Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS BOOK IS THE PRODUCT of the tireless work of a team of people, spread across the globe from Brooklyn, New York, to Sana’a, Yemen; Washington, DC; Mogadishu, Somalia; Kabul, Afghanistan; and beyond. I will never forget the bravery and dedication of my fellow journalists who traveled with me and aided me in so many legs of this multiyear journey. I cannot thank by name some of the people who were most helpful in producing this book—either for their own safety or because I promised to keep their identities confidential. All of them have my deepest gratitude and respect.

Although my name is on the front of this book, many of the stories told in Dirty Wars would not have been possible without my dear brother Richard Rowley. Rick is an incredibly brave journalist, unbelievably calm under pressure and duress. We were shot at together on rooftops in Mogadishu, slept on dingy floors in rural Afghanistan and traveled together in the netherlands of southern Yemen. There were many times during this investigation when I really don’t know if I would have had the strength or courage to carry on had it not been for Rick. He is a shining example of what journalists and friends should be.

For more than two years, my researcher Lauren Sutherland worked diligently to track down every lead we had—no matter how crazy the trail seemed. She is a ferocious investigator, and she prepared scores of meticulously documented briefings and memos on everything from Somali warlords to profiles of little-known military units to obscure legal filings. She was always cool under pressure and never once complained about the long hours she had to work. She even accompanied us on a discreet trip across the Kenya-Somalia border to meet with a Somali warlord who had been targeted by JSOC. My colleague Ryan Devereaux also provided invaluable research work for this book.

It is customary for authors to thank their agents, but Anthony Arnove is so much more than that to me. I feel truly honored to work with him. He is an incredible and loyal friend above all else, and he has my complete trust. He spent a surreal amount of time going over many versions of this book, always looking for ways to make it stronger. He has fantastic instincts and has literally devoted his entire life to supporting struggles for justice. This book could not have happened without Anthony’s brilliant shepherding of the project.

My editor, Betsy Reed, is hands down the best in the business. Not only did she edit this book in about ten different iterations, but she has been my editor at the Nation magazine for almost a decade. She is a fierce defender of her writers and their stories, and always pushes me further than I think I can go. I have never submitted any writing to Betsy that she did not make significantly stronger in the end. I feel so lucky to work with her daily and to call her a dear friend.

I am very fortunate to have an immensely supportive family. My parents, Michael and Lisa, are my heroes. My brother, Tim, and sister, Stephanie, have always been there for me, and I am so proud to be their brother and to also call them my friends. Ksenija Scahill is an incredible, strong young woman who is wise beyond her years, has a deep curiosity about the world and always inspires me. I am so proud of her and the person she is. She means the world to me. Liliana Segura is not only a phenomenal journalist but has been selfless, loving and determined in her support of me and of this project. In ways small and big, she has always been there when it mattered. Without her or her unwavering support, this book would not have been possible. My aunts, uncles and cousins in my extended family are tremendous people whose loyalty and encouragement know no bounds. My sister-in-law, Jenny Kling-Scahill, has been such a great addition to our family, and I adore my nieces, Maya and Caitlin. Barb and Harry Hoferle, my aunt and uncle, have visited me almost everywhere I have ever lived in the world and have been tremendous in their love and support.

Carl Bromley at Nation Books is a remarkable man and a great friend. He has a brilliant, sharp wit and fantastic ideas. From the first day we met about my previous book, Blackwater, Carl has been one of my most trusted colleagues. He is a real treasure. Ruth Baldwin has been a fantastic ally and a tireless advocate for this project and many others over the years. The support I’ve received from Taya Kitman at the Nation Institute has been crucial. The staff of the Nation Institute is an outstanding group of smart and talented people. I also want to express my gratitude to Hamilton Fish for his support over the years and to Victor Navasky.

The team at Perseus Books Group and Basic Books is tremendous. Susan Weinberg has been an enthusiastic backer of this book from the day she came on board. Her positivity and passion set the tone for a great community effort on this project. Her predecessor, John Sherer, was also a pleasure to work with and laid the groundwork for this project several years ago. Robert Kimzey did a brilliant job of moving the production of this book along, against the odds, on a very tight deadline, and did so with grace and class. Michele Wynn is an exceptional copy editor. I am also grateful to Mark Sorkin for his diligent work in proofing the book. Michele Jacob, my publicist, is a great gem and a passionate supporter of my work. She is a real pro. Alan Kaufman is a tenacious lawyer who is not afraid of the powerful and has always taken great care in protecting my journalism. Many thanks to Martin Soames, who did the British legal review of this book, for his careful work.

