Dirty Wars (50 page)

Following Kappes's visit with Saleh in May, as part of the coordinated CIA-military-JSOC-State Department plan on Yemen, Hillary Clinton authorized the US ambassador in Yemen, Stephen Seche, to negotiate with Saleh for the United States to be able to
fly drones and US helicopters
over Yemen's territorial waters at will. Seche was directly told not to put anything on paper and to discuss the proposal only in person. The official reason Seche was to give Saleh for the flyover rights was that CENTCOM needed access for its drones to “interdict the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.” Among Seche's talking points with Saleh was US intelligence purportedly showing that a “significant volume of arms shipments to Hamas make the short 24-hour transit across the Red Sea from Yemen to Sudan.” Another was that the United States had discovered that “a weapons smuggling network originating in Yemen is supplying weapons to individuals in Africa who are delivering them to various entities there, potentially including al-Qa'ida associated terrorist groups.” Yemen's cooperation with the drones and helicopters “would greatly enhance CENTCOM's ability to gain the intelligence required to identify and track” the shipments. Although part of the US intent in brokering this agreement may well have been to track weapons smuggling, its timing suggests it was a cover story.

General Petraeus flew to Yemen on July 26, 2009, to continue
laying the groundwork
for the joint CIA-military plan to escalate targeting of AQAP. The general brought a gift for Saleh—official confirmation that Obama was increasing military aid to Yemen. In return, Petraeus pressed Saleh to go directly after al Qaeda. For both Saleh and the United States, it was important that Yemen appear to be fighting AQAP on its own and to conceal the extent of US involvement, which was expanding by the day.

A week after the meeting with Petraeus, Saleh
deployed his nephew
, Ammar Muhammad Abdullah Saleh—a senior commander of the National Security Bureau—to Marib, a hotbed of al Qaeda activity. Ammar's mission was to take down a suspected al Qaeda cell in an operation intended to show Washington that Saleh was serious. It was a disaster. Despite Ammar's negotiations with local tribal leaders on the terms of the assault, the Yemeni counterterrorism units botched it. Instead of shelling the al Qaeda safe house, they hit a tribal compound, sparking a gun battle in which tribal fighters actually joined with AQAP in attacking the government forces. A military supply truck got lost and was captured by al Qaeda operatives. In the end, Saleh's forces lost five tanks and several troops, and seven of their soldiers were taken prisoner. AQAP quickly capitalized on the debacle, naming it the “Battle of Marib” and
posting a video online
that featured the captured soldiers. Although the operation was a colossal failure, it was also useful for the United States and Saleh because it was a
very public show that the Yemeni government was fighting AQAP, thus helping to cloak US actions in Yemen.

On August 10, in a town hall meeting with US troops, Admiral Mullen was asked “what regions we as the military can expect to focus on in the coming not year, two years, but five years and 10 years.” Mullen responded that what he had “watched al-Qaeda do in the last five or six years is federate,” adding, “
I worry about safe havens
being created in Yemen and Somalia, for example. Not unlike what they had in Afghanistan when this started in 2001.” He also mentioned North Africa, the Philippines and Indonesia. “It is a growing network over time,” Mullen said.

The Obama administration expanded the number of US Special Operations Forces trainers in Yemen. “They [the Yemenis]
got free training
from the elite of the elite of the US military—the best of the best,” the former aide to a special operations commander told me. “The ‘Advise and Assist' guys, mostly led by DEVGRU. Their job is to teach you how to blow shit up and fly choppers and do night raids and they are very good at it.” While the training expanded, so too did unilateral, covert, lethal operations by JSOC.

YEMEN,
2009—As President Obama was settling into the Oval Office, Anwar Awlaki was busy building up his website and spreading his message. He posted an essay on his blog titled “Suicide or Martyrdom?” Although cloaked in the language of a debate about whether suicide is a mortal sin in Islam, it ultimately was a defense of suicide bombing. “
Today the world turns upside down
when one Muslim performs a martyrdom operation. Can you imagine what would happen if that is done by seven hundred Muslims on the same day?!” Awlaki wrote. “Brothers and sisters whether you agree or not with martyrdom operations let's leave our differences behind us, and let us support our Muslim brothers who are in the frontlines. Just like we disagree on many other issues, we should not let our disagreements stand in the way of our solidarity in the face of our adversaries.” The post received more than three hundred comments, many of them praising Awlaki. A few weeks before he published that essay, Awlaki had posted links to one of his most popular treatises, “44 Ways to Support Jihad.” In February, Awlaki posted links for free downloads of many of his most popular lectures. With each new blog entry, Awlaki was thumbing his nose at the US authorities who had tried to silence him and bury him away in a Yemeni dungeon. Now, here was Awlaki, operating online in full view, encouraging Muslims to fight against the disbelievers and labeling the United States and its allies a “scourge” and “
the greatest terrorists of all
.”

