Authors: Joby Warrick
The second bombing wave was under way as Abdullah left Amman for the southern town of Karak, home to the al-Kasasbeh clan for generations. Another large crowd assembled to greet the motorcade
as it climbed the steep road leading to the nearby village of Ay, where the king would join family members in mourning the pilot’s death.
Outside the family’s house, Abdullah embraced the pilot’s elderly father, and the two turned to walk together. They clasped hands, moving at the head of a long entourage, both wearing the distinctive red-and-white keffiyehs that, to Jordanians, symbolize both the ninety-three-year-old monarchy and tribal traditions far older than the country called Jordan, older even than Islam itself.
As they walked, four Jordanian fighter jets appeared on the horizon, returning from a bombing run north of the border. They streaked past the pilot’s house in formation, then turned westward in a wide arc, past the town of Karak, with its crumbling Crusader castle, and over the ancient highway once used by Ikhwan horsemen riding in from the east to murder and pillage. The jets scraped the edges of Zarqa, the industrial town where a troubled youth named Ahmad had grown into a dangerous radical who called himself Zarqawi. Then they landed at the newly bustling Mwaffaq Air Base, where jets from a half-dozen countries, most of them Muslim, were being armed and fueled for strikes against the Islamic State.
The next morning, with fresh bombs attached to their wings, they would head north to attack again.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The idea for this book about the origins of ISIS began taking shape before there was a terrorist organization called by that name. It arose in part from a long interest in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose personal story became more intriguing to me as I gathered material for my earlier book,
The Triple Agent
. Later, while covering the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 for
The Washington Post
, I watched with growing interest as Zarqawi’s terrorist movement—presumed by many experts to be finished—began to assert itself in Syria’s civil war. No one foresaw how the remnants of the old al-Qaeda in Iraq would become a powerful army with territorial claims covering hundreds of square miles. But as far back as early 2012, a few American and Middle Eastern officials were seeing the contours of a global terrorist threat in the making, and some candidly shared their views in private conversations. It is with these individuals—several of whom cannot be named as sources in these pages—that my debt of gratitude begins. This book could not have been written without the assistance of this small group of friends from the intelligence, executive, and diplomatic spheres who, over two years of reporting, generously and patiently shared their knowledge, insights, suggestions, and expertise.
I also am particularly indebted to former U.S. Representative Jane Harman and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars for providing critical support for this undertaking. My Wilson Center fellowship afforded me the freedom to report and write without distraction, in the company of gifted writers and inspiring thinkers from around the world. In addition to Representative Harman, I am particularly grateful to Haleh Esfandiari, Robert Litwak, Aaron David Miller, David and Marina Ottaway, former fellow Robin Wright, Andrew Selee, Arlyn Charles, and an extraordinarily resourceful research staff. I also am thankful for the able assistance of intern Craig Browne, an accomplished and energetic Middle East scholar whose knowledge, hard work, and language skills proved to be immensely valuable.
Among the more than two hundred sources interviewed for this book, several were exceptionally generous with their time and knowledge. I am particularly grateful to Nada Bakos, who took time from writing her own memoir to share her recollections, as well as Robert Richer, Michael Hayden, Robert S. Ford, Mouaz Moustafa, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Leon E. Panetta, Jeremy Bash, Michael Morell, Lawrence Wilkerson, Bruce Riedel, William McCants, Juan Zarate, Bruce Hoffman, Hasan Abu Hanieh, Joas Wagemaker, Marwan Muasher, Kael Weston, James McLaughlin, Sam Faddis, Frederic C. Hof, Zaydan al-Jabiri, Hudhaifa Azzam, James Jeffrey, Abdalrazzaq al-Suleiman, Jonathan Greenhill, Samih Battikhi, Andrew Tabler, Jeffrey White, Abu Mutaz, and Abdullah Abu Roman. Among the many who cannot be identified by name are numerous current and former officials of the Jordanian government and intelligence services, as well as current and former U.S. officials who offered assistance with the understanding that their names and agency affiliations would not be revealed. Critical help in supplying jihadist video and audio material, along with English translations, came from Steven Stalinsky of the Middle East Media Research Institute, and Rita Katz, co-founder of the SITE Intelligence Group. I am indebted to Jean-Charles Brisard for sharing his archives from his excellent 2005 book,
Zarqawi: The New Face of al-Qaeda
.
I could not have attempted this book without the generous support of my employer,
The Washington Post
, and so many
Post
colleagues and friends. I am especially indebted to Marty Baron, Cameron Barr, Kevin Merida, and Peter Finn for their kindness in allowing
me to pursue this project. I also am particularly grateful to Jason Ukman, Julie Tate, Souad Mekhennet, Taylor Luck, David Hoffman, Mary Beth Sheridan, William Booth, Doug Frantz, David Ignatius, Kathryn Weymouth, Donald Graham, Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, Adam Goldman, Anne Gearan, Karen DeYoung, Craig Whitlock, Greg Jaffe, Liz Sly, Doug Jehl, Karin Brulliard, Jeff Leen, Scott Wilson, Carol Morello, Anne Kornblut, Walter Pincus, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Laurie McGinley, Kathryn Tolbert, Juliet Eilperin, Chris Mooney, Darryl Fears, and Steven Mufson.
A very special thanks goes to Ranya Kadri, one of Jordan’s journalistic treasures and an amazingly resourceful colleague, translator, fixer, and occasional cook and hotelier during my Middle East travels.
