream-of-consciousness performance on the Senate floor Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) Filibuster, March 7, 2013, http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4373357/senator-rand-paul-filibuster.
An appeals court finally ruled in our favor nearly four years after my initial request Charlie Savage, “Court Releases Large Parts of Memo Approving Killing of American in Yemen,” The New York Times, June 23, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/us/justice-department-found-it-lawful-to-target-anwar-al-awlaki.html.
the Senate’s very first public hearing on drone strikes in April 2013 Hearing of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing,” April 23, 2013, https://www.ccrjustice.org/files/HOOD,_Alkarama,_CCR_SJC_Submission.pdf.
On May 23, 2013, Obama came to the National Defense University “Remarks by the President at the National Defense University,” May 23, 2013, White House, Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university. The interruption by Medea Benjamin and the president’s reply are included in the transcript.
Cornel West disgustedly denounced Obama as a war criminal and his tenure as “a drone presidency” “Hear Cornel West on Obama: ‘A Drone Presidency,’ ” Time, October 6, 2014, http://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/.
The first was Dennis Blair See, for instance, Dennis C. Blair, “Drones Alone Are Not the Answer,” The New York Times, August 14, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/drones-alone-are-not-the-answer.html.
“They are hated on a visceral level” Stanley McChrystal, quoted in David Alexander, “Retired General Cautions Against Overuse of ‘Hated’ Drones,” Reuters, January 7, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/07/us-usa-afghanistan-mcchrystal-idUSBRE90608O20130107.
Then there was Robert Gates, the former defense secretary, who called himself “a big advocate of drones” Robert Gates on CNN, State of the Union with Candy Crowley, February 10, 2013, http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1302/10/sotu.01.html.
“I say this with respect—they tend to express these doubts after they leave government” Ben Rhodes, interview, October 15, 2014.
By 2014, Hamilton was quite anguished, if sympathetic, about Obama’s record Lee Hamilton, telephone interview, May 22, 2014.
“I think it was a very good strike. I think it was justified” Dick Cheney on State of the Union with Candy Crowley, CNN, October 2, 2011, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1110/02/sotu.01.html.
Henry Kissinger reached for an unexpected comparison Henry Kissinger, NPR interview, “Henry Kissinger’s Thoughts on the Islamic State, Ukraine and ‘World Order,’ ” September 6, 2014, http://www.npr.org/2014/09/06/346114326/henry-kissingers-thoughts-on-the-islamic-state-ukraine-and-world-order.
Estimates of civilian deaths from the American bombing of Cambodia began at 50,000 See, for example, Ben Kieman, How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), xxiii.
By comparison, the high-end estimates from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London of civilian deaths “Get the Data: Drone Wars,” http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/drones-graphs/.
Crumpton admitted: “We never said, ‘Let’s build a more humane weapon’ ” Henry Crumpton, interview, 2012.
“I think he understands that you can’t eliminate civilian casualties entirely” Ben Rhodes, interview, October 15, 2014.
One of them, a polymath named Chris Anderson, drew an analogy with the Internet Chris Anderson, telephone interview, 2013.
But the Islamic State was online jihad 3.0, I wrote in The New York Times Scott Shane and Ben Hubbard, “ISIS Displaying a Deft Command of Varied Media,” The New York Times, August 30, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/world/middleeast/isis-displaying-a-deft-command-of-varied-media.html.
In December 2013, a new, English-language Islamic State video “ISIL Video Features Posthumous Clip of Awlaki Promoting Islamic State,” SITE Intelligence Group, December 10, 2013, https://news.siteintelgroup.com/Jihadist-News/isil-video-features-posthumous-clip-of-awlaki-promoting-islamic-state.html. The audio came from Awlaki’s lecture “The Battle of Hearts and Minds,” delivered by phone on May 11, 2008, to the South African conference, called “Holding on to Hot Coals: Surviving as a Muslim in the West.” A transcript of the entire talk is at http://archive.org/stream/BattleOfTheHeartsAndMinds/BattleOfTheHeartsAndMinds_djvu.txt.
A Syrian activist group opposed to the Islamic State “Jihadist John Expands to Europe,” news release from the Syrian group called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, January 21, 2015,, http://www.raqqa-sl.com/en/?p=338.
An American who carried out a suicide bombing for the Al Qaeda affiliate “American Suicide Bomber Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha Discusses Immigration to Syria in First Part of Posthumous Interview,” SITE Intelligence Group, August 27, 2014, https://news.siteintelgroup.com/Jihadist-News/american-suicide-bomber-moner-mohammad-abu-salha-discusses-immigration-to-syria-in-first-part-of-posthumous-interview.html.
Shannon Conley, a nineteen-year-old Muslim convert from Colorado Kirk Mitchell, “Arvada Teen Jihadist ‘Wannabe’ Pleads Guilty to Terror Charge,” Denver Post, September 10, 2014, http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26504683/arvada-jihadist-wannabe-set-plead-guilty-terror-charge.
After two French-Algerian brothers burst into the offices Scott Shane, “In New Era of Terrorism, Voice From Yemen Echoes,” The New York Times, January 10, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/world/middleeast/paris-attacks-anwar-al-awlaki.html.
A week after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, a twenty-year-old Ohio man Criminal Complaint, USA vs. Christopher Lee Cornell, Case No. 1:15-cr-00012, US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, 3.
The very next day, prosecutors in Florida announced News Release, “Qazi Brothers Charged with Additional Terrorism Violations and Attempted Murder of Two Deputy U.S. Marshals,” US Attoney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, January 15, 2015, http://www.fbi.gov/miami/press-releases/2015/qazi-brothers-charged-with-additional-terrorism-violations-and-attempted-murder-of-two-deputy-u.s.-marshals. See also Lizette Alvarez, “Details Are Revealed in Brothers’ Terror Case,” The New York Times, December 18, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/details-are-revealed-in-brothers-terror-case.html.
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A study by the New America Foundation in 2014 found that eighteen people indicted in the United States Peter Bergen and David Sterman, “The Man Who Inspired the Boston Bombings,” April 11, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/opinion/bergen-boston-bombing-awlaki-jihadists.
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