“Pakistan’s intelligence chief, Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, admitted ‘negligence’ on the part of authorities in failing to find bin Laden during a closed session in Parliament on Friday [May 13, 2011], a government spokeswoman told reporters.”
– Riaz Khan, “Pakistan Suicide Bombs Kill 80 to Avenge bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 13, 2011
“On May 13 [2011], the Pakistani Taliban took revenge for the death of Bin Laden by carrying out a double suicide attack at an FC [Frontier Corps] training camp in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province that killed 80 cadets and wounded 140.”
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 178
“Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were not a factor in tracking down Osama bin Laden, a leading Republican senator [John McCain] insisted Thursday [May 12, 2011]. …In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, the Arizona Republican said former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and others who back those tactics were wrong to claim that waterboarding al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, provided information that led to bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. … McCain said he asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and that the hunt for bin Laden did not begin with fresh information from Mohammed. In fact, the name of bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, came from a detainee held in another country. ‘Not only did the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not provide us with key leads on bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmed, it actually produced false and misleading information,’ McCain said. He called on Mukasey and others to correct their misstatements.”
– Donna Cassata, “McCain: Torture did not lead to bin Laden death,” Associated Press, May 12, 2011
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that enhanced interrogation techniques did not lead to the tracking of Osama bin Laden. “In a statement, [former Attorney General Michael] Mukasey said McCain ‘is simply incorrect,’ on the bid Laden leads and interrogation. Mukasey said [9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed disclosed the nickname of the courier [of bin Laden] ‘along with a wealth of other information, some of which was used to stop terror plots then in progress.’ He said another detainee, captured in Iraq, disclosed that the courier was a trusted operative of Mohammed’s successor [Abu Faraj al-Libi]. Mukasey…said former intelligence officials have said that up to 2006 valuable leads came from prisoners who were subjected to harsh techniques, including waterboarding. ‘Harsh interrogation techniques were both effective and lawful,’ Mukasey said.”
– Donna Cassata, “McCain Says Torture did not Lead to bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 12, 2011
Senator John “McCain [R-AZ] said he opposes waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, and any form of torture tactics. He said that they could be used against Americans and that their use damages the nation’s character and reputation. ‘I do not believe they are necessary to our success in our war against terrorists, as the advocates of these techniques claim they are,’ he said. ‘Ultimately, this is about morality. What is at stake here is the very idea of America–the America whose values have inspired the world and instilled in the hearts of its citizens the certainty that, no matter how hard we fight, no matter how dangerous our adversary, in the course of vanquishing our enemies we do not compromise our deepest values,’ he said. ‘We are America, and we hold ourselves to a higher standard. That is what is really at stake.’ ”
– Donna Cassata, “McCain Says Torture did not Lead to bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 12, 2011
From a Financial Times article on May 11, 2011: “According to Robert Blackwill, a former Republican U.S. ambassador to India, ‘the Pakistani military is not an ally, not a partner, not a friend of the US.’ “
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 176
“Pakistan’s security establishment has long been accused of playing a double game: taking billions in U.S. aid while secretly backing select jihadi militants in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s tribal region. Even al-Qaeda types were expected to play ball. Says the Arab woman formerly connected to al-Qaeda: ‘There was an understanding with the Pakistani army. We would get a tip-off that the army planned to raid one of our houses in the tribal area. We would flee but leave some *evidence* behind so that the army could show to the Americans that we’d been there.’ ”
– Tim McGirk, “The Real Housewife of Abbottabad: What bin Laden’s Spouse Knows,” Time, May 6, 2011
“CIA Director Leon Panetta said this week [early May 2011] that ‘either [the Pakistanis] were involved [in hiding bin Laden] or incompetent. Neither is a good place to be.’ ”
– Tim McGirk, “The Real Housewife of Abbottabad: What bin Laden’s Spouse Knows,” Time, May 6, 2011
“On May 6th [2011], Al Qaeda confirmed bin Laden’s death and released a statement congratulating ‘the Islamic nation’ on ‘the martyrdom of its good son Osama.’ The authors promised Americans that ‘their joy will turn to sorrow and their tears will mix with blood.’ ”
– Nicholas Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden,” The New Yorker, Aug. 8, 2011
The hunt for bin Laden at “Tora Bora [Afghanistan] taught both sides important lessons. The Americans learned, as a top intelligence official said, ‘that it was a bad idea to *outsource* something as important as capturing or killing bin Laden.’ Mutual mistrust kept the Pakistani military and Afghan fighters from embracing the Americans’ search for bin Laden.”
– Peter Finn, Ian Shapira, and Marc Fisher, “The Hunt, Chapter 2: Lessons Learned,” The Washington Post, May 6, 2011
Following the death of Osama bin Laden, “On May 6 [2011], a U.S. government official told CNN that bin Laden ‘worked at the operational and even tactical levels. …He was clearly issuing directions at all levels.’ From his strategically placed compound, with couriers and assistants to help, he was also apparently overseeing the details of a planned attack on U.S. public rail transportation to coincide with the tenth anniversary of 9/11.”
– Foreign Affairs, The U.S. vs. al Qaeda, Page 247
According to an Associated Press article on May 6, 2011, “analysts who examined this information [seized from the raid which killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011] came to believe that bin Laden ‘was a lot more involved in directing al Qaeda personnel and operations than sometimes thought over the last decade’ and that he had been providing strategic guidance to al Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Somalia.”
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 2
“[A]sked about whether waterboarding played a role in finding Bin Laden, John Brennan–counter-terrorism adviser to [President] Obama and, it’s worth remembering, a key figure in the CIA under Bush–replied: ‘Not to my knowledge. The information that was collected over the course of nine years or so came from many different sources: human sources, technical sources, as well as sources that detainees provided. It was something as a result of the painstaking work that the analysts did. They pieced it all together that lead us to the compound last year and resulted in the very successful operation [on] Sunday [May 1, 2011].’ ”
– Clare Algar, “Torture Did Not Lead us to Osama bin Laden,” The Guardian, May 5, 2011
“Documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound [in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011] have yielded a bonanza of new intelligence, from names and locations of terrorist suspects to chilling details of al-Qaeda plots to attack targets in the United States and beyond, U.S. officials said Thursday [May 5, 2011]. Among the files recovered from captured computers and flash drives were documents detailing a previously unknown plan to attack the U.S. commuter rail network, intelligence officials confirmed. The plan, which described a sabotage attack to occur on this year’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was being actively considered as recently as February 2010, Obama administration officials said.”
– Joby Warrick, “Al-Qaeda Data Yield Details of Planned Plots,” The Washington Post, May 5, 2011
Following the May 2, 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, on “May 5, after meeting with his nine top generals, called the Corps Commanders, [General Ashfaq Parvez] Kayani issued a blistering statement. Calling the raid ‘a misadventure,’ he said that ‘any similar action violating the sovereignty of Pakistan will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States.’ He would immediately reduce ‘to the minimum essential’ the number of U.S. military trainers, contractors, and CIA personnel in the country. He ignored the issue of Bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan and instead made paramount the issue of the breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty; he and other generals wanted to protect Pakistan’s honor.”
