Dirty Wars Read online

  DIRTY WARS

  ALSO BY JEREMY SCAHILL

  Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s

  Most Powerful Mercenary Army

  The

  World

  Is a

  Battlefield

  JEREMY SCAHILL

  Nation Books

  New York

  Copyright © 2013 by Jeremy Scahill

  Published by Nation Books, a Member of the Perseus Books Group 116 East 16th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003 Nation Books is a co-publishing venture of the Nation Institute and the Perseus Books Group.

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, please address the Perseus Books Group, 250 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10107.

  Books published by Nation Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].

  Designed by Janet Tingey

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Scahill, Jeremy.

  Dirty wars : the world is a battlefield / Jeremy Scahill. — First edition.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-56858-727-1 (eb)

  1. United States—History, Military—21st century. 2. Special operations (Military science)—United States—History—21st century. 3. Terrorism—Prevention—United States—Government policy—History—21st century. 4. Targeted killing—United States—History—21st century. 5. Intelligence service—United States—History—21st century. 6. United States—Military policy—History—21st century. 7. United States—Military policy—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Title.

  E897.S33 2013

  355.00973—dc23

  2012051769

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  FOR JOURNALISTS—

  those imprisoned for doing their jobs and

  those who have died in pursuit of the truth.

  “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are

  punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the

  sound of trumpets.”

  —VOLTAIRE

  CONTENTS

  A NOTE TO THE READER

  PROLOGUE

  1“There Was Concern…That We Not Create an American Hit List”

  WASHINGTON, DC, 2001–2002

  2Anwar Awlaki: An American Story

  THE UNITED STATES AND YEMEN, 1971–2002

  3Find, Fix, Finish: The Rise of JSOC

  WASHINGTON, DC, 1979–2001

  4The Boss: Ali Abdullah Saleh

  YEMEN, 1970–2001; WASHINGTON, DC, 2001

  5The Enigma of Anwar Awlaki

  THE UNITED KINGDOM, THE UNITED STATES AND YEMEN, 2002–2003

  6“We’re in a New Kind of War”

  DJIBOUTI, WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, 2002

  7Special Plans

  WASHINGTON, DC, 2002

  8Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape

  WASHINGTON, DC, 2002–2003

  9The Troublemaker: Stanley McChrystal

  THE UNITED STATES, 1974–2003; IRAQ, 2003

  10“Their Intention and Our Intention Is the Same”

  SOMALIA, 1993–2004

  11“A Defeated Enemy Is Not a Vanquished One”

  YEMEN, 2003–2006

  12“Never Trust a Nonbeliever”

  THE UNITED KINGDOM, 2003

  13“You Don’t Have to Prove to Anyone That You Did Right”

  IRAQ, 2003–2005

  14“No Blood, No Foul”

  IRAQ, 2003–2004

  15The Death Star

  IRAQ, 2004

  16“The Best Technology, the Best Weapons, the Best People—and Plenty of Money to Burn”

  AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ AND PAKISTAN, 2003–2006

  17“A Lot of It Was of Questionable Legality”

  SOURCE: “HUNTER”

  18The Imprisonment of Anwar Awlaki

  YEMEN, 2004–2007

  19“America Knows War. They Are War Masters.”

  SOMALIA, 2004–2006

  20Prison Break

  YEMEN, 2006

  21Hot Pursuit

  PAKISTAN, 2006–2008

  22“Every Step Taken by the US Benefited al Shabab”

  SOMALIA, 2007–2009

  23“If Your Son Does Not Come to Us, He Will Be Killed by the Americans”

  YEMEN, 2007–2009

  24“Obama Is Set to Continue the Course Set by Bush”

  UNITED STATES, 2002–2008

  25Obama’s Signature Strikes

  PAKISTAN AND WASHINGTON, DC, 2009

  26Special Ops Want to “Own This Shit Like They Did in Central America in the ’80s”

  WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, 2009

  27Suicide or Martyrdom?

  YEMEN, 2009

  28Obama Embraces JSOC

  SOMALIA, EARLY 2009

  29“Let JSOC Off the Leash”

  SAUDI ARABIA, WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, LATE 2009

  30Samir Khan: An Unlikely Foot Soldier

  THE UNITED STATES AND YEMEN, 2001–2009

  31Blowback in Somalia

  SOMALIA AND WASHINGTON, DC, 2009

  32“If They Kill Innocent Children and Call Them al Qaeda, Then We Are All al Qaeda”

  WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, 2009

  33“The Americans Really Wanted to Kill Anwar”

  YEMEN, LATE 2009–EARLY 2010

  34“Mr. Barack Obama…I Hope That You Reconsider Your Order to Kill…My Son”

  WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, EARLY 2010

  35One Night in Gardez

  WASHINGTON, DC, 2008–2010; AFGHANISTAN, 2009–2010

  36The Year of the Drone

  YEMEN AND THE UNITED STATES, 2010

  37Driving Anwar Awlaki to Hell

  YEMEN, 2010

  38The CIA’s Dating Service

  DENMARK AND YEMEN, 2010

  39“The Auction of the Assassin”

