The 9/11 Wars (131 page)

    2
.
‘Roshonara Choudhry: police interview extracts’,
Guardian
, November 3, 2010.

    3
.
Tom Rawstorne, ‘The remote-controlled Al Qaeda assassin: how brilliant student was brainwashed into stabbing MP’,
Daily Mail
, November 6, 2010.

    4
.
Petter Nesser and Brynjar Lia, ‘Lessons Learned from the July 2010 Norwegian Terrorist Plot’,
CTC Sentinel
, vol. 3, no. 8, August 2010.

    5
.
He may have been in touch with Anwar al-Awlaki but had never been near Pakistan.

    6
.
Another was Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali, al-Qaeda’s chief of military operations in Afghanistan and a veteran militant indicted for his role in the 1998 bombings of American embassies in East Africa.

    7
.
A total of nearly 600 militants were killed, according to one estimate, indicating that new militants replacing the dead were being killed too. Greg Miller, ‘Increased U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan killing few high-ranking militants’,
Washington Post
, February 20, 2011. David E Sanger and Mark Mazzetti, ‘New estimate of strength of Al Qaeda is offered’,
New York Times
, June 30, 2010. The fact that senior al-Qaeda figures began to move to Pakistani cities and towns indicated how effective the drone strikes were.

    8
.
A nine-month break in communications from bin Laden had been ended only in March 2009. Seth Jones,
In the Graveyard of Empires
, p. 291.

    9
.
An audiotape was released in January and another at the end of September.

  10
.
Abdul Hameed Bakier, ‘Internet Jihadists React to the Deaths of al-Qaeda Leaders in Iraq’,
CTC Sentinel
, May 2010, vol. 3, no. 5, p. 14.

  11
.
Abu Jihad al-Shami,
The Vision
, published summer 2010. The author’s
kunya
or
nom de guerre
indicates he is either from or has fought in Jordan or Iraq.

  12
.
According to a study published in 2009, outside of the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, 99 per cent of al-Qaeda’s victims in 2007 and 96 per cent in 2008 were non-Western. Combating Terrorism Centre,
Deadly Vanguards: A Study of al’Qaida’s Violence against Muslims
, December 2009, p. 10.

  13
.
An example would be when, in July 2009, 200 people were killed in riots between Han Chinese and local Uighurs in Xinjiang. This led al-Qaeda to issue its first direct threat against China, framing the recent events in the classic narrative. Abu Yahya al-Libi described the ‘massacre’ as ‘not being carried out by criminal Crusaders or evil Jews who have committed crimes against our nation [but] by Buddhist nationalists and communists’. Three months later, al-Libi was claiming ‘China is working to destroy the Muslim identity and culture of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang and pursuing policies to ‘sever the link between the people and their history’. Chris Zambelis, ‘Uighur Dissent and Militancy in China’s Xinjiang Province’,
CTC Sentinel
, vol. 3, no. 1, January 2010. James Rupert, ‘Al-Qaeda vows holy war on China over Uighurs’ plight,
Bloomberg
, October 8, 2009.

  14
.
Bin Laden carefully clarified that ‘the majority of those states have signed the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to curb the emission of harmful gases’, except, under President George Bush, the United States. David Usborne, ‘Bin Laden goes green to exploit Pakistan flood aid frustration’,
Independent
, October 2, 2010. ‘Bin Laden criticizes Pakistan relief, urges climate action’, Reuters, October 1, 2010.

  15
.
See the author’s chapter in John Esposito, ed.,
Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics
, Harvard University Press, to be published end 2011.

  16
.
Ibid. Author telephone interview with Sidney Jones, April 2010. The even more localized ‘al-Qaeda in Aceh’ disappeared too. In the Philippines too the Abu Sayyaf Group, which had also been drawn tangentially into the broader al-Qaeda network in the late 1990s, moved sharply away from international involvement and, emasculated by a relatively successful American-supported counter-insurgency campaign, returned to kidnapping and banditry. Deep problems remained, with ethnic and religious resentment of the central government still deep, but the threat from a once potent militant group was residual. ‘Peace in our time, maybe’,
The Economist
, August 9, 2008. Zachary Abuza, ‘The Philippines Chips Away at the Abu Sayyaf Group’s strength’,
CTC Sentinel
, vol. 3, no. 4, April 2010. See also Eliza Griswold,
The Tenth Parallel
, Allen Lane, 2010.

  17
.
As Nir Rosen, the journalist and analyst, points out, a major motivation for al-Shabab declaring al-Qaeda allegiance was attracting funding from al-Qaeda’s Arab donors, in the same way that al-Qaeda’s local enemies use the discourse of counter-terrorism to win backing from the West. Nir Rosen, ‘Somalia’s al-Shabab, a global or local movement?’
Time
, August 20, 2010.

  18
.
Author interviews with British and American officials, Delhi, September and November, 2010.

  19
.
Lorraine Adams with Ayesha Nasir, ‘Inside the mind of the Times Square bomber’,
Observer
, September 19, 2010.