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Pages 8-9
“Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center who oversaw the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ gave his first public interview to Time magazine this week [early May 2011] to defend the role the use of techniques like waterboarding played in the operation against Osama bin Laden. The question of the role such techniques played in this mission arose after reports revealed that two key terror detainees–Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [KSM] and Abu Faraj al-Libi–gave American officials the nickname of a courier who ultimately led U.S. intelligence officials to bin Laden. The two detainees gave the initial information up at foreign CIA ‘black sites,’ where waterboarding–historically considered a form of torture by the U.S.–and other ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques were used. ‘Information provided by KSM and Abu Faraj al-Libi about Bin Laden’s courier was the lead information that eventually led to the location of [bin Laden’s] compound and the operation that led to his death,’ Rodriguez told Time.”
– Stephanie Condon, “Bush’s Counterterror Chief Defends Harsh Interrogations,” CBS News, May 4, 2011
In an article about enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs), which may have provided the information needed to track down Osama bin Laden through one of his couriers, “Former George W. Bush officials say the use of EITs is misunderstood. ‘The main thing that people misunderstand about the program is, it was intended to encourage compliance,’ says John McLaughlin, deputy director of the CIA during the period in which waterboarding was used. ‘It wasn’t set out to torture people. It was never conceived of as a torture program.’ ”
– Massimo Calabresi, “Ex-CIA Counterterror Chief: EIT’s Led to Osama,” Time, May 4, 2011
In an article about enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs), which may have provided the information needed to track down Osama bin Laden through one of his couriers, “One former senior intelligence official says that ‘once KSM [9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] decided resistance was unwise, he started spilling his guts to the agency and started providing lots of info, like the noms de guerre of couriers and explaining how al-Qaeda worked.’ [Former head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center Jose] Rodriguez says, ‘It’s a mistake to say this was about inflicting pain. These measures were about instilling a sense of hopelessness, and that led them to compliance.’ None of the Bush officials made a clear distinction between inducing compliance and torture.”
– Massimo Calabresi, “Ex-CIA Counterterror Chief: EIT’s Led to Osama,” Time, May 4, 2011
While enhanced interrogation techniques may have provided the information needed to track down Osama bin Laden through one of his couriers, “Glenn L. Carle, a retired C.I.A. officer who oversaw the interrogation of a high-level detainee in 2002, said in a phone interview Tuesday [May 3, 2011], that coercive techniques ‘didn’t provide useful, meaningful, trustworthy information.’ He said that while some of his colleagues defended the measures, ‘everyone was deeply concerned and most felt it was un-American and did not work.’ ”
– Scott Shane and Charlie Savage, “Bin Laden Raid Revives Debate on Value of Torture,” The New York Times, May 3, 2011
On May 3, 2011, al Qaeda’s General Command released a statement on bin Laden’s death. It read: ” ‘…we in al-Qaeda vow to God the Exalted and seek His support to help us go forward on the path of jihad that was trekked by our leaders, headed by Sheikh Osama. We will not relent or hesitate; we will not stray or quit until God judges between us and our enemies by the truth, He indeed is the fairest of judges. We stress that Sheikh Osama’s blood, God bless his soul, is more precious to us and to every Muslim to go in vain. It will, God willing, remain a curse that will chase and haunt the Americans and their agents inside and outside the country. Very soon, God willing, their joy will turn into mourning and their blood will be mixed with their tears. We will fulfil Sheikh Osama’s oath, God bless his soul: *America and anyone who lives in America will not enjoy peace until our people in Palestine enjoy it.* ‘ ”
– “Excerpts from ‘al-Qaeda’ Statement on Bin Laden’s Death,” BBC News, May 6, 2011
“Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 11 September 2001 attacks and the world’s most wanted man, has been killed in a US operation in north-western Pakistan, [President] Barack Obama has announced. ‘Justice has been done,’ the US president said in a statement that America has been waiting a decade to hear. A US official said Bin Laden had already been buried at sea.”
– Declan Walsh, Ewen MacAskill, and Jason Burke, “Osama bin Laden Killed in US Raid on Pakistan Hideout,” The Guardian, May 2, 2011
Regarding the raid that killed Osama bin Laden: “[President Barack] Obama tapped two dozen members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six to carry out a raid with surgical accuracy. Before dawn Monday morning [May 2, 2011], a pair of helicopters left Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. The choppers entered Pakistani airspace using sophisticated technology intended to evade that country’s radar systems, a U.S. official said. …The helicopters lowered into the compound, dropping the SEALs behind the walls. No shots were fired, but shortly after the team hit the ground, one of the helicopters came crashing down and rolled onto its side for reasons the government has yet to explain. None of the SEALs was injured, however, and the mission continued uninterrupted. With the CIA and White House monitoring the situation in real time–presumably by live satellite feed or video carried by the SEALs–the team stormed the compound. Thanks to sophisticated satellite monitoring, U.S. forces knew they’d likely find bin Laden’s family on the second and third floors of one of the buildings on the property, officials said. The SEALs secured the rest of the property first, then proceeded to the room where bin Laden was hiding. In the ensuing firefight, Brennan said, bin Laden used a woman as a human shield. The SEALs killed bin Laden with a bullet to the head. Using the call sign for his visual identification, one of the soldiers communicated that ‘Geronimo’ had been killed in action, according to a U.S. official.”
– Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan, Ben Feller, and Kathy Gannon, “One Unwary Phone Call Led U.S. to bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 2, 2011
“Senior US administration officials…said that after 9/11 the CIA chased various leads about Bin Laden’s inner circle, in particular his couriers. One of these couriers came in for special attention, mentioned by detainees at Guantánamo Bay by his nom de guerre. He was said to be a protege of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, and one of the few couriers Bin Laden trusted. Officials said they were initially unable to identify him but finally did so four years ago. …Two years ago, the CIA found the rough location where the courier and his brother lived in Pakistan, and in August last year they narrowed it down to a compound in Abbottabad… They realised immediately this was no normal residence. The walls of the 3,000 sq ft compound were 12-18ft high, topped with barbed wire. There were two security gates, and access to the compound was severely restricted. The main part of the residence was three storeys high but had few windows, and a third-floor terrace was shielded by a privacy wall. Built around five years ago, it was valued at about $1m but had no phone or internet connection. The two brothers had no known source of income, adding to CIA suspicions. The CIA learned too that there was a family living with them, and that the composition of this family matched Bin Laden’s.”
– Ewen MacAskill, “Osama bin Laden: it Took Years to Find Him but Just Minutes to Kill Him,” The Guardian, May 2, 2011
“Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of bin Laden [on May 2, 2011]. 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden’s most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed’s successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania.”
– “Incredible Pictures Show President and Inner Circle Watching live TV Feed as Special Forces Shoot Dead the World’s Most Wanted Man,” Daily Mail, May 3, 2011
“Osama bin Laden, the elusive terror mastermind killed by Navy SEALs in an intense firefight [at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan], was hunted down based on information first gleaned years ago from detainees at secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe, officials disclosed Monday [May 2, 2011].”
– Adam Goldman and Chris Brummitt, “Bin Laden’s Demise: US Rejoices After a Decade,” Associated Press, May 3, 2011
“In a secret CIA prison in Eastern Europe years ago, al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, gave authorities the nicknames of several of bin Laden’s couriers, four former U.S. intelligence officials said. Those names were among thousands of leads the CIA was pursuing. One man became a particular interest for the agency when another detainee, Abu Faraj al-Libi, told interrogators that when he was promoted to succeed Mohammed as al-Qaida’s operational leader he received the word through a courier. Only bin Laden would have given al-Libi that promotion, CIA officials believed. If they could find that courier, they’d find bin Laden. The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA’s so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history. ‘We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day,’ said Marty Martin, a retired CIA officer who for years led the hunt for bin Laden. Mohammed did not reveal the names while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said. He identified them many months later under standard interrogation, they said, leaving it once again up for debate as to whether the harsh technique was a valuable tool or an unnecessarily violent tactic.”
– Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan, Ben Feller, and Kathy Gannon, “One Unwary Phone Call Led U.S. to bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 2, 2011
“Osama bin Laden was buried at sea from the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier because there was no alternative to bury him on land within the 24 hours required by Islamic law, President Barack Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser said Monday [May 2, 2011]. ‘The disposal of–the burial of bin Laden’s remains was done in strict conformance with Islamic precepts and practices. It was prepared in accordance with the Islamic requirements,’ adviser John Brennan told reporters at a White House briefing. ‘We early on made provisions for that type of burial and we wanted to make sure that it was going to be done, again, in strictest conformance.’ ”
– Chris Lawrence, “‘No Land Alternative’ Prompts bin Laden Sea Burial,” CNN, May 2, 2011
In the hunt for bin Laden, “A new lead emerged when post-9/11 detainees gave investigators a glimpse into the al Qaeda chief’s inner circle, the [senior Obama Administration] official said. During questioning, detainees repeatedly mentioned the nickname of a man they said was one of the few couriers bin Laden trusted. …Investigators knew the courier–a protege of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [KSM]–was ‘important,’ because a number of detainees held out on providing information about him, the senior U.S. official said. When interrogators pushed Mohammed on the courier’s identity, he ‘lied to protect his protege,’ the official said. ‘We knew he was lying, because we already knew (the courier) was a KSM protege,’ the official said. In fact, other detainees indicated that the courier could have been working for bin Laden, the official added. While Mohammed held back on information, that in itself made intelligence personnel more interested in the courier because they knew Mohammed was lying, the official said. U.S. intelligence uncovered the courier’s identity four years ago ‘from a different part of the world,’ the senior U.S. official said. He declined to say where.”
– Gloria Borger, Barbara Starr, Adam Levine, Nick Paton Walsh, Pam Benson, and Suzanne Kelly, “Trail Leading to bin Laden began with His Trusted Courier,” CNN, May 2, 2011
“As intelligence officials disclosed the trail of evidence that led to the compound in Pakistan where Bin Laden was hiding, a chorus of Bush administration officials claimed vindication for their policy of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ like waterboarding. Among them was John Yoo, a former Justice Department official who wrote secret legal memorandums justifying brutal interrogations. ‘President Obama can take credit, rightfully, for the success today,’ Mr. Yoo wrote Monday [May 2, 2011] in National Review, ‘but he owes it to the tough decisions taken by the Bush administration.’ ”
– Scott Shane and Charlie Savage, “Bin Laden Raid Revives Debate on Value of Torture,” The New York Times, May 3, 2011
“Asked if harsh interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay played a role in obtaining intelligence on bin Laden’s whereabouts, [Former Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld declares: ‘First of all, no one was waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay. That’s a myth that’s been perpetrated around the country by critics. The United States Department of Defense did not do waterboarding for interrogation purposes to anyone. It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.’ ”
– Jim Meyers and Ashley Martella, “Rumsfeld Exclusive: There Was No Waterboarding at Gitmo,” Newsmax, May 2, 2011
“Leon Panetta, the CIA chief, said that Pakistan had not been prewarned of the raid [that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011] because ‘it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission–they might alert the targets.’ ”
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 8
Following the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, “A rash of statements from world leaders and the international media held the Pakistan Army either totally culpable in hiding Bin Laden or totally incompetent in not discovering his whereabouts, leading to further public outrage and despair. For years, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan had told the United States and NATO that Pakistan was hosting Al Qaeda and the Taliban; now he lashed out at them for not believing him: ‘Year after year, day after day, we have said the fighting against terrorism is not in the villages of Afghanistan… [but] is in safe havens. It proves that Afghanistan was right.’ ”
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 10
Following the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, journalist Fareed Zakaria said: ” ‘…a number of people are saying that this does not mean that al Qaeda has been destroyed. Some argue that the organization may, in fact, be thriving. …I understand why officials have to say this. They want to be cautious. They don’t want to overpromise. But the truth is this is a huge, devastating blow to al Qaeda, which had already been crippled by the Arab Spring. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the end of al Qaeda in any meaningful sense of the word.’ ”
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 1
In Pakistan, “US special forces launched a helicopter-borne assault on a closely guarded compound in Abbottabad, 30 miles north-east of Islamabad, on Sunday night [May 1, 2001], [President Barack] Obama and US officials said. Bin Laden resisted the attackers and was killed along with three other men in a firefight. The operation lasted 40 minutes. The dead included Bin Laden’s most trusted courier, who carried his messages to the outside world, and one of Bin Laden’s sons, according to reports. A woman also died, according to some reports. It is not clear whether she was one of Bin Laden’s four wives.”
– Declan Walsh, Ewen MacAskill, and Jason Burke, “Osama bin Laden Killed in US Raid on Pakistan Hideout,” The Guardian, May 2, 2011
President Barack Obama spoke from the White House on the evening of May 1, 2011. ” ‘Tonight I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.’ He said the death would not mean an end to the violence and predicted al-Qaida would continue to pursue attacks.”
– Declan Walsh, Ewen MacAskill, and Jason Burke, “Osama bin Laden Killed in US Raid on Pakistan Hideout,” The Guardian, May 2, 2011
On May 1, 2011, “President Obama was watching on a TV screen as a commando gunned down Osama bin Laden. Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. Navy Seal, the leader of the free world saw the terror chief shot in the left eye. The Seal then carried out what is known in the military as a ‘double tap’–shooting him again, probably in the chest, to make certain he was dead. The footage of the battle in Bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout…is said to show one of his wives acting as a human shield to protect him as he blasted away with an AK47 assault rifle. She died, along with three other men, including one of Bin Laden’s sons. Within hours, the Al Qaeda leader’s body was buried at sea.”
– Ian Drury, David Williams, and Sam Greenhill, “Obama Watched Bin Laden Die on Live Video as Shoot-Out Beamed to White House,” Daily Mail, May 3, 2011
“In his televised statement [on May 1, 2011, President] Mr [Barack] Obama said that Bin Laden was killed in a helicopter raid by a small group of Navy Seals who stormed his mansion in an affluent area 80 miles from Islamabad [Pakistan]. They were working on a tip which first surfaced last August after ‘years of painstaking work’ from the CIA and had taken months to run it into the ground. ‘Last week I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorised an operation to get Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice,’ Mr Obama said. ‘Today at my direction the U.S. launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. After a firefight they killed Osama Bin Laden and took custody of his body.’ ”
– “Incredible Pictures Show President and Inner Circle Watching live TV Feed as Special Forces Shoot Dead the World’s Most Wanted Man,” Daily Mail, May 3, 2011
“To discuss that intelligence and develop a plan [to hunt bin Laden], [President Barack] Obama chaired five National Security Council meetings from mid-March until late April, with the last two on April 19 and April 28–last Thursday. The next day [April 29, 2011], Obama gave the order for the mission, officials said.”