  WASHINGTON, DC, 2010

  40“Martyrdom Is Why We Came Here, My Brother”

  YEMEN, 2009–2010

  41The Persecution of Abdulelah Haider Shaye

  YEMEN, SUMMER 2010

  42The President Can Write His Own Rules

  WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, LATE 2010

  43Al Qaeda’s “Foothold in Somalia Has Probably Been Facilitated”

  SOMALIA, 2010

  44“Anwar Awlaki…Definitely Has a Missile in His Future”

  YEMEN, 2011

  45The Curious Case of Raymond Davis: Act I

  PAKISTAN, 2011

  46The Curious Case of Raymond Davis: Act II

  PAKISTAN, 2011

  47The Tsunami of Change

  AUSTRIA AND YEMEN, 2011

  48The Fortress in Abbottabad

  WASHINGTON, DC, 2010–2011; PAKISTAN, 2011

  49“We Got Him. We Got Him.”

  PAKISTAN, 2011

  50“Now They’re After My Son”

  SOMALIA, WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, 2011

  51“It Was Cold-Blooded”

  PAKISTAN, 2011

  52“The US Sees al Qaeda as Terrorism, and We Consider the Drones Terrorism”

  YEMEN, LATE 2011

  53The Pink House

  WASHINGTON, DC, AND SOMALIA, 2011

  54“Total Savagery Throughout the Country”

  SOMALIA, 2011

  55Abdulrahman Vanishes


  YEMEN, 2011

  56Hellfire

  WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, 2011

  57Paying for the Sins of the Father

  WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, 2011

  EPILOGUE: PERPETUAL WAR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

  NOTES

  INDEX

  MAPS

  A NOTE TO THE READER

  THIS IS A STORY about how the United States came to embrace assassination as a central part of its national security policy. It is also a story about the consequences of that decision for people in scores of countries across the globe and for the future of American democracy. Although the 9/11 attacks dramatically altered the way the United States conducts its foreign policy, the roots of this story far predate the day the Twin Towers fell. In the post-9/11 world, there is also a tendency to see US foreign policy through a partisan lens that, on the one hand, suggests that President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was an utter disaster that led the nation into a mentality that it was in a global war and, on the other, that President Barack Obama was left to clean up the mess. In the eyes of many conservatives, President Obama has been weak in confronting terrorism. In the eyes of many liberals, he has waged a “smarter” war. The realities, however, are far more nuanced.

  This book tells the story of the expansion of covert US wars, the abuse of executive privilege and state secrets, the embrace of unaccountable elite military units that answer only to the White House. Dirty Wars also reveals the continuity of a mindset that “the world is a battlefield” from Republican to Democratic administrations.

  The story begins with a brief history of the US approach to terrorism and assassination prior to 9/11. From there, I weave in and out of several stories, spanning the course of Bush’s early days in office and going into Obama’s second term. We meet al Qaeda figures in Yemen, US-backed warlords in Somalia, CIA spies in Pakistan and Special Operations commandos tasked with hunting down those people deemed to be enemies of America. We meet the men who run the most secretive operations for the military and the CIA, and we hear the stories of insiders who have spent their lives in the shadows, some of whom spoke to me only on condition that their identity never be revealed.

  The world now knows SEAL Team 6 and the Joint Special Operations Command as the units that killed Osama bin Laden. This book will reveal previously undisclosed or little-known missions conducted by these very forces that will never be discussed by those at the helm of power in the United States or immortalized in Hollywood films. I dig deep into the life of Anwar al Awlaki, the first US citizen known to be targeted for assassination by his own government—despite never having been charged with a crime. We also hear from those who are caught in the middle—the civilians who face drone bombings and acts of terrorism. We enter the home of Afghan civilians whose lives were destroyed by a Special Ops night raid gone wrong, transforming them from US allies to would-be suicide bombers.

  Some of the stories in this book may, at first, seem to be disconnected, from people worlds apart. But taken together, they reveal a haunting vision of what our future holds in a world gripped by ever-expanding dirty wars.

  —JEREMY SCAHILL

  DIRTY WARS

  PROLOGUE

  The young teenager sat outside with his cousins as they gathered for a barbecue. He wore his hair long and messy. His mother and grandparents had repeatedly urged him to cut it. But the boy believed it had become his trademark look and he liked it. A few weeks earlier, he had run away from home, but not in some act of teenage rebellion. He was on a mission. In the note he left for his mother before he snuck out the kitchen window as the sun was just rising and headed to the bus station, he admitted that he had taken money from her purse—$40—for bus fare, and for that he apologized. He explained his mission and begged for forgiveness. He said he would be home soon.

  The boy was the eldest child in his family. Not just in his immediate family, which consisted of his parents and his three siblings, but in the large house they shared with his aunts and uncles and cousins and two of his grandparents. He was his grandmother’s favorite. When guests visited, he would bring them tea and sweets. When they left, he would clean up after them. Once, his grandmother twisted her ankle and went to the hospital for treatment. When she limped out of the treatment room, the boy was there to greet her and make sure she got home safely. “You are a gentle boy,” his grandmother always told him. “Don’t ever change.”