I am ever grateful to my literary agent, Gail Ross, for her suggestions, faith, and canny advice, and to the entire staff of the Ross-Yoon Literary Agency for logistical support. I’m indebted as well to the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, including Daniel Meyer, Nora Reichard, Michael Goldsmith, Bill Thomas, and Amelia Zalcman. And I’m profoundly thankful for the assistance of my remarkably talented editor, Kris Puopolo, who saw potential in my vague idea for a book about a rising terrorist movement most Americans in early 2013 had barely heard of. Any successes in these pages are a tribute to her strong ideas, peerless editing skills, and seemingly boundless patience.
I was helped immensely throughout this effort by the support and encouragement of a number of friends and family members, especially Paul Scicchitano, James Rosen, Connie Kondravy, Shyam Madiraju, Gene and Denise Jordan, Will Jordan, Ed and Gena Fisher, B. H. Warrick, and my parents, Rev. Eugene and Barbara Warrick. Finally and most importantly, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my children, Victoria and Andrew, for tolerating the many absences, deferred vacations, and my general distractedness, and to my wife, Maryanne, a full partner in this enterprise who cheerfully served as an unpaid researcher, editor, and sounding board as well as an indispensable source of strength and steadiness throughout a challenging two years.
It’s good to be home.
NOTES
Prologue
“When will I be going home”:
Researcher interview with Hussein al-Masri, government-appointed lawyer for Rishawi.
If she cried or prayed:
Author interview with a Jordanian official knowledgeable about Rishawi’s prison time and the final days leading up to her execution.
from the pilot’s own cell phone:
Author interview with a senior Jordanian official directly knowledgeable about the prisoner exchange negotiations.
He could remember every detail:
Author interview with a senior intelligence captain involved in the investigation. A second Jordanian official confirmed key details of the account.
“The black flags will come from the East”:
The prophecy comes from the collection of ancient texts known as the Hadith, specifically from “Kitab al-Fitan,” or “Trials and Fierce Battles,” associated with Nu’aym Ibn Hamaad in Islam’s second generation. For a discussion of the passage in English, see
http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=101399
.
“The spark has been lit”:
“Al-Zarqawi’s Message to the Fighters of Jihad in Iraq on September 11, 2004,” Middle East Media Research Institute, Sept. 15, 2004,
http://www.memri.org/report/en/print1219.htm
.
hardened into resentment:
Author interviews with two senior Middle Eastern officials familiar with the king’s views.
“Can we do anything more for you?”:
Author interviews with Sen. John McCain and a senior Middle Eastern official knowledgeable about the exchange.
Chapter 1
“There’s a terrible loneliness”:
Quoted in Steven Caton,
Lawrence of Arabia: A Film’s Anthropology
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
“a warning of what hell is like”:
Cole Coonce,
Infinity over Zero: Meditations on Maximum Velocity
(Famoso, Calif.: KeroseneBomb Publishing, 2002).
documented by United Nations investigators:
See Manfred Nowak, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture,” UN General Assembly Human Rights Council, 2007.
pressed into service as the doctor:
Author interview with the physician Sabha, who narrated his encounter with Zarqawi and the other inmates in al-Jafr.
“His radical conclusion”:
Author interview with Hasan Abu Hanieh.
“He is very tough”:
Author interview with Jordanian journalist Abdullah Abu Roman, who spent time in prison with both men.
chiseled through weight lifting:
Jean-Charles Brisard,
The New Face of Al-Qaeda
(New York: Other Press, 2005), p. 49.
“We have come to die!”:
Joas Wagemakers, “A Terrorist Organization That Never Was: The Jordanian ‘Bay’at al-Imam’ Group,”
Middle East Journal
, Jan. 2014.
al-takfiri
s—“the excommunicators”:
For more about the
takfiri
ideology, see
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/v2/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Vol1Iss7-Art61.pdf
.
“God willing, King Hussein will pardon you”:
Abu Qadama Salih al-Hami, “Knights of the Unfulfilled Duty: Zarqawi and the Afghan Jihad” (n.p., 2007).
“Oh, sister, how much you have suffered”:
Will McCants, “Letter from Balqa Jail,”
Jihadica: Documenting the Global Jihad
, June 22, 2008,
http://www.jihadica.com/letter-from-balqa-jail
.
“He was not a fighter who lived between the bullets”:
Wagemakers, “Terrorist Organization That Never Was.”
called themselves Ikhwan:
For a detailed accounting of the Ikhwan movement and its relations with the House of Saud, see Robert Lacey,
The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa’ud
(New York: Avon, 1983).
Chapter 2
“I want to see you”:
Abdullah, King of Jordan,
Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril
(New York: Viking, 2011).
“A cold sensation”:
Ibid.
“We would soon be thrust into the spotlight”:
Ibid.
They stood for hours:
Ahmad Khatib, “Jordanians Line Amman’s Streets to Bid Farewell,”
Jordan Times
, Feb. 9, 1999.
“This is God’s judgment”:
Francesca Ciriaci, “Abdullah Proclaimed King,”
Jordan Times
, Feb. 8, 1999.
“Out of habit, I looked around”:
Abdullah,
Our Last Best Chance
.
Hussein survived at least eighteen assassination attempts:
Avi Shlaim,
Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).
“I didn’t know helicopters could”:
“King Hussein of Jordan,”
ABC News Nightline
, originally broadcast Feb. 7, 1999.