Another Post reporter, Kevin Sullivan, joined me: Kevin Sullivan and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “The Doorbell Rang and ‘There They Were’; Hussein Sons Came to House to Hide,” Washington Post, July 24, 2003.
his role as a respected religious leader: Anthony Shadid, “Cleric Mourned by Huge Crowds,” Washington Post, September 1, 2003.
claimed responsibility for the attack: Laura Smith, “Timeline: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Guardian, June 8, 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/08/iraq.alqaida1.
Najaf, one of the holiest places on earth for Shia: Halm, Der Schiitische Islam; Hussain Abdul-Hussain, “Hezbollah: “A State within a State,” Hudson Institute, May 21, 2009, http://www.hudson.org/content/researchattachments/attachment/1312/abdul_hussain_vol8.pdf; August R. Norton, Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009); Ian Rutledge, Enemies of the Euphrat: The Battle for Iraq, 1914–1921 (London: Saqi Books, 2015).
one of only three women on the Iraqi Governing Council: Vivienne Walt, “Iraqi Official Dies; Bomb Hits NBC Hotel,” Boston Globe, September 26, 2003.
al-Hashimi had been shot in the stomach and leg: E. A. Torriero and Bill Glauber, “Wounded Official Dies; 8 Soldiers Injured As 2 Bombs Hit Military Convoy,” Chicago Tribune, September 26, 2003.
an explosion at the hotel where the NBC crews stayed: “Bomb Explodes at Baghdad Hotel Housing NBC Offices,” Associated Press, September 25, 2003.
4: A CALL FROM KHALED ELMASRI
U.S. soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib: “Chronology of Abu Ghraib,” Washington Post, February 17, 2006.
what its leaders called “the shadows”: “Vice President Cheney on NBC’s Meet the Press,” transcript of an interview with Vice President Cheney conducted by Tim Russert, Washington Post, September 16, 2001.
deeply involved in water security issues: He was even once appointed by the UN secretary-general as chairman of the advisory board on water and sanitation (UNSGAB): https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/water/unsgab/board.
“My name is Khaled elMasri”: “Khaled elMasri,” The Rendition Project, https://www.therenditionproject.org.uk/prisoners/khaled-elmasri.html. With links to additional source material.
“They asked a lot of questions”: Don Van Natta Jr. and Souad Mekhennet, “German’s Claim of Kidnapping Brings Investigation of U.S. Link,” New York Times, January 9, 2005.
Al Haramain was an Islamic charity: In June 2008, Al Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHIF) was designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury “for having provided financial and material support to alQaida, as well as a wide range of designated terrorists and terrorist organizations,” https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp1043.aspx. Already in 2004, the Treasury Department designated the U.S.-based branch of AHIF over links to terrorists, https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/js1895.aspx. The AHIF later sued the U.S. government for infringing its constitutional rights and won a partial summary judgment. This ruling was reversed on appeal, and the case was dismissed.
the Macedonian authorities turned him over: “He was then transferred by armed officers in plainclothes to the Skopski Merak hotel in Skopje, where he was detained for 23 days, guarded at all hours by rotating shifts of armed Macedonian officers.” “ElMasri v. Macedonia,” Open Society Foundations, last updated January 23, 2013, https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/litigation/elmasri-v-macedonia.
“outside of the legal process”: Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (New York: Anchor Books, 2009), p. 102.
Maher Arar, a Canadian born in Syria: “Maher Arar,” The Rendition Project, https://www.therenditionproject.org.uk/prisoners/arar.html; Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar, “Report of the Events Relating to Maher Arar,” September 2006, http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.688875/publication.html; “Rendition to Torture: The Case of Maher Arar,” Joint Hearing of the Committees on Foreign Affairs and the Judiciary, https://fas.org/irp/congress/2007_hr/arar.pdf.
an Australian man named Mamdouh Habib: “Mamdouh Ahmed Habib,” The Rendition Project, https://www.therenditionproject.org.uk/prisoners/mamdouh-habib.html; U.S. Department of Defense, “JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment: Mamdouh Habib,” http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/661-mamdouh-ibrahim-ahmed-habib/documents/11.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh and a future 9/11 hijacker, Marwan al-Shehhi: According to the 9/11 Commission Report, it was Binalshib (transliteration used in the report) and Shehhi who were approached by Khalid al-Masri, not Binalshib and Atta. The paragraph reads: “The available evidence indicates that in 1999, Atta, Binalshib, Shehhi, and Jarrah decided to fight in Chechnya against the Russians. According to Binalshib, a chance meeting on a train in Germany caused the group to travel to Afghanistan instead. An individual named Khalid al-Masri approached Binalshib and Shehhi (because they were Arabs with beards, Binalshib thinks) and struck up a conversation about jihad in Chechnya. When they later called Masri and expressed interest in going to Chechnya, he told them to contact Abu Musab in Duisburg, Germany. Abu Musab turned out to be Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a significant al-Qaeda operative, who, even then, was well known to U.S. and German intelligence, though neither government apparently knew he was operating in Germany in late 1999. When telephoned by Binalshib and Shehhi, Slahi reportedly invited these promising recruits to come see him in Duisburg.” Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Washington, DC: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004), p. 165.
recruited to commit the September 11 attacks: Kean and Hamilton, 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 165–66.
When I saw the story online: Van Natta and Mekhennet, “German’s Claim of Kidnapping.”
the Germans publicly admitted that they had mishandled elMasri’s case: Souad Mekhennet and Craig S. Smith, “German Spy Agency Admits Mishandling Abduction Case,” New York Times, June 2, 2006.
Skopje to Baghdad to Kabul: “No public record states how Mr. Masri was taken to Afghanistan. But flight data shows a Boeing Business Jet operated by Aero Contractors and owned by Premier Executive Transport Services, one of the C.I.A.-linked shell companies, flew from Skopje, Macedonia, to Baghdad and on to Kabul on Jan. 24, 2004, the day after Mr. Masri’s passport was marked with a Macedonian exit stamp.” Scott Shane, Stephen Grey, and Margot Williams, “C.I.A. Expanding Terror Battle Under Guise of Charter Flights,” New York Times, May 31, 2005.