Dirty Wars

DIRTY WARS

ALSO BY JEREMY SCAHILL

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's
Most Powerful Mercenary Army

The World Is a Battlefield

JEREMY SCAHILL

A complete catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library on request

The right of Jeremy Scahill to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Copyright © 2013 Jeremy Scahill

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in the USA in 2013 by Nation Books, a Member of the
Perseus Books Group

First published in the UK in 2013 by Serpent's Tail,
an imprint of Profile Books Ltd
3A Exmouth House
Pine Street
London EC1R 0JH
website:
www.serpentstail.com

ISBN 978 1 84668 850 8
eISBN 978 1 84765 825 8

Designed by Janet Tingey

Printed by Clays, Bungay, Suffolk

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FOR JOURNALISTS
—

those imprisoned for doing their jobs and
those who have died in pursuit of the truth.

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are
punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the
sound of trumpets.”

—
VOLTAIRE

A NOTE TO THE READER

PROLOGUE

1
“There Was Concern...That We Not Create an American Hit List”

WASHINGTON, DC
, 2001–2002

2
Anwar Awlaki: An American Story

THE UNITED STATES AND YEMEN
, 1971–2002

3
Find, Fix, Finish: The Rise of JSOC

WASHINGTON, DC
, 1979–2001

4
The Boss: Ali Abdullah Saleh

YEMEN, 1970–2001; WASHINGTON, DC
, 2001

5
The Enigma of Anwar Awlaki

THE UNITED KINGDOM, THE UNITED STATES AND YEMEN
, 2002–2003

6
“We're in a New Kind of War”

DJIBOUTI, WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN
, 2002

7
Special Plans

WASHINGTON, DC
, 2002

8
Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape

WASHINGTON, DC
, 2002–2003

9
The Troublemaker: Stanley McChrystal

THE UNITED STATES, 1974–2003; IRAQ
, 2003

10
“Their Intention and Our Intention Is the Same”

SOMALIA,
1993–2004

11
“A Defeated Enemy Is Not a Vanquished One”

YEMEN,
2003–2006 130

12
“Never Trust a Nonbeliever”

THE UNITED KINGDOM
, 2003

13
“You Don't Have to Prove to Anyone That You Did Right”

IRAQ
, 2003–2005

14
“No Blood, No Foul”

IRAQ
, 2003–2004

15
The Death Star

IRAQ
, 2004

16
“The Best Technology, the Best Weapons, the Best People—and Plenty of Money to Burn”

AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ AND PAKISTAN
, 2003–2006

17
“A Lot of It Was of Questionable Legality”

SOURCE: “HUNTER
”

18
The Imprisonment of Anwar Awlaki

YEMEN
, 2004–2007

19
“America Knows War. They Are War Masters.”

SOMALIA,
2004–2006

20
Prison Break

YEMEN
, 2006

21
Hot Pursuit

PAKISTAN
, 2006–2008

22
“Every Step Taken by the US Benefited al Shabab”

SOMALIA,
2007–2009

23
“If Your Son Does Not Come to Us, He Will Be Killed by the Americans”

YEMEN,
2007–2009

24
“Obama Is Set to Continue the Course Set by Bush”

UNITED STATES
, 2002–2008

25
Obama's Signature Strikes

PAKISTAN AND WASHINGTON, DC
, 2009

26
Special Ops Want to “Own This Shit Like They Did in Central America in the '80s”

WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN
, 2009

27
Suicide or Martyrdom?

YEMEN
, 2009

28
Obama Embraces JSOC

SOMALIA, EARLY
2009

29
“Let JSOC Off the Leash”

SAUDI ARABIA, WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, LATE
2009

30
Samir Khan: An Unlikely Foot Soldier

THE UNITED STATES AND YEMEN
, 2001–2009

31
Blowback in Somalia

SOMALIA AND WASHINGTON, DC
, 2009

32
“If They Kill Innocent Children and Call Them al Qaeda, Then We Are All al Qaeda”

WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN
, 2009

33
“The Americans Really Wanted to Kill Anwar”

YEMEN, LATE 2009-EARLY
2010

34
“Mr. Barack Obama...I Hope That You Reconsider Your Order to Kill...My Son”

WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, EARLY
2010

35
One Night in Gardez

WASHINGTON, DC, 2008–2010; AFGHANISTAN
, 2009–2010

36
The Year of the Drone

YEMEN AND THE UNITED STATES
, 2010

37
Driving Anwar Awlaki to Hell

YEMEN
, 2010

38
The CIA's Dating Service

DENMARK AND YEMEN
, 2010

39
“The Auction of the Assassin”

WASHINGTON, DC
, 2010

40
“Martyrdom Is Why We Came Here, My Brother”

YEMEN
, 2009–2010

41
The Persecution of Abdulelah Haider Shaye

YEMEN, SUMMER
2010

42
The President Can Write His Own Rules

WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, LATE
2010

43
Al Qaeda's “Foothold in Somalia Has Probably Been Facilitated”

SOMALIA
, 2010

44
“Anwar Awlaki...Definitely Has a Missile in His Future”

YEMEN
, 2011

45
The Curious Case of Raymond Davis: Act I

PAKISTAN
, 2011

46
The Curious Case of Raymond Davis: Act II

PAKISTAN
, 2011

47
The Tsunami of Change

AUSTRIA AND YEMEN, 2011

48
The Fortress in Abbottabad

WASHINGTON, DC
, 2010–2011;
PAKISTAN
, 2011

49
“We Got Him. We Got Him.”

PAKISTAN, 2011

50
“Now They're After My Son”

SOMALIA, WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN
, 2011

51
“It Was Cold-Blooded”

PAKISTAN
, 2011

52
“The US Sees al Qaeda as Terrorism, and We Consider the Drones Terrorism”

YEMEN, LATE
2011

53
The Pink House

SOMALIA, 2011

54
“Total Savagery Throughout the Country”

WASHINGTON, DC, AND SOMALIA
, 2011

55
Abdulrahman Vanishes

YEMEN
, 2011

56
Hellfire

WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN
, 2011

57
Paying for the Sins of the Father

WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN
, 2011

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

NOTES

INDEX