The Longest War (76 page)

196
Taliban had a permanent presence
: International Council on Security and Development, “Struggle for Kabul: The Taliban Advance,” London, UK, December 2008, p. 9.

196
by 2008 more American
: iCasualties.org; compare U.S. casualties in Iraq in June 2008 (29) to Afghanistan (46).
http://icasualties.org/oef/
.

196
“
not
part of the formula”
: David Barno quoted in Peter Bergen, “How Osama bin Laden beat George W. Bush,”
The New Republic
, October 15, 2007.
http://www.lawandsecurity.org/get_article/?id=82
; and David Barno, “Fighting the other war,”
Military Review
, September/October 2007.
http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/CAC/milreview/
English/SepOct07/barnoengseptoct07.pdf
.

197
“God has bestowed”
: Al Jazeera, “Al-Qaeda’s Afghan head named,” May 24, 2007.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2007/05/
20085251431519301.html
.

197
“We are at war”
: Mohammed Siddique Khan, al Jazeera, released September 2, 2005.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/
middleeast/1497473/We-areat-war-I-am-a-soldier.html
.

197
“The plague bacillus”
: Albert Camus,
The Plague
(1947).

197
happy, even euphoric
: U.K. House of Commons Home Office Narrative of 7 July 2005 Bombings, news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_05_06_narrative.pdf.

198
an unremarkable bunch
: United Kingdom, House of Commons, Report of the Official Account of the Bombings in London on 7th July 2005; a keen cricketer: Ian Herbert and Arifa Akbar, “He was proud to be British,”
The Independent
, July 14, 2005,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/shahzad-tanweer-i-cannot-begin-to-explain-this-he-was-proud-to-be-british-498754.html
; “red Mercedes”: London Investigation Update, PBS, July 13, 2005.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/july-dec05/london_7–13.html
.

198
They seemed utterly ordinary
: Milan Ray,
7-7: The London Bombings, Islam, and the Iraq War
(London: Pluto Press, 2006), p. 10; buy jihadi videos: Richard Watson, “Rise of the British Jihad,”
Granta 103
,
http://www.granta.com/Magazine/
Granta-103, p. 49.

198
link up there with militant groups
: Home Office Report op. cit.

198
a farewell video
: Watson op. cit., p. 74; and Lee Glendinning, “Look after mummy,”
Guardian
, April 25, 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/25/july7.uksecurity
.

199
Typical of this view
: David Leppard and Robert Winnett, “Blair’s extremism proposals attacked as the hunt continues for terror’s new breed,”
The Sunday Times
(London), August 7, 2005.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/arti cle552690.ece
.

199
videotape of Khan
: London bomber: text in full, BBC News, September 1, 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4206800.stm
.

199
Zawahiri himself made an appearance
: “CIA: bomber tape ‘appears genuine,’” CNN.com, September 2, 2005.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/
WORLD/europe/09/02/london.tape.cia/index.html
; and Alan Cowell, “Al Jazeera video links London bombings to al-Qaeda,”
New York Times
, September 2, 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/international/
europe/02london.html
.

199
martyrdom video
: BBC News, “Video of 7 July bomber released,” July 6, 2006.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5154714.stm
.

199
Khan returned to England
: House of Commons Report op. cit., p. 20; noticed that their plants were wilting: Silber et al op. cit, p. 49; bleach their hair: Watson op. cit., p. 52; commercial grade refrigerator: Christopher Dickey,
Securing the City: Inside America’s Best Counterterror Force—the NYPD
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), p. 212.

200
cost around £8,000
: House of Commons report op. cit., p. 23.

200
to watch videos
: Sarah Lyall, “In Britain, migrants took a new path: to terrorism,”
New York Times
, July 28, 2005.

200
black burqa
: Steve Bird, “21/7 leader Yassin Omar’s fiancée is jailed for disguising him in burka,”
The Times (London)
, July 12, 2008.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
news/uk/crime/article4319160.ece
.

