Dirty Wars (98 page)

As of this writing, Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye remains locked up in a prison in Sana'a, in part due to the intervention of the White House. He should be set free.

AC1, Abbottabad Compound 1

ACCMs, Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures

AFOs, Advance Force Operations

AFRICOM, US Africa Command

AIAI, Al Itihaad al Islamiya

AMISOM, African Union Mission in Somalia

ANSF, Afghan National Security Forces

AOR, Area of Responsibility

AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

AQI, al Qaeda in Iraq

AQN ExOrd, Al Qaeda Network Execute Order

ASWJ, Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama

AUMF, Authorization for Use of Military Force

BIF, Battlefield Interrogation Facility

CAG, Combat Applications Group (also known as Delta Force)

CCR, Center for Constitutional Rights

CENTCOM, Central Command

CFR, Council on Foreign Relations

CID, Army Criminal Investigations Division

CINC, commander in chief

CJTF 180, Combined Joint Task Force 180

CJTF-HOA, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa

COIN, counterinsurgency

CONOP, Concept of Operations

CSF, Central Security Forces

CSSW, Charitable Society for Social Welfare

CT, counterterrorism

CTC, Counterterrorism Center

CTTL, Continuous Clandestine Tagging Tracking and Locating

DDTC, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls

DEVGRU, Naval Warfare Development Group (also known as Seal Team 6)

DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency

DoD, Department of Defense

E.K.I.A., Enemy Killed in Action

EC, Electronic Communications

EOD, Explosive Ordnance Disposal

FOG, Field Operations Group

FOUO, For Official Use Only

GRS, Global Response Staff

GST, Greystone

GTMO, or Gitmo, Guantánamo Bay

GWOT, Global War on Terror (or Terrorism)

HIG, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin

HUMINT, human intelligence

HVT, High Value Target

IC, Intelligence Community

ICG, International Crisis Group

ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross

ICU, Islamic Courts Union

IDPs, Internally Displaced Persons

INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service

IONA, Islamic Organization of North America

ISAF, International Security Assistance Force

ISI, Inter-Services Intelligence

ISR, Intelligence, Surveillance Reconnaissance

IWGCA, Interagency Working Group for Covert Action

JAG, Judge Advocate General

JIMAS, Association to Revive the Way of the Messenger

JPEL, Joint Prioritized Effects List

JPRA, Joint Personnel Recovery Agency

JSOC, Joint Special Operations Command

JUWTF, Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force

KIA, killed in action

LeT, Lashkar-e-Taiba

LIMDIS
, limited distribution

MLE, Military Liaison Elements

NBC, nuclear, biological, chemical

NGO, nongovernmental organization

NSA, National Security Agency

NSC, National Security Council

NSDD, National Security Decision Directive

NSPD, National Security Presidential Directive

NSS, National Security Service

OLC, Office of Legal Counsel

OSS, Office of Strategic Services

PAK, Pakistan

PET, Danish Intelligence Service

PETN, pentaerythritol tetranitrate

PNAC, Project for the New American Century

PSO, Political Security Organization

QRF, Quick Reaction Force

RAO, Regional Affairs Office

RPGs, rocket-propelled grenades

SAD, Special Activities Division of the CIA

SAP, Special Access Program

SAS, Special Air Service

SCUD, tactical ballistic missile

SEALs, Sea, Air, Land teams of the US Navy

SECDEF, or SecDef, or Secdef, secretary of defense

SELECT, an elite division of Blackwater

SERE, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape

SMU, Special Mission Unit

SO/LIC, Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict

SOC(FWD)-PAK, Special Operations Command-Forward Pakistan

SOC(FWD)-Yemen, Special Operations Command-Forward Yemen

SOCOM, Special Operations Command

SOF, Special Operations Forces

SOG, Studies and Observation Group

SOP, standard operating procedure

SSB, Strategic Support Branch

TADS, Terrorist Attack Disruption Strikes

TCCC, Tom Clancy Combat Concepts

TECS II, Treasury Enforcement Communications System

TF, Task Force

TFG, Transitional Federal Government

UAE, United Arab Emirates

USAID, US Agency for International Development

USG, US government

USSOCOM, US Special Operations Command

WFO, Washington Field Office

WMD, weapons of mass destruction

1
they gathered for a barbecue
:
Author interviews, Awlaki family members, January and August 2012. Details of the boy and the scene come from these interviews.

1
“You are a gentle boy”
:
Author interview, Saleha al Awlaki, September 2012.

3
10:10 a.m.
:
Joint Inquiry Briefing by Staff on US Government Counterterrorism Organizations (Before September 11, 2001) and on the Evolution of the Terrorist Threat and U.S. Response: 1986–2001, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, June 11, 2002.
All details of the briefing come from the transcript, unless otherwise noted.

3
loya jirga
:
Joe Havely, “The loya jirga: A Very Afghan Gathering,”
CNN.com
, June 11, 2002.

4
the attic, elevator, narrow staircase, counterespionage
:
“Tower Report Under Wraps in the Attic,”
New York Times,
February 27, 1989.

4
most experienced
:
Clarke describes his White House and counterterrorism credentials during the congressional briefing.

4
more covert action
: According to the 9/11 Commission Report, in 1998 Clarke “drew up what he called ‘Political-Military Plan Delenda,'” which laid out a plan to “immediately eliminate any significant threat to Americans” from the “Bin Ladin network.” The plan had diplomatic and financial components but also advocated “covert action to disrupt terrorist activities, but above all to capture Bin Ladin and his deputies and bring them to trial,” as well as “follow-on military action.” National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (Philip Zelikow, Executive Director; Bonnie D. Jenkins, Counsel; Ernest R. May, Senior Advisor), The 9/11 Commission Report (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), p. 120.

