The Longest War (84 page)

321
first meeting of his war cabinet
: Sunlen Miller, “A Look at the President’s Meetings on Afghanistan and Pakistan,” ABC News, November 10, 2009,
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/
2009/11/a-look-at-the-presidents-meetings-on-afghanistan
-and-pakistan.html

322
eight years ago to the day
: See chapter 4 for an account of that meeting.

322
“exploded like a piñata”
: senior administration official, interview by author.

322
“resourcing is thirty to one
: senior administration official, interview by author.

322
long pushed for legislation
: Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, Fact Sheet: Biden-Lugar Pakistan Legislation, July 15, 2008,
http://lugar.senate.gov/record.
cfm?id=300696
.

323
On October 1
: Sunlen op. cit.; gave a speech: Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Address, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, UK, October 1, 2009,
www.iiss.org/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.
aspx?alId=31537
.

323
third Afghan review meeting
: Sunlen op. cit; “sounds kind of reasonable”: Participant, interview by author, Washington, D.C.

323
There was another
: Sunlen op. cit.; “throwaways”: senior military officer, interview by author.

324
“we’ll know if this is working”
: White House official, interview by author, Washington, D.C.

324
“Where are those fuckers?”
: White House official, interview by author, Washington, D.C.

324
$55 billion
: Amy Belasco, “The cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and other global war on terror operations since 9/11,” Congressional Research Service, September 28, 2009, Table 1; “saying versions of”: White House official, interview by author, Washington, D.C.; could ill afford: White House official, interview by author.

324
only two of its 105 units
: Government Accountability Office, “Afghanistan Security: Further Congressional action may be needed to ensure completion of a detailed plan to develop and sustain capable Afghan National Security Forces,” June 2008.

325
“There was a whole debate”
: White House official, interview by author.

325
“a bit of a rush job”
: National security official, interview by author.

325
“political capital was included”
: political appointee, interview by author.

325
“There was a point”
: national security official, interview by author.

325
“not in the cards”
: national security official, interview by author, Washington, D.C.

326
“Several folks argued”
: White House official, interview by author.

326
“bitten off more than we needed to chew”
: White House official, interview by author.

326
“OK, here’s what I’ve taken”
: White House official, interview by author.

326
“stop dithering”
: Dick Cheney, Center for Security Policy, October 22, 2009, Washington, D.C.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/
feedarticle/8767329
.

326
fifty-nine had died
: ICasualties.org, Fatalities by year and month, U.S., Operation Enduring Freedom.
http://www.icasualties.org/
OEF/ByMonth.aspx
.

326
visited Dover Air Force Base; 18 American servicemen
: Jeff Zeleny, “Obama visits air base to honor returning dead,”
New York Times
, October 29, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/U.S./
30obama.html
.

326
president was silent
: Kenneth T. Walsh, “Critics say Obama lacks emotion,”
U.S. News and World Report
, December 24, 2009.

327
“He admitted”
: National security official, interview by author.

327
“Option 2A”
: Peter Baker, “How Obama came to plan for ‘surge’ in Afghanistan,”
New York Times
, December 5, 2009.

327
“I don’t know how”
: Anne Kornblut, Scott Wilson, Karen DeYoung, “Obama pressed for faster surge,”
Washington Post
, December 6, 2009.

327
“Wait a second, Stan”
: interview by author, White House official.

327
came up with a compromise
: interview by author, White House official.

327
“Obama, at the end of the day”
: National security official, interview by author.

328
49 percent of the vote
: Afghanistan Independent Elections Commission, Final Certified Presidential Results, October 21, 2009,
http://www.iec.org.af/results/
leadingCandidate.html
.

328
Karzai refused to do this
: John Kerry, interview by author, Washington, D.C., December 7, 2009.

328
“it would turn him”
: Holbrooke interview.

328
“I think we were able”
: Kerry interview.

328
standing down on November 1
: BBC News, “Abdullah pulls out of Afghan vote,” November 1, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi
/south_asia/8336388.stm
.

328
“not an adequate strategic partner”
: Gen. Karl Eikenberry, “COIN strategy: civilian concerns,” November 6, 2009, published by the
New York Times
,
http://documents.nytimes.com/eikenberry-s-memos-on-the-
strategy-in-afghanistan#document/p3
.

329
In his next cable
: Gen. Karl Eikenberry, “Looking beyond counterinsurgency in Afghanistan,” November 9, 2009, published by the
New York Times
,
http://documents.nytimes.com/
eikenberry-s-memos
-on-the-strategy-in-afghanistan#document/p6
.

329
came as a surprise
: Peter Baker, “How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan,”
New York Times
, December 6, 2009.

329
penultimate meeting, on November 23
: Tom Bowman and Melissa Beck, “Obama to announce Afghan strategy,” NPR, November 23, 2009; “Hillary Clinton was the most forceful advocate”: Author interview with White House official.

329
final meeting took place
: Peter Baker, Eric Schmitt, and David Sanger, “Obama’s speech on Afghanistan to envision exit,”
New York Times
, November 29, 2009.

329
appears to have made his decision the day before
: author interview with White House official.

329
the greatest threat
: BBC/ABC poll, op. cit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/
pdfs/05_02_09afghan_poll_2009.pdf
.

330
going in the right direction
: BBC/ABC poll, op. cit.

330
paid by the Pakistanis
: senior Obama national security official, interview by author, Washington, D.C., January 2010.

330
In February 2009
: Zahid Hussain and Matthew Rosenberg, “Peace deal wavers in Swat Valley,”
Wall Street Journal
, April 10, 2009,
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB123929350855705481.html
; “ski lift operator”: Mukhtar Khan, “The Return of Shari’a Law to Pakistan’s Swat Region,” Jamestown Foundation,
Terrorism Monitor
, March 3, 2009.

