The Longest War (66 page)

46
simple exhaustion
: My own analysis based on discussions with U.S. national security officials familiar with the handling of the
Cole
incident.

46
“possibility of a missile attack”
: The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has released a series of documents and analyses relating to al-Qaeda; this document comes from that series. Document AFGP-2002-801138 from West Point’s release of “Harmony” documents.
http://ctc.usma.edu/harmony/
harmony_menu.asp
;
http://ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/AFGP-
2002-801138-Trans.pdf
.

46
split up
: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 191.

46
Cheney was briefed
: Gellman 2002 op. cit.

46
“We know all we need to”
: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 509, fn 180. Around this time, Clarke wrote Rice and Hadley that the Yemeni prime minister told a State Department official that while Yemen was not saying so publicly the Yemeni government was 99 percent certain that bin Laden was responsible for the
Cole
operation.

46
“no enthusiasm, no interest”
: Roger Cressey interview, Washington, D.C. November 24, 2009.

46
strongly implying its responsibility
: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 509, fn 180.

47
“inadequate, ineffective responses”
: Stephen Hadley, interview by author, Washington, D.C., December 15, 2009.

47
“we are untouchables”
: Ali Soufan interview by author, Manhattan, New York, December 17, 2009.

47
had renewed in June 2001
: “Bush decides to keep Afghan sanctions,”
Reuters
, July 3, 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/03/world/bush-
decides-to-keep-afghan-sanctions.html
.

47
“blinking red”
: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 259; “unprecedented”: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 262.

47
a representative sampling
: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., pp. 533–535.

48
repeatedly warned
: 9/11 Commission, op. cit., p. 199, and interview by author with Warren Bass, February 1, 2010.

48
“Multiple and simultaneous attacks”
: George Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
(New York: Harper Collins, 2007), pp. 150–153.

48
“battle stations”
: Rice 9/11 Commission testimony, op. cit.

48
On August 6
: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit. p 260 and p. 534 fn 35.

48
only “historical”
: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 260.

48
“Was the piece historical”
: Barbara Sude, interview by author, December 16, 2009, Washington, D.C.

48
seventy ongoing investigations
: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 262.

49
never publicly discussed
: Michael Allen and Dana Milbank, “Bush gave no sign of worry in August 2001,”
Washington Post
, April 11, 2004.

49
longest presidential vacation
: Jim VandeHei, Peter Baker, “Vacationing Bush poised to set a record,”
Washington Post
, August 3, 2005.
http://www.washington-post.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201703.html
.

49
no evidence
: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 262.

49
wide-ranging and emblematic interview
: Fox Special Report with Brit Hume, August 6, 2001. Interview with Jim Angle.

49
daily meetings
: Clarke op. cit., p. 213, Michael Sheehan interview, New York City, November 21, 2009, and Roger Cressey interview and Bruce Riedel,
The Search for al-Qaeda
(Brookings: Washington, D.C., 2008), p. 96.

49
“an adversary that poses a serious threat”
: Andrew Cockburn,
Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 118.

51
“A second plane”
: Bob Woodward,
Bush At War
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 15.

51
“kick their asses”
: Woodward,
Bush At War
, op. cit., p. 18.

52
“not only UBL”
: Bob Woodward,
Plan of Attack
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 25, and 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 559, fn. 63.

52
“Not Iraq”
: David Cloud and Greg Jaffe,
The Fourth Star
(New York: Crown Publishing, 2009). p. 125.

52
“see if Saddam was involved”
: Richard Clarke,
Against All Enemies
(New York: Free Press, 2004), p. 32.

52
“their frontal lobe issue”
: Roger Cressey interview Washington, D.C., November 24, 2009.

52
worked up a memo
: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 334.

53
“I can hear you”
: George W. Bush, New York, NY, September 14, 2001,
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/
releases/2001/09/20010914-9.html
.

53
“poll ratings”
: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, “Backing for War on Terrorism,” September 20, 2001.
http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/
865a1%20Bush%20Address.pdf

53
personal interest
: Interview by author with Amb. Cofer Black, Washington, D.C., February 6, 2003.

53
a matter of weeks
: Tenet op. cit., pp. 175–176.

53
“flies walking across their eyeballs”
: Woodward op. cit., 2004, p. 52.

53
several of the key arguments
: Douglas J. Feith,
War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism
(New York: HarperCollins, 2008), pp. 13–16.

53
Rumsfeld sent a directive
: Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor,
COBRA II
(New York: Vintage, 2006), p. 22.

54
many assignments around South Asia
: Schroen op. cit., pp. 57–60.

54
“take a small team”
: Schroen op. cit., pp. 15–16.

54
at Camp David
: Tenet op. cit., p. 177.

54
the future outlines
: Karen DeYoung,
Soldier: the Life of Colin Powell
(New York: Vintage, 2007), p. 350.

54
meeting was somber
: John McLaughlin, interview by author, December 7, 2009, Washington, D.C.

54
off-the-shelf-plan
: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 332.

55
no military plan ready
: Feith op. cit., p. 88.

55
“airpower-based approach”
: Stephen Hadley, interview by author, Washington, D.C., December 15, 2009.

55
one hundred sources and sub sources
: Hank Crumpton, “Intelligence and War: Afghanistan, 2001–2002,” in Jennifer Sims and Burton Gerber,
Transforming U.S. Intelligence
(Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2005). p. 163, and Hank Crumpton interview Washington, D.C. November 6, 2009.

55
the plan Tenet presented to Bush
: Woodward op. cit., 2004, p. 51.