200
Prosecutors said
: Alison Pargeter,
The New Frontiers of Jihad: Radical Islam in Europe
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2008), p. 159; BBC News, “Four guilty over 21/7 bomb plot,” July 10, 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6284350.stm
.

200
“to do jihad”, “convicted Ibrahim”
: Pargeter op. cit., p. 159; BBC News, “Four guilty over 21/7 bomb plot,” July 10, 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6284350.stm
.

201
popped up
: For instance, two tapes from bin Laden were released on May 15, 2008 and May 18, 2008.

201
“on the run”
: George W. Bush quoted in Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde, “Signs of al-Qaeda resurgence,”
New York Times
, February 19, 2007,
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/19/africa/
web.0219intel.php?page=2
.

201
“We Won”
: James Fallows, “Declaring victory,”
The Atlantic
, September 2006.

201
“Al-Qaeda is operationally dead”
: Marlena Telvick, “Al-Qaeda’s New Front,” PBS
Frontline
,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
shows/front/etc/today.html
.

201
“the present threat”
: Marc Sageman,
Leaderless Jihad
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), p. viii.

201
“main terrorist threat”
: Marc Sageman, “The homegrown young radicals of next-gen jihad,”
Washington Post
, June 8, 2008.

202
“a fundamental misreading”
: Bruce Hoffman, “The myth of grass-roots terrorism,”
Foreign Affairs
, May/June 2008.

202
“the go-to guy”
: Elaine Sciolino and Eric Schmitt, “A not very private feud over terrorism,”
New York Times
, June 8, 2008.

202
“a typical pyramid organization”
: Louis Beam, “Leaderless resistance,”
The Seditionist
, February 1992.
http://www.louisbeam.com/leaderless.htm
.

202
set up his own training camp
: Brynjar Lia,
Architect of Global Jihad: The life of al-Qaeda strategist Abu Musab al-Suri
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), p. 230.

203
Videotapes recovered
: Key sections of the tapes were translated by Mohannad Hage Ali, who reports on al-Qaeda for
Al Hayat
in London, material that was translated for
The Osama bin Laden I Know
(New York: Free Press, 2006).

203
“nizam la tanzim”
: Lia op. cit., p. 421.

203
assassination of Theo van Gogh
: “Gunman kills Dutch film director,” BBC, November 2, 2004.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3974179.stm
.

204
dead man’s chest
: For an excellent account of the van Gogh assassination see Ian Buruma,
Murder in Amsterdam
(New York: Penguin, 2006).

204
There had been some discussion
: Gabriel Weimann,
Terror on the Internet
(Washington, D.C.: USIP Press, 2006), p. 133.

204
Spain a potential target
: Osama bin Laden audiotape, “A message to the Americans,” aired on Al Jazeera, October 18, 2003.

204
the Madrid attacks
: Spanish police calculated the attacks cost between 41,000 and 54,000 Euros. Javier Jordan, Fernando M. Manas, Nicola Horsburgh, “Strengths and Weaknesses of Grassroot Jihadist Networks in the West,”
Studies in Conflict and Terrorism
, 31:1, January 2008.

204
a known jihadist organization
: Fernando Reinares, “Jihadist radicalization and the 2004 Madrid bombing network,” CTC
Sentinel
, November 2009.

204
“many groups without links”
: Author interview with Armando Spataro, Florence, Italy, May 22, 2008.

204
“a fundamental reference point”
: Author interview with Baltasar Garzon, Florence, Italy, May 23, 2008.

204
was resurging
: “Terrorist Threat to the U.S. homeland,” National Intelligence Estimate, July 2007.

204
Jonathan Evans
: Jonathan Evans, address to the Society of Editors, November 5, 2007, Manchester, England.
https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/intelligence-counter-terrorism-and-trust.html
.

205
“a dime a dozen”
: Author interview with Michael Sheehan, Florence, Italy, May 22, 2008.

205
“almost mathematical increase”
: Author interview with Philip Mudd, Florence, Italy, May 23, 2008.