– “How U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden,” CNN.com, May 2, 2011
“More than 200 individuals who were on the federal terrorism watch list passed background checks and were allowed to buy guns in 2010, according to a new government review. [As reported on April 27, 2011] A review by the Government Accountability Office [GAO] determined that 247 people on the watch list bought guns last year, and also showed that between 2004 and 2009, more than nine out of ten individuals on the list who tried to buy guns succeeded. ‘It defies common sense,’ said Sen. [Frank] Lautenberg, D.-New Jersey, who requested the GAO report, ‘that people on the terror watch list continue to be cleared to buy weapons legally in the United States.’ ”
– Jason Ryan, “247 On U.S. Terror Watch List Bought Guns In 2010,” ABC News, April 28, 2011
“More than 470 inmates at a prison in southern Afghanistan have escaped through a tunnel hundreds of metres long and dug from outside the jail. Officials in the city of Kandahar said many of those who escaped from Sarposa jail were Taliban insurgents. The Kandahar provincial governor’s office said at least 12 had since been recaptured but gave no further details. A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the escape was a ‘disaster’ which should never have happened. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said it had taken five months to build the 360m (1,180ft) tunnel to a cell within the political wing. He said it was dug from a house north-east of the prison that was rented by ‘friends’ of the Taliban, and had to bypass security checkpoints and the main Kandahar-Kabul road. About 100 of those who escaped were Taliban commanders, he added. Most of the others are thought to have been insurgents.”
– “Afghanistan: Hundreds Escape from Kandahar Prison,” BBC News, April 25, 2011
Regarding the Taliban: “Their most stunning achievement occurred in April [25] 2011, when they tunneled under Kandahar’s Sarposa prison [Afghanistan] and freed almost five hundred fellow insurgents, several of whom were hard-core fighters, under the feet of unsuspecting U.S. soldiers stationed on the prison grounds.”
– Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Little America, Page 294
In a Washington Post article on April 19, 2011, Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez described his arrival in Afghanistan in 2007. ” ‘[W]e didn’t know enough…it took us six months to figure out what we were doing… We fought hard every day to understand how Afghanistan worked. But we had a very shallow knowledge.’ “
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 74
“A senior Al Qaeda leader and the second most wanted insurgent in the country has been killed after a four-year manhunt in Afghanistan. Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, a Saudi Arabian, was killed 12 days ago [April 14, 2011] in Dangam district as he met other senior insurgents and Al Qaeda members, an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said. The regional commander was in charge of suicide bombings and the organisation’s cash flow. …He was also No.23 on Saudi Arabia’s list of 85 most wanted militants issued in 2009, which said he was active in either Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iran. ISAF began hunting him in Afghanistan in 2007.”
– “Al Qaeda’s ‘Number Two’ in Afghanistan is Killed After Four-Year Manhunt,” Daily Mail, April 26, 2011
“International forces in Afghanistan say they have killed their number two insurgent target in the country–senior al-Qaeda leader Abdul Ghani. The Saudi citizen died in an air strike almost two weeks ago [April 14, 2011] in Kunar province, near Pakistan, Nato-led forces said. Abdul Ghani, also known as Abu Hafs al-Najdi, ran training camps and planned attacks on tribal leaders and foreigners, the Nato statement said. Nato estimates some 100 al-Qaeda members still operate in Afghanistan.”
– “Al-Qaeda ‘Afghan Number Two’ Abdul Ghani Killed–Nato,” BBC News, April 26, 2011
“US troops could if required by Iraq stay in the country beyond the agreed withdrawal date of 31 December, 2011, the US defence secretary has said. Robert Gates, who is visiting Iraq, says an extended military presence is an option. ‘If folks here are going to want us to have a presence, we’re going to need to get on with it pretty quickly in terms of our planning,’ he said.”
– “Robert Gates: US Iraq Troops ‘Could Stay Longer,'” BBC News, April 7, 2011
“Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday [April 4, 2011] that [9/11 mastermind] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 terror suspects will face a military trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. The decision is a sharp reversal for the Obama administration, which wanted the terror suspects to have federal civilian trials. Besides Mohammed, the other suspects to face charges of participating in the 9/11 plot are Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. All five are at Guantanamo.”
– Alan Silverleib, “Accused 9/11 Terror Suspects to Face Military Trials,” CNN, April 5, 2011
According to information from the Congressional Research Service report on March 29, 2011: “The 9/11 attacks cost the United States at least $1 trillion through direct property damage and second-order economic consequences, including the impact on the stock market. Thereafter, budgetary outlays for the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq that were undertaken as a response to al Qaeda’s attacks have been about $1.3 trillion.”
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 14
According to an article in the March/April 2011 issue of Foreign Policy, Afghan President Hamid Karzai: “frequently told top U.S. officials that of the three ‘main enemies’ he faced–the United States, the international community, and the Taliban–he would side first with the Taliban.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 95
“The official Department of Defense casualty figures reflected 4,421 U.S. military and defense department civilian deaths in Iraq as of March 11, 2011, and an additional 31,938 wounded in action. At the same point, the Iraq Body Count website found between 99,980 and 109,230 Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of the violence.”
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 112
As of March 7, 2011, “U.S.-led military forces have captured or killed more than 900 Taliban leaders in the past 10 months, making it harder for the insurgency to maintain its offensive capabilities, according to the U.S. military in Afghanistan. ‘We are getting indications that the (insurgency) is struggling to find replacements for leaders,’ said Maj. Sunset Belinsky of the International Security Assistance Force, which oversees coalition military operations in Afghanistan.”
– Tom Vanden Brook, “U.S.: Raids Have Taken out 900 Taliban Leaders,” USA Today, March 7, 2011
On February 18, 2011, “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton…told New York’s Asia Society that ‘we are launching a diplomatic surge to move this conflict [in Afghanistan] toward a political outcome that shatters the alliance between the Taliban and Al Qaeda, ends the insurgency and helps to produce not only a more stable Afghanistan but a more stable region.’ It was the first tantalizing public hint that the United States was talking to the Taliban.”