5
“splattering mud back on the Agency”
:
Joint Inquiry Briefing by Staff on US Government Counterterrorism Organizations (Before September 11, 2001) and on the Evolution of the Terrorist Threat and U.S. Response: 1986–2001, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, June 11, 2002
(testimony of Richard Clarke). All statements made by Richard Clarke come from the briefing, unless otherwise noted.

5
“political assassinations”
:
Executive Order No. 11905, Fed. Reg. 7703, 7733 (1976).

5
“engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination”
:
Executive Order No. 12036, Fed. Reg. 3674, 3688, 3689 (1978).

5
Muammar el Qaddafi
:
Seymour M. Hersh, “Target Qaddafi,”
New York Times Magazine,
February 22, 1987.

5
Saddam Hussein's palaces
:
“The United States Navy in ‘Desert Shield'/'Desert Storm'; V: ‘Thunder and Lightning'—The War with Iraq,” May 15, 1991, accessed August 5, 2012,
www.history.navy.mil/wars/dstorm/ds5.htm
. “TLAMs were used against chemical and nuclear weapons facilities, surface-to-air missile sites, command and control centers and Saddam's presidential palace.”

5
Desert Fox
:
William M. Arkin, “The Difference Was in the Details,”
Washington Post,
January 17, 1999.

6
cruise missile attacks
:
James Bennet, “U.S. Cruise Missiles Strike Sudan and Afghan Targets Tied to Terrorist Network,”
New York Times,
August 21, 1998.

6
pharmaceutical factory
:
James Astill, “Strike One,”
Guardian,
October 1, 2001.

6
case-by-case basis
:
Clarke says, “[The administration and the Justice Department] did not want to throw out the ban on assassination in a way that threw the baby out with the bathwater.”

6
trigger was seldom pulled
:
As Clarke put it, “CIA would ask for an authority. They would rapidly get it. We would wait. Nothing would happen.”

6
“
were held to the most restricted form of notification
”:
Representative Pelosi is speaking during the joint briefing.

7
key players
:
“Statement of Principles,” Project for the New American Century, June 3, 1997. Elliott Abrams, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and I. Lewis Libby were signatories to PNAC's letter.

7
“
decade of defense neglect
”:
“Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century,” Project for the New American Century, September 2000, p. 4.

7
“
provided a blueprint
”:
Ibid., Introduction, p. ii.

7
key authors
:
David Armstrong, “Dick Cheney's Song of America; Drafting a Plan for Global Dominance,”
Harper's,
October 2002.

7
“
potential competitors
”:
Patrick E. Tyler, “U.S. Strategy Plan Calls for Insuring No Rivals Develop,”
New York Times,
March 8, 1992.

8
more powerful forces, toned down
:
Jim Lobe, “Cold War ‘Intellectuals' Re-enlist for War on Iraq, Arabs,” Inter Press Service News Agency, November 17, 2001.

8
“
All must be easier to deploy
”:
Prepared address of George W. Bush, “A Period of Consequences,” The Citadel, Charleston, SC, September 23, 1999.

8
“
Ardent supporters
”:
Lobe, “Cold War ‘Intellectuals.'”

8
“
issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein
”:
“Rebuilding America's Defenses,” p. 14.

9
“
undo the Clinton signature
”:
Donald Rumsfeld, fax to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, “Subject: International Criminal Court,” February 23, 2001,
http://rumsfeld.com/library
.

9
“‘
the crazies are back'
”:
Transcript, “‘The Crazies Are Back': Bush Sr.'s Briefer Discusses How Wolfowitz and Allies Falsely Led the U.S. to War,”
Democracy Now!,
September 17, 2003.

9
Rumsfeld hired Cheney
:
Charlie Savage,
Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy
(New York: Bay Back Books, 2008), p. 9.

9
Congress condemned
:
Ibid., pp. 25–26.

9
overrode an attempt
:
Richard L. Madden, “House and Senate Override Veto by Nixon on Curb of War Powers; Backers of Bill Win Three-Year Fight,”
New York Times,
November 7, 1973.

9
“
consult with Congress
”:
Joint Resolution Concerning the War Powers of Congress and the President, Pub. L. No. 93–148, Sec. 3–4(1973)

10
“
low point
”:
Bob Woodward, “Cheney Upholds Power of the Presidency; Vice President Praises Bush as Strong, Decisive Leader Who Has Helped Restore Office,”
Washington Post,
January 20, 2005.

10
domestic spying operations
:
Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Final Report; Book III: Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Senate Rep. No. 94–755 (1976).

10
Salvador Allende
:
Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Staff Report, Covert Action in Chile, 1963–1973 (1975).

10
stymied the probe
:
Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (The Church Committee), United States Senate website, accessed October 5, 2012,
www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/investigations/ChurchCommittee.htm
.

10
compel the FBI, rebuffed
:
Adam Liptak, “Cheney's To-Do Lists, Then and Now,”
New York Times,
February 11, 2007.

10
congressional committees
:
Overview of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Responsibilities and Activities, SSCI website, accessed October 5, 2012,
www.intelligence.senate.gov/about.html
; “The CIA and Congress: The Creation of the HPSCI,” CIA website, accessed October 5, 2012,
www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2011-featured-story-archive/cia-and-congress-hpsci.html
.