The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan (55 page)
Read The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan Online
Authors: Michael Hastings
Page 294
:
Jerome Starkey, a reporter for
The Times
of London
: Author interview with Jerome Starkey.
Page 295
:
“No one wants to be sitting there with a full bladder”
: Author interview with senior military official, February 2011.
Page 295
:
“Do you believe that we will begin a drawdown?”
: Senate testimony of Senator John McCain, June 15, 2010.
Page 297
:
The Kiowas were small, two-seat scout helicopters
: Author notes, June 2010.
Page 299
:
“Michael, read your story”
: Author e-mail from Duncan Boothby.
CHAPTER 41. “VERY, VERY BAD”Page 302
:
Irving, a father of two, thirty-four years old
: Author interview with Captain Stephen Irving, June 2010.
Page 313
:
At two thirty
A.M.
on June 22, 2010, a close aide to General Stanley McChrystal
: Karen DeYoung and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Gen. McChrystal Allies,
Rolling Stone
Disagree over Article’s Ground Rules,”
The Washington Post
, June 26, 2010.
Page 313
:
“It’s very, very bad”
: Ibid.
Page 313
:
He did have that fucking tape recorder running all the time
: Author interview with U.S. officials, June 2010.
Page 314
:
Holbrooke’s phone rings
: Author interview with senior State Department officials, November 2010.
Page 314
:…
his helicopter had been fired upon
: Miguel Marquez, “Taliban Attack Ambassador Richard Holbrooke’s Plane in Marja,” ABC News, June 21, 2010.
Page 314
:
They can’t read it on their BlackBerrys, so he prints out copies
: Mike Allen, “The Tick-Tock: How President Obama Took Command of the McChrystal Situation,”
Politico
, June 24, 2010.
Page 315
:
“Joe Biden called me”
: Jann S.Wenner, “Obama in Command: The
Rolling Stone
Interview,”
Rolling Stone
, September 28, 2010.
Page 315
:
Obama spends five minutes on the phone
: Author interview with U.S. officials, January 2011.
Page 315
:
You’ve done enough damage
: Author interview with Pentagon and State Department officials, June 2010.
Page 315
:
Another U.S. State Department official asks the Flynns
: Author interview with U.S. State Department official, June 2010.
Page 315
:
“I extend my sincerest apology for this profile”
: Noah Shachtman, “McChrystal Apologizes for Incendiary Article,”
Danger Room
blog,
Wired.com
, June 21, 2010.
Page 316
:
Holbrooke has dinner with Eikenberry that night at the embassy
: Author interview with UN and U.S. officials, February 2011.
Page 316
:
Biden will consult with six four-star generals
: Transcript of
This Week
, ABC News, July 11, 2010.
Page 316–317:
He offers his resignation—McChrystal accepts
: “Top Aide to General McChrystal Resigns,” Reuters, June 22, 2010.
Page 317
:
Filkins tells Charlie Rose
: Transcript of “A Look at Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Afghanistan,”
The Charlie Rose Show
, June 23, 2010.
Page 317
:
“To what extent can we change the way we behave in such a way that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again?”
: Transcript of John Burns, the
New York Times
London bureau chief,
PBS News Hour
, July 8, 2010.
Page 317
:…
“will impact so adversely”
: Transcript of John Burns speaking about the McChrystal/Petraeus change in Afghanistan,
The Hugh Hewitt Show
, July 6, 2010.
Page 317
:
On Fox News, Geraldo Rivera takes the same tack
: Colby Hall, “Geraldo Rivera Likens
Rolling Stone
Writer to Al Qaeda. Seriously,”
Mediaite
, June 25, 2010.
Page 317
:
“Michael Hastings never served his country”
: Transcript of interview with Lara Logan,
Reliable Sources
, CNN, June 27, 2010.
Page 317
:
In Washington, Bob Gates calls National Security advisor Jim Jones
: Bob Woodward,
Obama’s Wars
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), pp. 371–372.
Page 317
:
One is from Greg Mortenson
: Elisabeth Bumiller, “Unlikely Tutor Giving Military Afghan Advice,”
The New York Times
, July 17, 2010.
Page 318
:
“Have you already submitted your resignation?”
: Mike Allen, “The Tick-Tock: How President Obama Took Command of the McChrystal Situation,”
Politico
, June 24, 2010.
Page 318
:
They do not see remorse in that clip
: Ibid.
Page 318
:
Geoff Morrell, viewed as particularly untrustworthy
: Author interview with White House officials, November 2010.
Page 319
:
“You’ve done a good job, but—”
: Author interview with U.S. officials, November 2010.
Page 319
:
Petraeus is waiting down in the White House basement
: John Barry, “Petraeus’s Next Battle,”
Newsweek
, July 17, 2011.
Page 320
:
It was like the Baghdad job
: Thomas Ricks,
The Gamble
(New York: Penguin, 2006), p. 127.
Page 320
:
“Before we announce this,” Petraeus tells the president
: Author interviews with White House and military officials, January 2011.
Page 320
:
“Today I accepted General Stanley McChrystal’s resignation”
: White House Office of the Press Secretary, Statement by the President in the Rose Garden, June 23, 2010.