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 119
” ‘I think we are in the position, frankly, the prospects for closing Guantanamo, the best I can tell, are very, very low given very broad opposition to doing that here in the Congress,’ [Secretary of Defense] Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee [on February 17, 2011]. Asked what the United States would do about holding so-called high-value targets, which presumably would include Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders, Gates responded, ‘I think the honest answer to that is, we don’t know. If we capture them outside the area where we are at war and are not covered by the existing war authorizations, one possibility is for a person to be in the custody of their home government,’ Gates said. ‘Another possibility is that we bring them to the United States.’ ”
– Charley Keyes, “Gates: Prospects for Closing Guantanamo ‘Very, Very Low,'” CNN, Feb. 17, 2011
“An Iraqi defector who convinced the West that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which was used as a basis for war, has admitted he lied. Engineer Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, known by the alias Curveball, told German intelligence that the Iraqi dictator had mobile weapons laboratories as part of a secret biological programme. However, in an interview with the Guardian [U.K.] newspaper, he now says he lied in order to rid his country of the brutal regime, which he had fled in 1995. He told reporters: ‘I had to do something for my country. So I did this, and I am satisfied because there is no dictator in Iraq any more.’ ”
– “Defector Who Told the West About Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Admits He Lied,” Daily Mail, Feb. 16, 2011
“Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday [February 16, 2011] that U.S. intelligence officials should be questioned over their handling of ‘Curveball,’ an Iraqi defector whose now discredited claims on weapons of mass destruction helped fuel the Bush administration’s drive to war in 2003. It has become clear over the years that ‘the source called Curveball was totally unreliable,’ Powell said in a statement to CNN. ‘The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn’t known before the false information was put into (a key intelligence estimate) sent to Congress, the president’s [2003] State of the Union address and my February 5 [2003] presentation to the U.N.‘ ”
– Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, “Powell Questions Handling of Iraqi Defector,” CNN, Feb. 17, 2011
Iraqi defector Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, aka Curveball, admitted in interviews on February 15, 2011, that he fabricated information about Saddam’s biological weapons programs. ” ‘I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime… I and my sons are proud of that, and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy. …[Secretary of State] Colin Powell didn’t say I was the only reason for this war,’ he said. ‘He talked about three things. First of all, uranium; secondly, al-Qaida; and thirdly, my story. I don’t know why the other sources, for the uranium and al-Qaida, remained hidden and my name got out. I accept it, though, because I did something for my country and for me that was enough.’ ”
– Martin Chulov and Helen Pidd, “Curveball: How US was Duped by Iraqi Fantasist Looking to Topple Saddam,” The Guardian, Feb. 15, 2011
Iraqi defector Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, aka Curveball, admitted in interviews on February 15, 2011 that he fabricated information about Saddam’s biological weapons programs. He said: ” ‘I will be honest with you. I now have a lot of problems because the BND [Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service] have taken away my flat, taken my mobile phone: I’m in a bad position. But if I could go back to 2000, if someone asked me, I would say the same thing because I wouldn’t want that regime to continue in our country.’ ”
– Martin Chulov and Helen Pidd, “Curveball: How US was Duped by Iraqi Fantasist Looking to Topple Saddam,” The Guardian, Feb. 15, 2011
“The Senate on Tuesday [February 15, 2011] voted 86 to 12 to extend for 90 days three counterterrorism provisions, including the use of roving wiretaps, that are set to expire Feb. 28. The Senate action came a day after the House agreed to extend the three provisions, including two from the 2001 Patriot Act, until Dec. 8.”
– “Senate Votes to Extend Terrorism Provisions,” Associated Press, Feb. 15, 2011
“By mid-February [2011], the officials were convinced a ‘high-value target’ was hiding in the compound [in Abbottabad, Pakistan]. President Barack Obama wanted to take action. ‘They were confident and their confidence was growing: *This is different. This intelligence case is different. What we see in this compound is different than anything we’ve ever seen before,* ‘ John Brennan, the president’s top counterterrorism adviser, said Monday [May 2, 2011]. ‘I was confident that we had the basis to take action.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, “Phone Call by Kuwaiti Courier Led to Bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 2, 2011
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee on February 9, 2011. ” ‘The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly in the last ten years–and continues to evolve–so that, in some ways, the threat facing us is at its most heightened state since those attacks,’ she said… ‘As I have said before, we cannot guarantee that there will never be another terrorist attack, and we cannot seal our country under a glass dome… However, we continue to do everything we can to reduce the risk of terrorism in our nation.’ ”
– “America’s New Cold War? U.S. Military Widens Focus from ‘Fighting Violent Extremism’ to ‘Security Threat’ from the East,” Daily Mail, Feb. 8, 2011
“In February [9] 2011, I [counterterrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross] spoke with Andrew Exum, an Arabic-speaking counterinsurgency expert at the Center for a New American Security who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army Ranger officer. When I asked him why U.S. efforts in Afghanistan have been so uneven, he replied without hesitation, ‘One word: Iraq. I remember in 2002 coming back from Afghanistan and being immediately forgotten. We had just fought the largest set-piece battle since the Persian Gulf War Operation Anaconda, and it was the first time our regiment had been in battle since Vietnam. But the focus was on Iraq.’ …’The vast majority of our efforts and our resources–not just military but also intelligence assets–have been focused on Iraq.’ ”
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 106-107
“The US House of Representatives has blocked a bill to extend some surveillance powers granted by the 2001 Patriot Act after the 9/11 attacks. The bill was opposed by most Democrats and some Republicans, and failed to win the two-thirds vote needed for passage. It would have extended until December provisions on wiretaps, access to business records and surveillance of terror suspects granted by the law. …Critics say the broad powers the act grants US law enforcement agencies violate Americans’ privacy, and on Tuesday [February 8, 2011] the American Civil Liberties Union applauded the bill’s rejection. ‘The House should be commended for refusing to rubber stamp the continuation of these provisions,’ Laura Murphy, director of the group’s legislative office, said in a statement. ‘For the nearly 10 years it has been law, the over-reaching Patriot Act has been abused by law enforcement to violate innocent Americans’ privacy.’ ”
– “House Rejects Extension of ‘Patriot Act’ Powers,” BBC News, Feb. 8, 2011
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s interview with Barbara Walters of ABC News was aired on February 7, 2011. Rumsfeld “admitted his biggest error during his tenure under Bush was his failure to convince the president to accept his resignation in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal [in Iraq]. ‘That was such a stain on our country. To think that people in our custody were treated in that disgusting and perverted and ghastly way–unacceptable way… And so I stepped up and told the president I thought I should resign. And I think probably he and the military and the Pentagon and the country would’ve been better off if I had,’ he said.”
– Olivia Hampton, “Rumsfeld Regrets: Not Quitting After Abu Ghraib,” Agence France-Presse, Feb. 7, 2011
“Former President George W. Bush’s trip to Switzerland was canceled after human rights activists threatened legal action over allegations the former president approved the torture of terrorism suspects. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights [CCR] said it is prepared to file a complaint against Bush with the support of 50 NGOs, according to a statement from the group. CCR said Bush’s presence on Swiss territory is required for a prosecutor to take action. Bush was scheduled to speak in Geneva on February 12th at a dinner to honor the United Israel Appeal. CCR said the trip was canceled to ‘avoid our case.’ ”
– Kevin Bohn and Becky Brittain, “Bush Trip to Switzerland Canceled Amid Threatened Legal Action,” CNN, Feb. 6, 2011
“British special forces in Afghanistan have intercepted an Iranian shipment of rockets to the Taliban that would have allowed them to double the range of their attacks, western diplomats have said. The rockets were discovered after an intelligence tip-off on 5 February [2011] when British special forces and Afghan troops stopped a convoy in Nimruz province, in the south-west of Afghanistan bordering Iran and Pakistan, the officials said. …Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, issued a statement denouncing what he called ‘completely unacceptable’ Iranian behaviour. ‘I am extremely concerned by the latest evidence that Iran continues to supply the Taliban with weaponry–weapons clearly intended to provide the Taliban with the capability to kill Afghan and Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] soldiers from significant range. The detailed technical analysis, together with the circumstances of the seizure, leave us in no doubt that the weaponry recovered came from Iran,’ Hague said. ‘It is not the behaviour of a responsible neighbour.’ ”
– Julian Borger and Richard Norton-Taylor, “British Special Forces Seize Iranian Rockets in Afghanistan,” The Guardian, March 9, 2011
“A speaker claiming to be terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden warned in an audiotape aired Friday [January 21, 2011] that the release of two French journalists abducted by militants hinges on France’s military role in Afghanistan. ‘We repeat the same message to you,’ said the speaker in an audiotape played on the Al-Jazeera satellite news network. ‘The release of your prisoners from the hands of our brethren depends on the withdrawal of your soldiers from our countries.’ ”
– Saad Abedine and Pam Benson, “Bin Laden Message Warns France to Pull Out of Afghanistan,” CNN, Jan. 21, 2011
“In January 2011, he [Blair] provided evidence at a major UK inquiry into the Iraq War, chaired by John Chilcot. (Blair had previously appeared there a year earlier.)” [The 15th of the month for date sorting purpose only]
– Andrew Langley, Bush, Blair, and Iraq: Days of Decision, Page 49
“Al-Qaeda militants operating from Yemen are an ‘urgent concern’ for Washington, Hillary Clinton has said [on January 11, 2011] on the first visit to Sanaa by a US secretary of state in 20 years. But during the surprise visit, Mrs. Clinton said the US sought to broaden ties with Sanaa beyond a military role. She said US aid would also focus on Yemen’s social and economic challenges. Yemen has seen numerous anti-US attacks since the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden which killed 17 US sailors.”