  The boy’s mission was simple: he wanted to find his father. He hadn’t seen him in years and he was afraid that if he didn’t find him, he would be left only with blurred memories: of his father teaching him to fish; to ride a horse; surprising him with an abundance of gifts on his birthday; taking him and his siblings to the beach or to the candy shop.

  Finding his father would not be easy. He was a wanted man. There was a bounty on his head and he had narrowly escaped death more than a dozen times. That powerful forces in multiple countries wanted his father dead did not deter the boy. He was tired of seeing the videos of his father that painted him as a terrorist and an evil figure. He just knew him as his dad, and he wanted at least one last moment with him. But it didn’t work out that way.

  Three weeks after he climbed out the kitchen window, the boy was outdoors with his cousins—teenagers like him—laying a picnic for dinner beneath the stars. It was then he would have heard the drones approaching, followed by the whiz of the missiles. It was a direct hit. The boy and his cousins were blown to pieces. All that remained of the boy was the back of his head, his flowing hair still clinging to it. The boy had turned sixteen years old a few weeks earlier and now he had been killed by his own government. He was the third US citizen to be killed in operations authorized by the president in two weeks. The first was his father.

  “There Was Concern... That We Not Create an American Hit List”

  WASHINGTON, DC, 2001–2002 —It was 10:10 a.m. on June 11, 2002, nine months to the day since the September 11 attacks. The senators and representatives filed into Room S-407 of the US Capitol. All of them were members of a small, elite group in Washington and were, by law, entrusted with the most guarded national security secrets of the US government. “I hereby move that this meeting of the committee be closed to the public,” declared Republican Richard Shelby, the senior senator from Alabama, in a Southern drawl, “on the grounds that the national security of the United States might be compromised were a proceeding to become public.” The motion was quickly seconded and the secret hearing was under way.

  As the members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence gathered in Washington, DC, half a world away in Afghanistan, tribal and political leaders were convening a loya jirga, a “grand council,” that was tasked with deciding who would run the country following the swift overthrow of the Taliban government by the US military. After 9/11, the US Congress had granted the Bush administration sweeping powers to pursue those responsible for the attacks. The Taliban government, which had ruled Afghanistan since 1996, was crushed, depriving al Qaeda of its sanctuary in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders were on the run. But for the Bush administration, the long war was just getting started.

  At the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were deep into planning the next invasion—Iraq. They had come to power with plans to topple Saddam Hussein in hand and, despite the fact that there was no Iraqi connection to the attacks, they used 9/11 as the pretext to push their agenda. But the decisions made in that first year of the Bush administration were much bigger than Iraq, Afghanistan or even al Qaeda. The men in power at that time were intent on changing the way the United States waged its wars and, in the process, creating unprecedented powers for the White House. The days of fighting uniformed enemies and national militaries according to the rules of the Geneva Conventions were over. “The world is a battlefield” was the mantra repeated
by the neoconservatives in the US national security apparatus and placed on PowerPoint slides laying out the plans for a sweeping, borderless global war. But terrorists would not be their only target. The two-hundred-year-old democratic system of checks and balances was firmly in their crosshairs.

  Room S-407 was nestled in the attic of the Capitol building. It was windowless and accessible only by one elevator—or a narrow staircase. The room was classified as a secure facility and had been fitted with sophisticated counterespionage equipment to block any attempt at eavesdropping or monitoring from outside. For decades, the room had been used to house the most sensitive briefings of members of Congress by the CIA, the US military and scores of other figures and entities that inhabit the shadows of US policy. Covert actions were briefed and debriefed in the room. It was one of a handful of facilities in the United States where the nation’s most closely guarded secrets were discussed.

  As the senators and representatives sat in the closed-door session on Capitol Hill that morning in June 2002, they would hear a story of how the United States had crossed a threshold. The stated purpose of the hearing was to review the work and structure of US counterterrorism (CT) organizations before 9/11. At the time, there was a substantial amount of finger-pointing regarding US intelligence “failures” leading up to the attacks. In the aftermath of the most devastating terrorist strikes on US soil in history, Cheney and Rumsfeld charged that the Clinton administration had failed to adequately recognize the urgency of al Qaeda’s threat, leaving the US homeland vulnerable by the time the Bush White House took power. Democrats pushed back and pointed to their own history of combating al Qaeda in the 1990s. The appearance of Richard Clarke before the US lawmakers on this particular day was, in part, intended to send a message to the congressional elite. Clarke had been President Bill Clinton’s counterterrorism czar and chaired the Counterterrorism Security Group of the National Security Council (NSC) for the decade leading up to 9/11. He had also served on President George H. W. Bush’s National Security Council and was an assistant secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan. He was one of the most experienced counterterrorism officials in the United States and, at the time of the hearing, was on his way out of government, though he still held a post as a special adviser to President George W. Bush on cyberspace security. Clarke was a hawkish figure who had risen to prominence under a Democratic administration and was known to have pushed hard when Clinton was in power for more covert action. So it made tactical sense that the Bush administration would put him forward to make the case for a regime of military and intelligence tactics that had previously been deemed illegal, undemocratic or, simply, dangerous.