Dirty Wars (120 page)

298
government of the Seychelles
:
Craig Whitlock and Greg Miller, “U.S. Assembling Secret Drone Bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Officials Say,”
Washington Post
, September 20, 2011.

298
“
It would be a mistake
”:
Volman, “Obama Administration Budget Request for AFRICOM Operations.”

298
expanded to 5,200
:
“Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1872 (2009),” United Nations Security Council, October 2, 2009.

299
post-Ramadan offensive
:
Mohammed Ibrahim and Jeffrey Gettleman, “African Union Base in Somalia Is Hit,”
New York Times
, September 17, 2009.

299
two UN Land Cruisers
:
Details of the attack are from ibid.

299
single deadliest attack
:
Malkhadir M. Muhumed (AP), “Death Toll Rises to Twenty-one in Somalia Suicide Attack,”
Seattle Times
, September 17, 2009.

299
“
We have got our revenge
”:
Ibrahim Mohamed, “Suicide Car Bombers Hit Main AU Base in Somalia,” Reuters, September 17, 2009.

299
speaking English
:
Ibid.

299
was a US citizen
:
Jeffrey Gettleman, “American Helped Bomb Somalia Base, Web Site Says,”
New York Times
, September 25, 2009.

299
established in 2002
:
“Overviews,” Benadir University website,
www.benadiruniversity.net/Overviews.aspx
.

299
video of the ceremony
:
Author copy, video of graduation ceremony at Benadir University, December 2009. Many details of the attack are from the video.

300
five Somali government ministers
:
“Somalia Ministers Killed by Hotel Suicide Bomb,” BBC.co.uk, December 3, 2009.

300
higher education minister
:
Stephanie
McCrummen, “Attack at Graduation Ceremony Kills Nineteen in Somali Capital,”
Washington Post
, December 4, 2009.

300
health minister
:
Allie Shah, “Minneapolis Surgeon Feels Calling Back to Somalia,”
Star Tribune
, December 19, 2009.

300
“
Suddenly, the hall shook
”:
Abdinasir Mohamed, ‘“I Looked to My Right and Saw a Colleague Dead and Bleeding,'”
Wall Street Journal
, December 4, 2009.

300
“
national disaster
”:
Associated Press, “Bomber Dressed as Woman Kills Twenty-two Somalis,” FoxNews.com, December 3, 2009.

300
“
We beg the world
”:
McCrummen, “Attack at Graduation Ceremony.”

300
Danish citizen
:
“Somalia Suicide Bomber ‘Was from Denmark,'” BBC.co.uk, December 10, 2009.

301
“
did not mastermind that explosion
”:
Ibrahim Mohamed, “Somali Rebels Deny They Carried Out Suicide Bombing,”
Reuters
, December 4, 2009.

301
“
The struggle against violent extremism
”:
Transcript, “Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” West Point Military Academy, December 1, 2009.

301
“
Perhaps the most profound issue
”:
Transcript, “Remarks by the President at the Acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2009.

302
“
superb,” “tough
”:
Tweet from CBS White House Correspondent Mark Knoller (
@markknoller
), December 11, 2009,
http://twitter.com/markknoller/status/6567810262
.

302
“
liberal president
”:
Margaret Talev, “Unlikely Support: GOP Loved Obama's Nobel Speech,” McClatchy Newspapers, December 11, 2009.

302
“
most explicitly pro-war speech
”:
Glenn Greenwald, “The Strange Consensus on Obama's Nobel Address: Why Did So Many Liberals and Conservatives Both Find So Much to Cheer in the President's Foreign Policy Speech?” Salon.com, December 11, 2009.

303
three alleged AQAP members
:
Daniel Klaidman,
Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency
(New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), p. 199.

303
just forty-five minutes
:
Ibid.

303
some seventy-five officials
:
Ibid., p. 200.

303
“
near the village of al-Majalah
”:
Ibid., p. 199.

303
“
heavy pressure exerted
”:
Ibid., p. 210.

304
BlackBerry started ringing
:
Author interview, Sheikh Saleh bin Fareed, January 2012. All information and quotations attributed to bin Fareed are from the author's interview, unless otherwise noted.

304
read a press release
:
‘“Dozens Killed' in Yemen Raids,” AlJazeera.com, December 18, 2009.

304
arrived in southern Yemen
:
Paula Dear, “Britain's Long Relationship with Yemen,” BBC News Magazine, January 12, 2010,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8441263.stm
.

304
Crown colony
:
Ibid.

304
British withdrew
:
Ibid.

305
but he had overslept
:
Phil Hirschkorn, “Who Was Fahd al-Quso?” CBSNews.com, May 7, 2012.

305
“
People saw the smoke
”:
Author interview, Muqbal, January 2012. All quotations of Muqbal come from the author's interview.

306
“
I was making bread
”:
Author interview, female survivor, January 2012.

306
fourteen women and twenty-one children
:
Amnesty International, “Yemen: Cracking Down Under Pressure,” August 25, 2010.

306
three more people were killed
:
Chris Woods, “The Civilian Massacre the US Neither Confirms Nor Denies,”
Bureau of Investigative Journalism
, March 29, 2012.

306
“
We were only exposed to Western media
”:
Author interview, Kamal Sharaf, January 2012. All quotations of Kamal Sharaf come from the author's interview.

306
his relationship, through marriage
:
Ibid.

306
US Treasury Department-designated
:
Specially Designated Nationals List, Office of Foreign Assets Control, US Department of the Treasury, January 17, 2013,
www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/t11sdn.pdf
.