– “Clinton in Yemen: Al-Qaeda Militants ‘Urgent Concern,'” BBC News, Jan. 11, 2011
In Spain, “This past Friday [January 7, 2011], the Center for Constitutional Rights filed papers urging Judge Eloy Velasco to do what the United States will not: prosecute the ‘Bush Six,’ the group of senior Bush-era government lawyers led by then–Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, for violating international law by creating a legal framework that aided and abetted the torture of suspected terrorists.” Other members of the Bush Six are David Addington (Vice President Dick Cheney’s legal counsel), Jay Bybee (former Assistant Attorney General), Douglas Feith (former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy), William Haynes (former General Counsel) and John Yoo (former Deputy Assistant Attorney General).
– Nancy Goldstein, “Will Bush’s Torture Memo Team Face Justice in Spain?,” The Nation, Jan. 12, 2011
“The US is to send an additional 1,400 marines to southern Afghanistan in an effort to counter a Taliban offensive, a Pentagon official has said. …Defence secretary Robert Gates had ‘approved additional marine forces to southern Afghanistan to exploit and consolidate gains already achieved and apply pressure on the enemy during the winter campaign,’ Defence Department spokesman Col Dave Lapan said. …President Barack Obama approved a troop surge of 30,000 troops roughly one year ago. But the president gave Mr Gates leeway to add an extra 3,000 forces, if necessary. There are currently about 97,000 US troops in Afghanistan, along with 45,000 forces from other countries, and officials said the new marines would not put the total number of US forces above the limit of 100,000 authorized by President Obama.”
– “US to Send 1,400 Additional Marines to Afghanistan,” BBC News, Jan. 6, 2011
Radical Shi’ite “Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of Iraq’s Sadrist movement, has returned to the country after three years in exile in Iran and less than a fortnight after his backing helped usher in a new Iraqi government. The vehemently anti-western cleric arrived in the Shia holy city of Najaf this afternoon. His surprise return came without fanfare or an announcement.”
– Martin Chulov, “Moqtada al-Sadr Returns to Iraq After Exile,” The Guardian, Jan. 5, 2011
“Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed at least 12,000 civilians and 200 coalition soldiers, according to a study. The research paper, by Dr Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks of King’s College London, the London-based Iraq Body Count and others, describes suicide bombs in Iraq as ‘a major public health problem,’ killing significantly more civilians than soldiers. …Using data amassed by the Iraq Body Count, which collects verified reports of deaths and injuries…the authors say more than 30,000 Iraqi civilians were injured by suicide bombs between 20 March 2003 and 31 December 2010, and 12,284 Iraqi civilians were killed in more than 1,000 suicide bombings. These amounted to 10% of civilian deaths and 25% of civilian injuries from armed violence in that period, they say.”
– Sarah Boseley, “Iraq Suicide Bomb Toll Revealed,” The Guardian, Sep. 1, 2011
“A federal judge on Tuesday [December 21, 2010] ordered the U.S. government to pay more than $2.5 million in attorney fees and damages after he concluded investigators wiretapped the phones of a suspected terrorist organization without a warrant. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said the attorneys for the Ashland, Ore., chapter of the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation should receive $2.5 million for waging its nearly five-year legal challenge to the Bush administration’s so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program. Walker also awarded $20,400 each to Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, two of the foundation’s Washington D.C.-based lawyers. They had their phone conversations with Al-Haramain principals monitored, the judge said.”
– Paul Elias, “Judge Orders Feds to Pay $2.5M in Wiretapping Case,” Associated Press, Dec. 21, 2010
“Iraq’s parliament has approved a new government including all major factions, ending nine months of deadlock after inconclusive elections [on March 7, 2010]. In a special session, MPs [Members of Parliament] voted for the 29 ministerial candidates nominated by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shia, who was reappointed for a second term. But doubts persist about whether all the political groups can work together. The key ministries of interior, defence and national security remain unfilled because nominees could not be agreed.”
– “Iraqi Parliament Approves New Government,” BBC News, Dec. 21, 2010
On December 19, 2010, Vice President Joe Biden’s appeared on Meet the Press. Biden “likened the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, to a ‘hi-tech terrorist,’ the strongest criticism yet from the Obama administration. Biden claimed that by leaking diplomatic cables Assange had put lives at risk and made it more difficult for the US to conduct its business around the world. His description of Assange shows a level of irritation that contrasts with more sanguine comments from other senior figures in the White House, who said the leak had not done serious damage.”
– Ewen MacAskill, “Julian Assange Like a Hi-Tech Terrorist, says Joe Biden,” The Guardian, Dec. 19, 2010
“The Swedish suicide bomb attack [on December 11, 2010, in which the only victim was the bomber himself] has been hailed by an al-Qaida-linked organisation, the Islamic State of Iraq, according to an Islamist website. The al-Hanin website today published a photomontage including a photograph of Iraq-born Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly suggesting he was a member of the group and had carried out the Stockholm explosion. It does not directly claim responsibility for the attack but expresses clear approval. Abdaly was described as muhjahid or fighter and referred to on another Arabic-language Islamist internet forum as ‘our brother,’ though this phrase does not necessarily indicate a prior organisational affiliation. Al-Hanin forum members refer to Abdaly as a ‘martyr’ and the Stockholm blasts as a ‘martyrdom operation,’ invoking the blessings of Allah.”
– Ian Black, “Sweden Suicide Bomber: Police Search Bedfordshire House,” The Guardian, Dec. 13, 2010
“About one in four former detainees who have been transferred out of the Guantánamo Bay military prison are confirmed or suspected by American intelligence agencies of having engaged in terrorist activities after their release, the Obama administration said Tuesday [December 7, 2010].”
– Charlie Savage, “Some Ex-Detainees Still Tied to Terror,” The New York Times, Dec. 7, 2010
“CSF [Coalition Support Fund] funding is the money that the US uses to buy the military cooperation of foreign countries in the so-called war on terror. Nobody receives more CSF money than Pakistan. Over the past nine years, over $7 billion in CSF funds have been transferred to the country, with even more money coming from other sources.”
– Susanne Koelbl, “The Brink of War: Unstable Pakistan has US on Edge,” Der Spiegel, Nov. 30, 2010
“The Western timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan was drawn up at one of the largest NATO summit meetings ever held, in Lisbon [Portugal] on November 19, 2010. Heads of state of forty-nine countries agreed to a withdrawal of most of the 150,000 U.S. and NATO forces by 2014 and a transfer of responsibility to Afghan security forces.”