55
“the color drained”
: Condoleezza Rice, PBS Frontline, “Campaign Against Terror,” July 12, 2002.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/
campaign/interviews/rice.html

55
“10 to 50 percent”
: Woodward op. cit. 2004, p. 83.

56
the lack of hard evidence
: See chapters 9 and 10 in this book for more on this point.

56
“this round”
: 9/11 Commission Report op. cit., p. 335.

56
“projecting a spectacular attack”
: John McLaughlin, PBS Frontline, “The Dark Side,” January 11, 2006.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
darkside/interviews/mclaughlin.html
.

56
voted to go to war
: Rumsfeld abstained and Cabinet voted; Tenet op. cit., p. 306.

56
Iraq was involved
: Woodward op. cit., 2004, p. 99, and Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, “Combating terrorism: it starts today,” Washington Post, February 1, 2002.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/07;sh18/AR2006071800703_pf.html
(which says the president made this comment the following morning of September 17).

56
a sing-along
: Bumiller op. cit., p. 166.

56
“the CIA in there first”
: John McLaughlin, interview by author, December 7, 2009, Washington, D.C.

56
Bush also signed
: Glenn Kessler, “U.S. decision on Iraq has puzzling past; opponents of war wonder when, how policy was set,”
Washington Post
, January 12, 2003.

56
better than one in ten
: 9/11 Commission Report, op. cit., p. 336.

56
military options for Iraq
: Feith op. cit., p. 218. Also on September 17, Bush sent a 12 page memorandum to the CIA Director authorizing him to detain terrorists and set up a secret detention program for them outside the United States. United Nations Human Rights Council, “Joint study on global practices in relation to secret detention in the context of countering terrorism of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.” January 26, 2010, p. 51.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/
docs/13session/A-HRC-13-42.doc
.

57
“I want bin Laden’s head”
: Schroen op. cit., p. 38.

57
eighty million Americans
: Stanley A. Reshon, “Presidential Address,”
Political Psychology
, 2005, p. 592.

57
“a lengthy campaign”
: George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress, Washington, D.C., September 20, 2001,
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/
news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html
. For a good account of the writing of the speech see Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, “A Presidency Defined in One Speech,”
Washington Post
, February 1, 2002.

57
“They hate our freedoms”
: George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress, September 20, 2001, Washington, D.C.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/
news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html
.

57
largely silent about American freedoms
: In a review of 24 authentic statements made by bin Laden from 1994 to 2004, 72% of the content of the speeches referred to supposed Western or Jewish aggression against or exploitation of Muslims, while only 1% criticized the American way of life or culture, James L. Payne, Independent Review 2008:
http://www.independent.org/publications/
tir/article.asp?a=689
.

58
What went unsaid
: While the United States imports much of its energy from Mexico, Canada, and Venezuela, it is the Gulf countries’ enormous oil reserves that allows them to set prices in the world’s oil market.

58
“The first, the supreme”
: Carl von Clausewitz,
On War
(1832).

59
Authorization of the Use of Military Force
: U.S. Congress. House of Representatives and Senate.
Authorization of the use of Military Force
. 107th Congress, 1st session. S.J. Res. 23. Washington, GPO: 2001.

59
“combat by all means”
: United Nations, Security Council, SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS, ‘IN STRONGEST TERMS’, TERRORIST ATTACKS ON UNITED STATES, Unanimously Adopting Resolution 1368 (2001), Council Calls on All
States to Bring Perpetrators to Justice. September 12, 2001.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/
2001/SC7143.doc.htm
.

59
invoked Article 5
: Toby Harden et al, “Nato: massacre an attack on all members,”
Telegraph (UK)
, September 13, 2001.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world news/1340439/
Nato-massacre-an-attack-on-all-members.html
.

59
massive American airpower
: Woodward op. cit. 2002; some three hundred U.S. Special Forces soldiers: Hank Crumpton, speech at Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 14, 2008.
http://csis.org/files/media/csis/
press/080114_smart_crumpton.pdf
.

59
on the afternoon of September 26
: Schroen op. cit., p. 78; Gary Schroen, PBS Frontline, “The Dark Side,” January 20, 2006.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
darkside/interviews/schroen.html

59
surprise appearance
: Osama bin Laden, “Statement,” October 7, 2001. Aired on Al Jazeera.

60
linked up with
: Schroen op. cit., p. 194.

60
“death ray”
: PBS Frontline, “Campaign Against Terror,” May 7, 2002.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/
campaign/interviews/595.html
.

60
But the American press
: R. W. Apple., Jr. “A military quagmire remembered: Afghanistan as Vietnam,”
New York Times
, October 31, 2001.

60
“figured they were going to beat us”
: Gary Berntsen, interview by author, October 27, 2009, Washington, D.C.

60
“The more the merrier”
: Gary Berntsen, interview.

61
A couple of weeks
: Osama bin Laden (Lawrence) op. cit., p. 106; Transcript of bin Laden’s October [2002] interview with Al Jazeera’s Taysir Allouni, translated by CNN, February 5, 2002.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/
south/02/05/binladen.transcript/index.html
.

61
“America claims”
: For reasons that Al Jazeera has never convincingly elucidated, the network did not air this interview for a year. At one point Al Jazeera explained that the decision not to broadcast the interview was because it wasn’t newsworthy, an explanation which was, to put it politely, ludicrous. If bin Laden had simply read from the phone book during the interview it would have still been news, as this was bin Laden’s
only
post-9/11 television interview. In fact, the Al Jazeera interview was both wide-ranging and newsworthy; which only came to light three months later when CNN broadcast the interview without Al Jazeera’s permission.