In March 2009, Awlaki addressed a religious conference in Pakistan via Internet stream. “I'm
speaking to you from Yemen
at the moment, and there are some similarities between Yemen and Pakistan, so when speaking about one, it is like speaking about the other,” Awlaki, his voice tinged with the effects of digitization, told the gathering. “Both countries are important US partners in the war on terror. Both countries have lost their sovereignty to the US by having drones strike within their territory.” Both have “been used as supply stations for America's war against Muslims. And both countries are ruled by crooks.” Awlaki said he wanted to talk straight to his audience because “sugar coating is not going to do anyone any benefit. So, if we want to change our situation, we really need to sit
down and think about it and decide what the illness is, what the symptoms are, and how to cure it.”

During his speech, he called on all able-bodied Muslims to join the jihad against the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, and he encouraged those who could not fight to donate money to the causes. “We're following the tails of cows, and we have left jihad in the path of Allah. And that's why we are being humiliated now. And this humiliation will not be lifted,” he said. The United States and its allies depend on “might—their powerful aircrafts, their carriers in the ocean, their soldiers with their hi-tech weaponry and their advanced missiles. This is might. So how can we restrain their might? Is it through negotiations? Is it through giving up? Is it through surrendering? Is it through bending backwards for them?” Awlaki asked rhetorically. “Brothers and sisters, if we are not going to fight today, then when will we fight? Muslim land is occupied, oppression is wide spread, the laws of Quran are neglected, what other time is better for jihad than today?”

Nasser Awlaki was growing concerned about his son. Everything the elder Awlaki was hearing from his friends and colleagues in the Yemeni government was ominous. Senior intelligence officials were warning him that the Americans intended to kill Anwar. They spoke of drones taking him out in the hinterlands of Shabwah, where Anwar was living. The Yemeni president personally called Nasser and begged him to persuade Anwar to return to Sana'a. “At that time,
when the president was calling me
, and telling me to bring my son, there was a directive from the minister of interior and the security people to capture him,” Nasser told me. “And the governor of Shabwah called me and said, ‘Look, we have an order from the Ministry of Interior, and the security people to capture your son.'”

This was no surprise to Anwar. In his family's village in Shabwah, Anwar was living in his grandfather's four-story mud house, recording sermons and writing his blog. Soon after he arrived, Yemeni security forces began regularly
positioning their vehicles
and weapons at the
wadi
(valley) that ran along the front of the house. Anwar told his father that they would point their automatic weapons at the house, trying to intimidate him. “Look, my son, I don't want you to be harassed because you either will kill somebody, or somebody will kill you,” Nasser told Anwar in a phone call. “So please keep calm. No matter what they do, please be calm.” Nasser feared that if the Yemeni forces tried to seize Anwar, a firefight could break out between the Aulaq tribe and Yemeni security forces.

In May 2009, at the behest of the Yemeni president, Nasser and his wife traveled to Shabwah to meet with Anwar and ask him to return to Sana'a with them. “This is
what the president wants
,” Nasser told his son. “He's
under pressure from the Americans.” They discussed the order for Anwar's arrest. “You are my father,” Anwar told Nasser. “How can you bring me to Sana'a when these people want to put me in prison? How can you be assured, father, that the Americans will not do something against me?” Nasser told his son that he could not provide him with any guarantees, but he believed it was Anwar's safest move. Anwar would not budge. “
I will not allow the Americans
to tell me which direction to position my bed,” Anwar said. “
It was a heated discussion
,” Nasser later told me. “And that was unfortunate, for me, because it was last time I talked to him, and we were not on very good terms at that time.”