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 15
“The UK government has paid compensation to 16 men who were detained by US forces at Guantanamo Bay. Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the settlement was confidential–but necessary to avoid a legal battle which could have cost up to £50m. The men, 12 of whom had launched damages claims, allege that London knew or was complicit in their treatment in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The heads of both MI5 [UK’s counter-intelligence and security agency] and MI6 [UK’s Secret Intelligence Service], who were being sued, welcomed the settlement. The coalition government made clear in the summer that it wanted to avoid a massive court case which would also have put the British secret intelligence services under the spotlight.”
– “Compensation to Guantanamo Detainees ‘was necessary,'” BBC News, Nov. 16, 2010
The Defense Department’s November 2010 ‘Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan’ “says dramatic increases in fighting against the Taliban have failed to convince the local population that the Afghan government and coalition forces will succeed. ‘The Taliban’s strength lies in the Afghan population’s perception that Coalition forces will soon leave, giving credence to the belief that a Taliban victory is inevitable,’ the report says. …The report says that Taliban is not popular but it exploits frustration with a weak Afghanistan government. ‘Despite public polling showing a lack of support for the Taliban, Afghan nationals are likely to remain non-committal until the Afghan Government and Coalition forces can convincingly provide security, government and economic opportunities,’ the report says. ‘The Taliban have sufficient organizational capability and support to pose a threat to the government’s viability, particularly in the south. If the security situation erodes, regional stability will rapidly decline as well.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Charley Keyes, “Pentagon Report: Afghans Believe Taliban Victory Inevitable,” CNN, Nov. 24, 2010
The Defense Department’s November 2010 ‘Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan’ “says insurgent groups continue to use Pakistan as a staging area for cross-border operations, and it raises new questions about Pakistan’s willingness and ability to take on the insurgents in its territory. ‘Efforts to reduce insurgency capacity, such as safe havens and logistical support originating in Pakistan and Iran have not produced measurable results,’ the report notes. ‘Pakistan’s domestic extremist threat and the 2010 floods recue the potential for a more aggressive or effective Pakistani effort in the near term.’ And while praising efforts to combat corruption, the report suggests more must be done. ‘Corruption continues to fuel the insurgency in various areas… The (Afghanistan President Hamid) Karzai Administration has improved its stance against corruption by prosecution of several high-profile senior officials. However, progress remains uneven and incremental.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Charley Keyes, “Pentagon Report: Afghans Believe Taliban Victory Inevitable,” CNN, Nov. 24, 2010
The Defense Department’s November 2010 ‘Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan’ claimed “Violence in Afghanistan has reached an all-time high, with clashes up fourfold since 2007… the Pentagon attributed much of the increase in violence to the growth in the coalition force after US President Barack Obama’s escalation this year. ‘Efforts to reduce insurgent capacity, such as safe havens and logistic support originating in Pakistan and Iran, have not produced measurable results,’ the report states. ‘The insurgency has proven resilient with sustained logistics capacity and command and control.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– “Afghanistan War: US Says Violence Reaches All-Time High,” BBC News, Nov. 23, 2010
In an appearance on Larry King Live on November 15, 2010, former Secretary of State Colin Powell “said that previous decisions–including U.S. and allied forces’ military approach to Afghanistan in the years right after September 11–should be looked back at critically. ‘Maybe we should have considered some years ago that the light footprint we had in the early years (to 2003) was not adequate,’ said Powell… ‘I think we might have been better served by a larger footprint earlier.’ ”
– “Powell: Obama failed to focus on what’s ‘most important,'” CNN.com, Nov. 16, 2010
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed waterboarding in an appearance on Larry King Live on November 15, 2010. “When its use came up after 9/11, Powell said ‘all of us felt that waterboarding was, if not over the line, that at least very close to the line.’ He said that he understood why [President] Bush authorized waterboarding, but said he himself wouldn’t support something he said ‘could be called now torture.’ ”
– “Powell: Obama Failed to Focus on What’s ‘Most Important,'” CNN.com, Nov. 16, 2010
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared on Larry King Live on November 15, 2010. “The then-secretary of state stood by his presentation to the United Nations–information he insisted that was vetted and approved by the U.S. intelligence community–in early [February 5] 2003 suggesting weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq. But he did have disappointment about the talk, which was critical in swaying public opinion in support for the war, in retrospect. ‘I regret it now, because the information was wrong,’ he said.”
– “Powell: Obama Failed to Focus on What’s ‘Most Important,'” CNN.com, Nov. 16, 2010
“…the centerpiece article in the November 2010 issue of Inspire, the English-language online magazine produced by the militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), began as follows: ‘Two Nokia phones, $150 each, two HP printers, $300 each, plus shipping, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses add up to a total bill of $4,200. That is all that Operation Hemorrhage [the cargo plane bomb plot of October 29, 2010] cost us. …On the other hand this supposedly ‘foiled plot,’ as some of our enemies would like to call it, will without a doubt cost America and other Western countries billions of dollars in new security measures.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 3
An editorial in the November 2010 issue of Inspire, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s online magazine, “lucidly explains that large strikes, such as those of 9/11, are no longer required to defeat the United States. ‘To bring down America we do not need to strike big,’ it claims. ‘In such an environment of security phobia that is sweeping America, it is more feasible to stage smaller attacks that involve less players and less time to launch and thus we may circumvent the security barriers America worked so hard to erect.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 173
In an interview with political correspondent Candy Crowley on November 14, 2010, former President George W. Bush said: ” ‘If (Saddam Hussein) was in power today, the world would be a lot worse off… I believe that a free Iraq will be transformative in the Middle East.’ ”
– “Bush Says Some NATO Allies let U.S. Down in Afghanistan,” CNN.com, Nov. 15, 2010
“Former President George W. Bush defended his administration’s handling of the war in Afghanistan on Sunday [November 14, 2010], telling CNN that some NATO allies who contributed troops to the conflict ‘turned out not to be willing to fight.’ In an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley, Bush strongly refuted criticism that his administration took its ‘eye off the ball’ in Afghanistan when he ordered troops to invade Iraq. He said he ordered American forces to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the assumption that allied forces would help make up the difference in Afghanistan. ‘What happened in Afghanistan was that our NATO allies, some of them, turned out not to be willing to fight,’ Bush said. ‘Therefore, our assumption that we had ample troops–U.S. and NATO troops–turned out to be a not-true assumption. So we adjusted.’ ”
– “Bush Says Some NATO Allies let U.S. Down in Afghanistan,” CNN.com, Nov. 15, 2010
“The Justice Department disclosed on Tuesday [November 9, 2010] that no one will be charged in the long ongoing investigation into the destruction of 92 CIA videotapes that showed enhanced interrogation techniques being used on terrorism detainees. Federal prosecutor John Durham had been investigating the destruction of the CIA tapes, which are believed to have shown sessions that included waterboarding and other harsh tactics being used on detainees. …According to officials the tapes that were destroyed showed interrogations of Al Qaeda detainees Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The tapes were destroyed after review by the CIA’s General Counsel and a review of the CIA Inspector General found that the interrogation methods on the tapes were within the legal guidance that had been issued by the Justice Department. According to officials the tapes were destroyed at some point in November 2005 when officials said they no longer contained any intelligence value.”