  20
.
Vikram Dodd, ‘Roshonara Choudhry jailed for life over MP attack’,
Guardian
, November 3, 2010.

  21
.
Richard Esposito and Pierre Thomas, ‘Terror attacks against US at all-time high’, ABC News, May 26, 2010.

  22
.
Michael Leiter, Director of National Counterterrorism Center, ‘Statement for Record, Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Nine Years after 9/11: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland’, September 22, 2010.

  23
.
Andrea Elliott, ‘The jihadist next door’,
New York Times
, June 22, 2010. Frank Cilluffo, Jeffrey Cozens and Magnus Ranstorp, ‘Foreign Fighters: Trends, Trajectories and Conflict Zones’, Homeland Security Policy Institute, George Washington University, 2010, p. 24. Leiter,
Statement
.

  24
.
Paul Lewis, ‘ “Christmas terror plot” suspects are remanded in custody’,
Guardian
, December 27, 2010.

  25
.
Complex suicide attacks were recorded at roughly two per month, higher than the average of one complex attack per month during 2009. UNAMA,
Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to Paragraph 40 of Resolution 1917 (2010)
(S/2010/318), June 2010.

  26
.
UNAMA,
The Situation in Afghanistan and Its Implications for International Peace and Security
, (S/2010/463), September 2010.

  27
.
See UNAMA,
Mid Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict 2010
, Kabul, August 2010. UNAMA,
Afghan Civilian Casualties Rise 31 Per Cent in First Six Months of
2010, August 10, 2010. In a new grim twist these now included public executions of children.

  28
.
Laheya and 2011 Spring Offensive statement, author collection. Author interview with US military intelligence officer, Kabul, May 2011.

  29
.
US Department of Defense,
Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan
, November 2010, pp. 7–8. ‘ISAF and Afghan National Security Forces gradually are pushing insurgents to the edges of secured population areas in a number of important locations … Progress across the country remains uneven, with modest gains in security, governance, and development in operational priority areas.’

  30
.
Multiple author interviews with US, Afghan and British officials and military officers, Kabul, May 2011.

  31
.
Author interviews, Srinagar, Delhi, April, June 2010. By late spring 2010, there was even evidence of increased infiltration of militants into Kashmir, Indian security officials claimed.

  32
.
Asra Nomani and Barbara Feinman Todd, ‘Land of the Scot-free’,
Newsweek
, February 7, 2011.

  33
.
Carlotta Gall, ‘Pakistan faces a divide of age on Muslim law’,
New York Times
, January 11, 2011. Aatish Taseer, ‘The killer of my father, Salman Taseer, was showered with rose petals by fanatics. How could they do this?’,
Daily Telegraph
, January 11, 2011. ‘Has Pakistan passed the tipping point of religious extremism?’, BBC News Online, January 7, 2011. Eventually some political leaders did move to condemn the killing. The Punjab Assembly, including religious parties sitting, unanimously passed a resolution against the murder, praising the late governor’s political and social achievements. Hussain Kashif, ‘PA passes resolution condemning Taseer’s assassination’,
Daily Times
, January 11, 2011.

  35
.
According to Iraq Body Count, the UK-based organization.

  36
.
‘Total 2010 Iraq death toll tops 2009: government’, AFP, January 1, 2011.

  37
.
Aaron C. Davis, ‘Sadr foments resistance by Iraqis’,
New York Times
, January 9, 2011.

  38
.
Interview, Baghdad, November 2010.

  39
.
Thomas Friedman, ‘The things we do for oil’,
International Herald Tribune
, February 23, 2011.

  40
.
Tom Coghlan, ‘Afghans accuse Defence Secretary Liam Fox of racism and disrespect’,
The Times
, May 24, 2010.

  41
.
The parliamentary election in November and December saw the ruling National Democratic Party take nearly 95 per cent of the 221 seats available in the first round. A second round took place amid clumsy fraud and without the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition, and indicated clearly that Mubarak, eighty-two, had no intention of relinquishing power other than, perhaps, passing it to his carefully groomed son Gamal

  42
.
‘Building a new Libya’,
The Economist
, February 26, 2011.

  43
.
Andrew Lebovich, ‘Afghan perspectives on democracy’,
Foreign Policy
, February 9, 2011, citing research by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit from 2008.

  44
.
The same was true in Algeria. Since 2001, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had been embraced as a partner in the Global War on Terror by Washington.

  45
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Only 6 per cent less than in Indonesia and 17 per cent more than in Pakistan. Pew Research Center,
Democracy and Islam
, January 31, 2011.

  46
.
Dan Murphy, ‘Egypt revolution unfinished, Qaradawi tells Tahrir masses’,
Christian Science Monitor
, February 18, 2011.

  47
.
Bobby Ghosh, ‘Rage, rap, and revolution’,
Time
, February 28, 2011.

  48
.
‘Al-Qaeda message on Egypt, belatedly’, MSNBC, February 18, 2011.