Saleh bin Fareed also spoke to Anwar and concluded that his nephew wasn't doing any harm in rural Shabwah. If anything, he thought Anwar would get into less trouble there. Bin Fareed called Yemen's intelligence chief, General Galib al Qamish. “
You and the Americans
, I think, are wrong,” he told the general. Anwar “sits there, in a village of 1,000 or 2,000 people. If you think he is dangerous, and he comes to Sana'a, he will be meeting 2 million people. It's better to leave him there.” Qamish sighed. “It's not what the Americans want.” Why the Americans were so obsessed with Anwar was not clear to bin Fareed. How could a preacher in rural Yemen pose a threat to the most powerful nation on earth? he wondered.

Anwar didn't care what the Americans wanted. When his parents returned to Sana'a, Anwar began plotting his next move. As he saw it, his family had acted as intermediaries for the Yemeni government, which wanted Anwar arrested. The Americans were calling the shots. They knew where he was and their drones could find him. He had no choice: surrender or go underground. His wife and children would be left in Sana'a under the care of his parents. Anwar was being pushed, and eventually he sought the comradeship and protection of other outlaws being hunted in Yemen. “
What am I accused of
? That I call to the truth? That I call to Jihad for the sake of Allah, and in defense of the Islamic nation's causes?” Awlaki asserted. “The same goes for the Americans. I have no intention of turning myself in to them. If they want me, let them search for me.”

NIDAL HASAN,
the US army psychiatrist, kept writing to Anwar Awlaki, even though his e-mails were receiving no responses. He posed questions to Awlaki about theology and about Hamas's fight against the Israeli government, asking, among other things, “Is it Permissible to Fire
Unguided Rockets into Israel
?” After a few lengthy e-mails, Hasan shifted gears and started asking Awlaki how he could donate money to his causes. He suggested that Awlaki give an address where money orders or checks could be sent, rather than using online services. “
This can assure privacy
for some
who are concerned,” Hasan wrote. That same day, Hasan wrote Awlaki again. “InshAllah, A
$5,000.00 scholarship
prize is being awarded for the best essay/piece entitled ‘Why is Anwar Al Awlaki a great activist and leader'. We would be honored if you would award the prize.” Hasan added a P.S.: “We met briefly a very long time ago when you were the Imam at Dar al-Hijra. I doubt if you remember me. In any case I have since graduated medical school and finished residency training.” Awlaki finally replied. “
I pray this message reaches you
at the best state of emaan [health],” he wrote Hasan. “Jazakum Allahu khairan [May Allah reward you in goodness] for thinking good of me. I don't travel so I wont be able to physically award the prize and I am too ‘embarrassed' for a lack of the better word to award it anyway. May Allah assist you in your efforts.”

Awlaki gave no indication that he remembered Hasan at all. Hasan wrote back, once again offering money to Awlaki and adding a postscript saying he was “
looking for a wife
that is willing to strive with me to please Allah.... I will strongly consider a recommendation coming from you.” Awlaki replied, “
Thanks for the offer
for help. Well it is needed but I just don't know how to do it. There are poor people, orphans, widows, dawa [proselytizing on behalf of Islam] projects, and the list goes on. So if you have any ideas on how to get help across and in accordance to law in a climate that is strict to start with please let me know. Tell more about yourself. I will keep an eye for a sister.” Sent on February 22, 2009, that was the last e-mail Awlaki is known to have sent to Hasan.

Over the next several months Hasan continued to e-mail Awlaki. “
I know your busy
. Please keep me in your rolodex in case you find me useful and feel free to call me collect,” Hasan wrote. From there on out, the communications were a one-way road. The tone of Hasan's e-mails became like that of a patient in therapy attempting to work through difficult life decisions. In one e-mail, sent in May 2009, Hasan pontificated on the morality of suicide bombings and raised “
the issue of ‘collateral damage
' where a decision is made to allow the killing of innocents for a valuable target. [In] the Qur'an it states to fight your enemies as they fight you but don't transgress. So, I would assume that suicide bomber whose aim is to kill enemy soldiers or their helpers but also kill innocents in the process is acceptable. Furthermore, if enemy soldiers are using other tactics that are unethical/unconscionable than those same tactics may be used.” Hasan ended his note by telling Awlaki, “We miss hearing from you!”