Many thanks to Marie Maes for the detailed index, Mike Morgenfeld and the Avalon Travel cartography department for the excellent maps and Jeff Vespa of WireImage for my author photo. Daniel LoPreto of Nation Books was invaluable in preparing the photographic insert and helping to manage the complex production of this book.

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my colleagues at the Nation magazine. Katrina vanden Heuvel is an unshakable editor in chief who has always believed in me since we began working together in 2005. Richard Kim, Roane Carey and Emily Douglas are a joy to work with and are wonderful editors. Joliange Wright and Ellen Bollinger have always provided great encouragement, as has Jean Stein. I feel honored to be a part of the Nation magazine family. My friend and mentor Amy Goodman is the most loyal person I know and is one of the greatest journalists of our time. I will always consider Democracy Now! my university and my family.

The Puffin Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund and Lannan Foundation have been so incredible in their years of support for me and my work. Without them, nothing I have done in the past decade would have been possible. Patrick Lannan has become a dear friend and a great late-night whiskey drinking partner. Randall Wallace is a magical dude. And Perry Rosenstein has been a steadfast backer of my work. My friend Scott Roth has been so crucial to the Dirty Wars project, has a keen sense of justice and is one of the sharpest people I know. My gratitude also to Tony Tabatznik, Jen Robinson, Jess Search, Sandra Whipham and everyone at the Bertha Foundation and BRITDOC. The brilliant Cara Mertes from the Sundance Institute has been a solid adviser. Many thanks also to the Kindle Project for its support.

This book has also benefited tremendously from the support of my international publishers: Pete Ayrton and Hannah Westland of Serpent’s Tail, Antje Kunstmann and Moritz Kirschner of Verlag Antje Kunstmann, Alexandre Sanchez and Louis-Frédéric Gaudet of Lux Éditeur, and the editorial teams of Companhia das Letras, Ediciones Paidós, Norstedts Förlag, All Prints Distributors and Publishers, and Wydawnictwo Sine Qua Non. Thanks also to David Grossman of David Grossman Literary Agency, Isabel Monteagudo and Rosa Bertran of International Editors Co., Philip Sane of Lennart Sane Agency and the whole team at Prava I Prevodi Literary Agency.

The film Dirty Wars has a credit roll that includes more than two hundred people who helped make the documentary. I cannot thank every one of them here, but I would like to thank especially the remarkable team at IFC Films/Sundance Selects, Josh Braun and all of his colleagues at Submarine Entertainment, Nancy Willen of Acme Public Relations, David Harrington and Kronos Quartet, as well as the Kronos Performing Arts Association, Frank Dehn, Sue Bodine, Marc H. Simon, David Menschel of the Vital Projects Fund and Kristin Feeley of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. Special thanks also to Joslyn Barnes, Bonni Cohen, Howard Gertler, Rebecca Lichtenfeld, James Schamus, Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab, and Michael Watt.

In the course of writing this book, I was honored to work with so many incredible and brave journalists and media workers. In Afghanistan, Jerome Starkey, Jeremy Kelly and Jason Motlagh were very generous with their time and insight. My friend Raouf Hikal was a great fixer and coordinator who took serious risks to tell stories that would not otherwise have been told. Thank you also to Haji Shokat, Fatima Ayoub, Noor Islam Ahmadzia, Asif Shokat, Naqibullah Salarzai and Shafiq Ullah. Una Vera Moore offered key help. Thank you also to the Sharabuddin family in Gardez for welcoming us into your home and for sharing your utterly painful story with us. We will never forget you.

In Yemen, Saber al Haidary and Nasser Arrabyee were great coordinators and friends. Mohammed Albasha was tremendously helpful and always went the extra mile to get us into the country. Thank you also to Ashwaq Arrabyee and Adnan Arrabyee. My friend Iona Craig is a fantastic journalist and an incredibly generous soul. She helped us in too many ways to list here. Adam Baron, Gregory Johnsen and Aaron Zelin offered crucial support and insight, as did Haykal Bafana. Sheikh Saleh bin Fareed offered us great hospitality and made sure we could document the story of the bombing of al Majalah. He is a graceful and classy man. The Awlaki family welcomed us into their home and shared their stories with us. I am in awe of their ability to forgive, to be patient and to never give up their quest for justice. Dr. Nasser Awlaki was very generous with his time and his family. Saleha and Abir Awlaki cooked us amazing food and dug deep into their family photo and video collection to help us tell the story of their family. Ammar Awlaki was incredibly helpful throughout our time in Yemen. Thank you also to Omar Awlaki for the delicious honey and for welcoming us into his home.