Page 321
:
“It was incredible seeing Obama like that”
: Author interview with senior U.S. official, January 2011.
Page 321
:
“We have a lot of kids on the ground”
: Peter Baker, “For Obama, Steep Learning Curve as Chief in War,”
The New York Times
, August 28, 2010.
Page 321
:…
“design and lead our new strategy”
: White House Office of the Press Secretary, Statement by the President in the Rose Garden, June 23, 2010.
Page 322
:
. . . “head for the exits and turn off
the lights”
: Jen Dimascio, “Gen. David Petraeus Defends Afghan Exit Date,”
Politico
, June 30, 2010.
Page 322
:
“He sounds psyched, looks like a man on a mission”:
Author interview with U.S. official, January 2011.
Page 322
:
It’s Biden, Petraeus’s wife, Holly
: Josh Rogin, “Inside the Biden–Petraeus Dinner.”
The Cable
blog,
Foreign Policy
online, June 30, 2010.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/30/inside_the_biden_petraeus_dinner
).
Page 322
:
“I mean, it was clear that I was the only guy”:
Mark Bowden, “The Salesman,”
The Atlantic
, October 2010.
Page 322
:
Petraeus arrives in Kabul:
Laura King, “Petraeus Stresses Unity in First Appearance in Kabul,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 3, 2010.
Page 322
:…
with tears in their eyes and “heartbroken”:
Karen DeYoung and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Gen. McChrystal Allies,
Rolling Stone
Disagree over Article’s Ground Rules,”
The Washington Post
, June 26, 2010.
Page 322
:
Petraeus gives his welcoming address:
U.S. Embassy Kabul Public Diplomacy Flickr account, photographs of July 3 Independence Day event.
CHAPTER 42. THE PENTAGON INVESTIGATES MPage 323
:
“There is no difference to us between General McChrystal and General Petraeus”
: “General David Petraeus Takes Command,” NATOChannel123, YouTube video, July 4, 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3bFnBfxTA8
.
C
CHRYSTAL
Page 325
:
On July 13, I received an e-mail from the army inspector general’s office
: Author e-mail.
Page 326
:…
the “political fallout” of the story
: Letter to the author from Colonel Wayne Shanks, July 30, 2010.
CHAPTER 43. THE MEDIA-MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXPage 327
:…
for publishing “embarrassing” information
: International Security Assistance Force media regulations.
CHAPTER 44. I’D RATHER BE EATING A BURGERPage 328
:
I walked into Café Milano in Georgetown
: Author notes, October 2010.
Page 331
:
Lately, Gates has been silently resisting, dragging his feet at these visits
: Author interview with Pentagon officials, March 2011.
Page 332
:
Tired of Washington, mainly
: Noah Shachtman, “Take Back the Pentagon,”
Wired
, October 2009.
Page 332
:
He’s living alone in Washington, in a military-supplied house
: John Barry and Evan Thomas, “A War Within,”
Newsweek
, September 20, 2010.
Page 332
:
He relaxes drinking Belvedere martinis and smoking cigars
: Noah Shachtman, “Take Back the Pentagon,”
Wired
, October 2009.
Page 332
:
The jokes are sometimes so bad
: Greg Jaffe, “Defense Secretary Robert Gates Leaves ’Em Laughing—as His Staff Cringes,” The
Washington Post
, September 18, 2010.
Page 332
:
His joke about DC
: Gordon Lubold, “Afghanistan War Decision: How Robert Gates Thinks,”
The Christian Science Monitor
, November 8, 2009.
Page 333
:
Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia
: Ibid.
Page 333
:
W
ANTED
: R
OBERT
G
ATES
: Bob Gates,
From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
Page 333
:…
“brass creep,” he calls it
: John Barry and Evan Thomas, “A War Within,”
Newsweek
, September 20, 2010.
Page 333
:…
what he did as a Soviet analyst
: Ibid.
Page 333
:… would be a
“disaster”
: Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), p. 343.
Page 333
:…
Gates is the man Woodward talks to last
: Transcript of
CNN Newsroom
, September 24, 2010.
Page 333
:
“A journalist did in one day”
: Author interview with NATO official.
Page 333
:
Gates will bemoan
: Department of Defense news transcript, Remarks by Secretary Gates, General Casey, and General McChrystal at Fort McNair, Washington, DC, July 23, 2010.
Page 334
:
. . .
“
the lightbulb went on
”
: Peter Baker, “For Obama, Steep Learning Curve as Chief of War,”
The
New York Times
, August 28, 2010.
Page 334
:
One paper in the report provided to me
: Draft paper obtained by author.
Page 334
:
He’s finishing up his DoD bucket list
: Jim Garamone, “Gates Visits Littoral Combat Ship USS Independence,” American Forces Press Service, May 7, 2011.
Page 334
:
In December, he visits Afghanistan
: James Kitfield, “Robert Gates, David Petraeus: Partners in War,”
National Journal
, December 9, 2010.
Page 335
:
“I’m actually the guy that signs the orders and sends you over here”
: Ibid.
Page 335
:…
violence is at its worst
: Michael Hastings, “King David’s War,”
Rolling Stone
, February 2, 2011.