205
“We have seen an influx”
: Prepared Testimony of Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Washington, D.C., February 5, 2008.

206
were directed by al-Qaeda
: “Bin Laden allegedly planned attack in Turkey,”
Associated Press
, December 17, 2003.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3735645/
.

206
he lectured into the camera
: BBC News, “Suicide videos: what they said,” April 4, 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7330367.stm
.

206
On July 4
: Emails from Ali’s trial that British prosecutors obtained from the American email service Yahoo! and published, in part, by the
Wall Street Journal
September 7, 2009. Original email trial exhibits in author collection.

206
“a couple of weeks”
: Duncan Gardham, “Airline bomb plot: one of the biggest since WW2,”
Telegraph
, September 8, 2009.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6152185/Airline-bomb-plot-investigation-one-of-biggest-since-WW2.html

207
“We’ve got our virgins”
: Greenberg et al. op. cit.

207
began to chair meetings
: Michele Malvesti, interview by author, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2010.

207
“They had a bomb-making factory”
: Author interview with Frances Fragos Townsend, by author, Washington, D.C., December 7, 2009.

207
When Ali was arrested
: Nico Hines, “Terror mastermind Abdullah Ahmed Ali guilty of bombing plot,”
Times of London
, September 8, 2008.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/news/uk/crime/article4707468.ece
; “time taken”: David Byers, “Terror gang plotted to blow up transatlantic airlines,”
Times of London
, April 3, 2008.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/news/uk/crime/article3674413.ece
. Most of the details of the case are taken from the opening statement of Mr. Wright, the prosecutor in the case. Author collection.

208
HMTD
: traces of hexamine: Sciolino op. cit.

208
some fifteen hundred passengers would have died
: Richard Greenberg, Paul Cruickshank, and Chris Hansen, “Inside the plot that rivaled 9/11,” Dateline NBC, September 14, 2009.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26726987/
.

208
“get a move on”
: Henry Chu and Sebastian Rotella, “Three Britons convicted of plot to blow up planes,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 8, 2009,
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/08/world/fg-britain-verdict8?pg=3
.

208
twenty-nine bottles
: Agence France Press, “Terror charges dropped against alleged UK terror mastermind,” December 13, 2006.

208
“Who are these people?”
Bruce Riedel, interview by author, Washington, D.C., November 23, 2009.

208
affiliate in Kenya almost succeeded
: “Al-Qaeda claims Kenya attacks,” BBC, December 3, 2003.

209
struck by a missile as it took off
: Agence France Presse, “Civilian plane hit by missile over Baghdad,” November 23, 2003.

209
The same year militants
: “British Airways suspends flights to Saudi Arabia after threats,”
New York Times
, August 14, 2003.

209
initially planned to attack Incirlik
:
Associated Press
, May 31, 2004; and Jarret Brachman,
Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice
(Routledge: 2008), pp. 17–18.

209
“Every dollar”
: “Bin Laden: goal is to bankrupt U.S.,” CNN.com, November 1, 2004.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/
.

209
launched an attack
: Dan Murphy, “What other al-Qaeda linked attacks have involved Yemen?”
Christian Science Monitor
, December 29, 2009.

209
In Yanbu
: “Gunmen kill at least six in Saudi Arabia,” Associated Press, May 1, 2004.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-05-01-saudi-attack_x.htm
.

209
Four weeks later
: Abdul Hameed Bakier, “Lessons from al-Qaeda’s attack on the Khobar compound,”
Terrorism Monitor
, August 11, 2006.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-05-01-saudi-attack_x.htm
.

210
bin Laden drew attention
: Osama bin Laden, “Statement,” December 16, 2004, posted on the internet (translated by BBC monitoring); perhaps the most important”: Chris Zambelis, “Attacks in Yemen reflect al-Qaeda’s global oil strategy,”
Terrorism Monitor
, September 4, 2008; “10%”: Hassan M. Fatah, “Attack on Saudi oil facility thwarted,”
New York Times
, February 24, 2006.