In Somalia, we were so fortunate to work with the great Bashiir Yusuf Osman, owner of the Peace Hotel. He is a fearless man and an incredible combination of fixer, security coordinator, host and friend. I will never forget the risks Bashiir took so that we could report on Somalia. I am also grateful to Abdirahman “Aynte” Ali and Mohamed Ibrahim “Fanah” Mohamed for their assistance, as well as Sadia Ali Aden and Mohamed Olad Hassan. In Kenya, Abdirizak Haji Atosh and Daud Yussuf offered great assistance. Many thanks also to Katharine Houreld and Clara Gutteridge for all of their help.

My brother K’naan Warsame has been a true inspiration for my work. His music was the soundtrack of this book. I listened to his songs late at night in Brooklyn as I typed away and also in the streets of Mogadishu and Sana’a. His soft-spoken words and searing poetry boom throughout the world. I am so honored to call him my friend. Special thanks also to the Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union, particularly Pardiss Kebriaei, Jameel Jaffer, Hina Shamsi and Vince Warren for dealing with my constant requests for documents and interviews.

I feel blessed to have such a great community of friends, colleagues and even adversaries—all of whom challenge me and enlighten me. David Riker, who made the Dirty Wars film with us, is one of the most sincere and deep people I have ever met. I have learned so much from him and admire him immensely. Brenda Coughlin has been a great ally and a dear friend for many years and is always willing to do whatever needs to be done, often taking up the most thankless tasks and going the extra mile. I worked with Jacqueline Soohen before I could even grow a beard. We spent years going in and out of Iraq together. She is a great journalist and is like a sister to me. Sharif and Kareem Kouddous are my brothers and have always been there for me, through thick and thin. Thanks also to my buddies Ali Gharib, Garrett Ordower, Hani Sabra and Dan Coughlin for always reminding me to not take life so seriously. Michael Ratner and Karen Ranucci have been so generous in their support and with their love for so many years. Thank you also to the great Michael Moore for giving me one of my first “real” jobs and for always supporting my work. Oliver Stone and John Cusack have offered support, encouragement and wisdom at key moments. My dear friend Naomi Klein has always been there for me through good times and bad. She and Avi Lewis are a great force for justice.

Anamaria Segura and Phil Tisne have brightened my life. Muchas gracias also to Jorge and Clemencia Segura for all of their love and support. Wallace Segura is a scholar among scholars. Emma Kelton-Lewis and Daniel Avery have been tremendously generous in their personal support, as have Claire and Rennie Alba. Thanks to my friend Glenn Greenwald for being who he is and for keeping me sane at a few key points over the last few years. Gratitude also to Chris Hayes, my friend and colleague, for all of his encouragement and support. To my sister Ana Nogueira for being a true friend for a long time and to my pals Mike Burke and Elizabeth Press, thank you.

Among the journalists and writers I have learned from, consulted or compared notes with during the course of this project are Spencer Ackerman, Marc Ambinder, D. B. Grady, Barry Eisler, Noah Shachtman, Matthew Cole, Matthieu Aikins, Anand Gopal, Azmat Zahra Khan, Michelle Shepherd, Gareth Porter, Jeffrey Kaye, Jason Leopold, Kevin Gosztola, Adam Serwer, James Gordon Meek, Jake Tapper, Eli Lake, Ryan Grim, Michael Hastings, Josh Rogin, Charlie Savage, Jim Risen, Marcy Wheeler, Alyona Minkovski, Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, Kade Ellis, Nick Turse, Tom Engelhardt, Willie Geist, Justin Elliott, Rachel Maddow, Solly Granatstein, Aram Roston, Amy Davidson, Arun Gupta, Christian Parenti, Jane Mayer, Sy Hersh, Josh Gerstein, Micah Zenko, Declan Walsh, J. M. Berger, Sean Naylor, Joshua Hersh, Casey Coombs, Jonathan Larsen, Diane Shamis, Jamil Smith and Jeff Stein. Thank you all for doing what you do.

I also want to acknowledge some of the people I have had the pleasure of dialoguing with over the years (many of them on Twitter first and real life later). I have learned from all of them, sometimes through our disagreements, and they all have my respect. Among them, Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy at the Special Operations Forces Situation Report, Rob Dubois, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Jeff Emanuel, Rob Caruso, Dan Trombly, Joshua Foust, Clint Watts, Matthew Hoh, Andrew Exum, Nada Bakos, Will McCants, Mosharraff Zaidi, Huma and Saba Imtiaz, Omar Waraich, Andy Carvin, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Blake Hounshell, Sebastian Junger, Timothy Carney, Peter Bergen and Chris Albon. Thank you also to David Massoni, whose Thistle Hill Tavern provided me many meals while writing this book.

As of this writing, Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye remains locked up in a prison in Sana’a, in part due to the intervention of the White House. He should be set free.