330
just sixty miles
: “Buner falls into the hands of the Swat Taliban,”
Dawn
, April 22, 2009.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-
content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/nwfp/buner-falls-
to-swat-taliban—bi
.

330
had grown exponentially
: Pak Institute for Peace Studies, Security Report, 2009.

331
strike in three different places
: Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah, “Day of suicide attacks displays strength of Pakistani Taliban,”
New York Times
, April 5, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/world/asia/
06pstan.html
.

331
twenty-hour Taliban attack
: “10 dead in attack on Pakistani military HQ,” CBS/AP, October 10, 2009,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2009/10/10/world
/main5375901.shtml
.

331
“foreign area”
:
Ilaqa ghair
is often used in Urdu to refer to the FATA, meaning generally “no-go area.” I. A. Rehman, “FATA priorities,”
Dawn
, June 25, 2009.

331
more than a million
: Declan Walsh, “Pakistan claims 700 Taliban killed in Swat valley strikes,”
The Guardian
, May 11, 2009,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/11/
pakistan-swat-taliban-army-refugees
.

331
at least thirty thousand troops
: Karin Bruillard, “Pakistan launches full-scale offensive,”
Washington Post
, October 18, 2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2009/10/17/AR2009101700673.html
.

331
previous military operations
: For an account of those operations see Sameer Lalwani, “The Pakistani military’s adaptation to counterinsurgency in 2009,”
CTC
Sentinel
, January 2010, and for Pakistani public support of these operations see “Military action in Waziristan: opinion poll,” Gilani Poll/Gallup Pakistan, November 3, 2009.
www.gallup.com.pk/Polls/03-11-09.pdf
.

331
fifty-one American drone strikes in Pakistan in 2009 alone
: Bergen and Tiedemann 2010 op. cit.; receiving a leg massage: Agence France Presse, “Mehsud killed while getting leg massage,” August 10, 2009; Jane Mayer, “The Predator war,”
New Yorker
, October 26, 2009,
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/
2009/10/26/091026fa_fact_mayer
.

332
lead headline
: “Good riddance, killer Baitullah,”
Dawn
, August 8, 2009.

332
record eighty-seven suicide attacks
: Pak Institute for Peace Studies 2009 Security Report.

332
nearly 6,000 Afghan civilians
: United States Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, Annual Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, 2009.
http://www.foreignpolicy.
com/images/100113_Protection_20of_
20Civilian_202009_20report_20English.pdf

332
Around 100 to 150
: Lolita C. Baldor, “Terror Training Camps Smaller, Harder to Target,” Associated Press, November 9, 2009.
http://abcnews.go.com/
print?id=9031020
.

332
held by the Haqqani Taliban network
: “David Rohde, Times Reporter, Escapes Taliban After 7 Months,”
New York Times
, June 20, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/
world/asia/21taliban.html

332
“terrifying presence”
: David Rohde, “Held by the Taliban, Part Four—A Drone Strike and Dwindling Hope,”
New York Times
, October 20, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/world/
asia/21
hostage.html?pagewanted=print
; Jason Burke, “On the front line in war on Pakistan’s Taliban,”
The Guardian
, November 16, 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/16/
pakistan-afghanistantaliban
.

332
suspected “spies”
: “Taliban kill seven ‘U.S. spies’ in North Waziristan,”
Dawn
, January 24, 2010.,”
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/
dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/
04-taliban-kill-six-nwaziristan-qs-06
; “Taliban kill two U.S. ‘spies’ in Miranshah,”
Daily Times
, January 31, 2010.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/
default.asp?page=2010\01\31\
story_31-1-2010_pg1_3
.

333
A December 2009
: Michael Flynn briefing, described in Bergen, “U.S. intelligence briefing,” 2010.

333
“That was probably”
: Barack Obama, interview by Steve Kroft,
60 Minutes
, December 7, 2009,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2009/12/13/60minutes/main 5975421.shtml
.

333
“I make this decision”
: Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” West Point, NY, December 1, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/
remarks-president-address-nation-way-forward-
afghanistan-and-pakistan
.

333
And at the time
: Author briefing White House officials, December 1, 2009.

335
“So my Lord”
: Osama bin Laden, “Exposing the new crusader war,” February 2003.

335
“I have an excellent idea”
: Timothy J. Burger, “10 questions for Porter Goss,”
Time
, June 27, 2005.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/
article/0.9171.1074112.00.html
.

335
“a person who’s now been marginalized”
: George W. Bush, March 13, 2002, Washington, D.C.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse
.archives.gov/news/releases/
2002/03/20020313-8.html
. “CIA even closed Alec Station”: Mark Mazzetti, “CIA closes unit focused on capture of bin Laden,”
New York Times
, July 4, 2006.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/
washington/04intel.html
.
Since 9/11 bin Laden has issued: The tapes have not only: IntelCenter, a U.S. government contractor that tracks jihadist publications, says bin Laden released 33 tapes in the eight years between 9/11 and January 2010. IntelCenter Breakout of as-Sahab audio/video, 2002–26 February 2010. Email from Ben Venzke, February 26, 2010.

336
The tapes have not only
: “Istanbul rocked by double bombing,” BBC News, November 20, 2003,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3222608.stm
; Craig Whitlock and Susan Glasser, “On tape, bin Laden tries new approach,”
Washington Post
, December 17, 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/articles/A3927-2004Dec16.html
; Abqaia facility: Joel Roberts, “Al Qaeda threatens more oil attacks,” CBS News, February 25, 2006,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/world/
main1346541_page2.shtml
; “Bin Laden tape encourages Pakistanis to rebel,” Associated Press, September 20, 2007,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world
/2007-09-20-al Qaeda-video_N.htm
.