– Jenny Schlesinger, “No Charges in CIA Videotape Destruction Inquiry,” ABC News, Nov. 9, 2010
“Downing Street today [November 9, 2010] dismissed George Bush’s claim that waterboarding is not torture after the former president used his memoirs to play down the brutality of the interrogation technique and claimed that it saved British lives. Waterboarding, which was banned by President Barack Obama, helped foil attacks on Heathrow airport, Canary Wharf and a number of US targets around the world, according to Bush. In Decision Points, published today, Bush insists the practice–which simulates drowning–is not torture, describing it instead as one of a number of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’ But Downing Street confirmed the British government still shared Obama’s opinion that waterboarding constitutes torture. ‘It comes under that definition in our view,’ a No 10 spokeswoman said. The former chair of the Commons intelligence and security committee, Kim Howells, cast doubt on Bush’s claim that it had helped save British lives. ‘We are not convinced,’ said the Labour MP.”
– Haroon Siddique and Chris McGreal, “Waterboarding is Torture, Downing Street Confirms,” The Guardian, Nov. 9, 2010
In his memoirs, former President George W. “Bush writes that waterboarding was highly effective, providing ‘large amounts of information.’ ‘No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did no lasting harm,’ he writes. ‘I knew an interrogation programme this sensitive and controversial would one day become public. When it did, we would open ourselves up to criticism that America had compromised our moral values. I would have preferred that we get the information another way. But the choice between security and values was real. Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States.’ ”
– Haroon Siddique and Chris McGreal, “Waterboarding is Torture, Downing Street Confirms,” The Guardian, Nov. 9, 2010
“Asked by The Times [of London] if he [former President George W. Bush] personally authorised the use of waterboarding–effectively drowning the suspect by pouring water on his face–against the al-Qaeda suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mr. Bush said: ‘Damn right!’ Geoffrey Robertson, QC [Queen’s Counsel], a human rights expert and founder of the Doughty Street Chambers, said that this was the first time the former President had admitted that he had ordered torture. He warned that it could lay Mr. Bush open to arrest and possible prosecution if he visited countries that had ratified the UN torture convention–including most of Europe. ‘George W. Bush has confessed to ordering waterboarding, which in the view of almost all experts clearly passes the severe pain threshold in the definition of torture in international law,’ Mr. Robertson told The Times.”
– Ben Macintyre, “Bush: Waterboarding Saved London from Attacks,” The Times of London, Nov. 9, 2010
“Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, which campaigns for better treatment of prisoners, said: ‘As ever, the former President [Bush] alludes to secret, unverifiable achievements by his Administration thanks to torture. What we know for sure is that the US tortured [al Qaeda commander] Ibn Sheikh al-Libi into ‘revealing’ a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. This information was false, and yet provided the basis for the war on Iraq and the endless bloodshed that followed. ‘By authorising torture, President Bush made the world an infinitely more dangerous place. The practice spread like a virus, from the CIA to Abu Ghraib, destroying international goodwill towards the US and stoking extremism everywhere. President Bush provided al-Qaeda with its greatest recruiting sergeant.’ ”
– Ben Macintyre, “Bush: Waterboarding Saved London from Attacks,” The Times of London, Nov. 9, 2010
In former President George W. Bush’s upcoming memoirs, he justified the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, writing: ” ‘CIA experts drew up a list of interrogation techniques. …At my direction, Department of Justice and CIA lawyers conducted a careful legal review. The enhanced interrogation program complied with the Constitution and all applicable laws, including those that ban torture. There were two that I felt went too far, even if they were legal. I directed the CIA not to use them. Another technique was waterboarding, a process of simulated drowning. No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did no lasting harm.’ ”
– Adam Aigner-Treworgy, John Helton, Ed Hornick, Gabriella Schwarz, and Rebecca Sherman, “Bush on Waterboarding: ‘Damn Right,'” CNN, Nov. 5, 2010
In former President George W. Bush’s upcoming memoirs, “Though Bush confirms that he knew the use of waterboarding would one day become public, and acknowledges that it is ‘sensitive and controversial,’ he asserts that ‘the choice between security and values was real,’ and expresses firm confidence in his decision. ‘Had I not authorized waterboarding on senior al Qaeda leaders, I would have had to accept a greater risk that the country would be attacked. In the wake of 9/11, that was a risk I was unwilling to take,’ he writes.”
– Adam Aigner-Treworgy, John Helton, Ed Hornick, Gabriella Schwarz, and Rebecca Sherman, “Bush on Waterboarding: ‘Damn Right,'” CNN, Nov. 5, 2010
Regarding former President George W. Bush's upcoming memoirs: "[I]f there were any lingering doubts or conflict about the use of waterboarding, Bush discloses that he received reassurance from an unlikely source: terror suspect Abu Zubaydah. The former president writes, 'His understanding of Islam was that he had to resist interrogation only up to a certain point. Waterboarding was the technique that allowed him to reach that threshold, fulfill his religious duty, and then cooperate.' Bush elaborates that Zubaydah gave him a direct instruction, ' *You must do this for all the brothers.* ' Intelligence gleaned from interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and other suspects led to the capture of [9/11 mastermind] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Bush writes. During a raid on Mohammed's compound, agents discovered more plans for terrorist attacks on U.S. soil."
– Adam Aigner-Treworgy, John Helton, Ed Hornick, Gabriella Schwarz, and Rebecca Sherman, “Bush on Waterboarding: ‘Damn Right,'” CNN, Nov. 5, 2010,
In his upcoming memoirs, former President George W. Bush claimed that after enhanced interrogation techniques proved successful in gleaning information from al Qaeda leaders, “Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet asked if he had permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques including waterboarding on [9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed. Bush exposes his inner thoughts on what led him to reach this decision: ‘I thought about my meeting with [journalist] Danny Pearl’s widow, who was pregnant with his son when he was murdered. I thought about the 2,971 people stolen from their families by al Qaeda on 9/11. And I thought about my duty to protect my country from another act of terror. *Damn right,* I said.’ ”
– Adam Aigner-Treworgy, John Helton, Ed Hornick, Gabriella Schwarz, and Rebecca Sherman, “Bush on Waterboarding: ‘Damn Right,'” CNN, Nov. 5, 2010
“According to the private SITE [Search for International Terrorist Entities] Intelligence Group, bin Laden has made 23 audio and one video tape since 2006. [Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman] Al-Zawahri has outpaced his superior, making 37 audio and 22 video recordings in the same period. In al-Zawahri’s latest audio recording, issued Nov. 4 [2010], he warned the U.S. that ‘we will fight you until the last hour.’ ”
– Adam Goldman and Kathy Gannon, “U.S. Nearly Killed Al-Zawahiri, Officials Say,” Associated Press, Nov. 29, 2010
“In a memoir due out Tuesday [November 9, 2010], [former President George W.] Bush makes clear that he personally approved the use of that coercive technique [waterboarding] against alleged Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an admission the human rights experts say could one day have legal consequences for him. In his book, titled ‘Decision Points,’ Bush recounts being asked by the CIA whether it could proceed with waterboarding Mohammed, who Bush said was suspected of knowing about still-pending terrorist plots against the United States. Bush writes that his reply was ‘Damn right’ and states that he would make the same decision again to save lives, according to a someone close to Bush who has read the book. Bush previously had acknowledged endorsing what he described as the CIA’s ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques–a term meant to encompass irregular, coercive methods–after Justice Department officials and other top aides assured him they were legal.”
– Jeffrey Smith, “In New Memoir, Bush Makes Clear He Approved Use of Waterboarding,” The Washington Post, Nov. 3, 2010