307
tried on a suicide vest
:
See, for example, Gregory D. Johnsen,
The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), pp. 235-238.

307
“
Special Access Program
”:
Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti, and Robert F. Worth, “Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents,”
New York Times
, August 14, 2010.

307
US-Yemen joint operations center
:
Dana Priest, “US Military Teams, Intelligence Deeply Involved in Aiding Yemen on Strikes,”
Washington Post
, January 27, 2010.

307
surveillance aircraft
:
Woods, “The Civilian Massacre the US Neither Confirms Nor Denies.” According to Woods, local residents had noticed a “spotter plane” overhead well before the strike.

307
another strike
:
Kimberly Dozier, “U.S.
Leading Assaults on al Qaeda in Yemen,” CBSNews.com, January 3, 2010.

308
preparing for strikes
:
Robert F. Worth, “Yemen Says Strikes Against Qaeda Bases Killed Thirty-Four,”
New York Times
, December 17, 2009.

308
a big fish
:
US diplomatic cable 09SANAA2250, from Ambassador Stephen Seche, US Embassy Sana'a, “Yemen Abuzz with Talk of CT Operations; Attention Slowly Turns to U.S. Role,” December 21, 2009, released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/12/09SANAA2250.html
.

308
“
an imminent attack
”:
Brian Ross, Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, Luis Martinez, and Kirit Radia, “Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists,” ABCNews.go.com, December 18, 2009.

308
“
JSOC operation with borrowed Navy subs
”:
Author interview, military source, November 2010.

308
“
successful pre-emptive operations
”:
Ian Black, “Yemen ‘Kills Thirty-four al-Qaida Members in Raids,'”
Guardian
, December 17, 2009.

308
“
carried out simultaneous raids
”:
Embassy of the Republic of Yemen; Office of Media and Public Affairs, Washington, DC, “Press Statement,” December 24, 2009.

308
“
thank him for his cooperation
”:
“Obama Hails Yemen's Efforts in Fighting Terror in Phone Call to President Salih,” Yemen News Agency (SABA), December 17, 2009.

308
Hosni Mubarak also phoned
:
“Saleh Receives Phone Call from Egyptian President,” Yemen News Agency (SABA), December 17, 2009.

308
questioned whether Yemen
:
Amnesty International, “Yemen: Cracking Down Under Pressure.”

308
BLU 97 A/B cluster bomblets
:
Ibid. Details of the bomblets and munitions are also from the Amnesty International report.

308
Yemen's arsenal
:
Kim Sengupta, “US Cruise Missile Parts Found in Yemeni Village Where Fifty-two Died,”
Independent
(UK), June 7, 2010.

309
“
We've actually done quite a bit
”:
Gordon Lubold, “Yemen's Air Strike on Al Qaeda May Signal New US Focus,”
Christian Science Monitor
, December 24, 2009.

309
“
largely nomadic, Bedouin families
”:
US diplomatic cable 09SANAA2251, from Ambassador Stephen Seche, US Embassy Sana'a, “ROYG Looks Ahead Following CT Operations, but Perhaps Not Far Enough,” December 21, 2009, released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/12/09SANAA2251.html
.

309
gathering of tribal leaders
:
Author interview, Sheikh Saleh bin Fareed, January 2012. The author relies on bin Fareed's account for his description of the tribal gathering.

311
“
Al Qaeda's war in Yemen
”:
Johnsen,
The Last Refuge
, pp. 255-256.

311
another cruise missile attack
:
Robert Worth, “Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan?”
New York Times Magazine
, July 6, 2010.

311
on-the-ground investigation
:
Author copy, Yemen Parliamentary Investigation. Details of the delegation's findings are from this report.

312
were puzzled
:
Author interviews, Yemeni journalists and security analysts, January 2012.

312
“
the involvement of the United States
”:
Eric Schmitt and Robert F. Worth, “US Widens Terror War to Yemen, a Qaeda Bastion,”
New York Times
, December 27, 2009.

312
sent a cable from Sana'a
:
Ambassador Stephen Seche, “ROYG Looks Ahead Following CT Operations, but Perhaps Not Far Enough.”

312
Pentagon would not respond
:
Amnesty International, “Yemen: Cracking Down Under Pressure.”

312
“
military strike of this kind
”:
Ibid.

312
“
cited strained resources
”:
Shane, Mazzetti, and Worth, “Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents.”

312
$100,000 to pay off the victims
:
Ambassador Stephen Seche, “ROYG Looks Ahead Following CT Operations, but Perhaps Not Far Enough.”

312
“
conducted very methodically
”:
Shane, Mazzetti, and Worth, “Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents.”

313
“
If I were Catholic
”:
Klaidman,
Kill or Capture
, p. 210.

313
“
non-stop until we eradicate this disease
”:
Ambassador Stephen Seche, “ROYG Looks Ahead Following CT Operations, but Perhaps Not Far Enough.”

313
“
stay quiet
”:
US diplomatic cable 09SANAA2274, from Chargé d'Affaires Angie Bryan, US Embassy Sana'a, “ROYG Acknowledges US Intel Assistance in AQAP Strikes, Makes Case Before Parliament,” December 27, 2009, released by WikiLeaks,
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/12/09SANAA2274.html
.

313
“
intelligence aid from Saudi Arabia
”:
Ahmed al-Haj (AP), “Yemen Claims Thirty Killed in Raid on Qaida Hide-Outs,” Guardian.co.uk, December 24, 2009.

313
“
It was cruise missile strikes
”:
Dozier, “U.S. Leading Assaults on al Qaeda in Yemen.”