Nir Rosen - Aftermath

I also acknowledge the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute—particularly Joe Conason and Esther Kaplan—who have supported my work.

Many Iraqis welcomed me as a brother into their families. Meitham, Ali, Osama, Abbas, Hassanein, Aws, Wisam, the Hamdi family, Omar Salih, Omer Awchi, Rana al-Aiouby, and others made this book possible, and took great risks to care for me and share their lives with me. In Lebanon my close friends Mohamad Ali Nayel, Naim Assaker, Bissane el Cheikh, Amer Mohsen, Michel Samaha, and Patrick Haenni taught me all I needed to know. Thanks also to Ambassador Imad Moustapha, Toufic Alloush, Mirvat Abu Khalil, Seyid Nawaf al-Musawi, Haj Osama Hamdan, Wisam, Hamelkart Ataya, Mansour Aziz, Walid Abou Khashbee, Abdo Saad, Omar Nashabi, the brave members of Samidoun, Rami Kanan, Sharif Bibi, and Najat Sharafeddine.

Jon Sawyer and Nathalie Applewhite of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting supported my work in Afghanistan. Deb Chasman and Josh Cohen at the Boston Review gave me the opportunity and the space to write important chapter-length articles. Likewise, Monika Bauerlein of Mother Jones . Betsy Reed gave this manuscript a vigorous read, which I thank her for. I owe a big debt to Jonathan Shainin, my good friend who runs the best weekend review section in the English language at the National in Abu Dhabi.

Ghaith Abdul Ahad, Hannah Allam, Tom Bigley, Leila Fadel, Seymour Hersh, Bob Bateman, and Andrew Exum are friends and colleagues who helped, advised, challenged, and inspired me. In Afghanistan, Shahir and Melek gave me friendship, help, and also saved my life. Thanks to Qais for helping out with that too. Thanks to Aziz Hakimi, Aners Fange, Andrew Wilder and Peter Jouvenal, Fazel Rabie Haqbeen, Mullah Tariq Osman, Josh Foust, Professor Tom Johnson, Tom Stanworth, John Moore, Matt Bruggmann, Steve Clemons, As’ad Abu Khalil, Kristele Younes, Peter Bergen, Elizabeth Campbell, Joel Charney, Scott Armstrong, the Theros family, Ahmad, Marika, Nick, the Zivkovic family, the Lombardi family, and my editor at Rolling Stone , Eric Bates.

Numerous Iraqis, Lebanese, Egyptians, Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians, as well as American soldiers, officers, and officials, trusted me with their knowledge and experience anonymously—I thank them all.

Lastly, to my parents, my brothers, my wife, Tiffany, and Dakota (for not totally destroying my laptop while I wrote this book), I love you and I thank you.

In writing this book I relied on very few secondary sources; the bulk of it is based on the seven years I have spent reporting in the Muslim world, from Somalia to Afghanistan. I cannot thank the many hundreds of people who welcomed me, helped me, educated me, and shared pieces of their lives with me, but it is thanks to their trust and generosity that this book is possible. I tried to avoid senior officials on any side to avoid propaganda and simplistic generalizations, and instead I tried to find out what was really transpiring myself. I was helped by local and international academics, journalists, historians, soldiers, policemen, militiamen, and aid workers. My colleagues at the Warlord Loop listserv were very helpful and stimulating. When it comes to secondary sources, I did, however, learn a lot from Military Review and the Small Wars Journal, which informed my thinking for the chapters on the surge in Iraq and Afghanistan. Articles in McClatchy’s, the Washington Post , and even some in the New York Times were also important. The reports of the International Crisis Group are essential for background, as are the articles in the Middle East Research and Information Project (merip.org) and the Middle East Journal .

Abbas Mosque

Abbas (son of Ali), tomb of

Abdel Mahdi, Adil

Abdillah, Mullah

Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith

Abdullah, King (of Jordan)

Abed, Abul

Abed, Dhari Muhamad

Abizaid, John

Ablawi, Salih (Abu Jaafar)

al-Absi, Shaker

Abu Abdallah. See bin Laden, Osama

Abu Anas

Abu Bakr

Abu Bilal

Abu Dira

Abu Dshir

Abu Ghraib prison

Abu Hanifa

Abu Hanifa Mosque

Abu Hatem (Karim Mahud al-Muhammadawi)

Abu Hudheifa (Marwarn Yassin)

Abu Hureira

Abu Jaafar (Salih Ablawi)

Abu Jaafar (Sheikh Ali)

Abu Jaber

Abu Karar

Abu Khalel family

Abu Khalid

Abu Khalil, As’ad

Abu Lahab

Abu Laith

Abu Midyan

Abu Muhamad/Abu Shahid (Mustafa Ramadan)

Abu Muhamad (in Jordan)

Abu Muhammad, Sheikh

Abu Musa

Abu Muthana

Abu Nidal Organization

Abu Obeida (Abdallah Khalaq)

Abu Omar (Firas Yamin)

Abu Omar (Khalil Ibrahim)

Abu Qutaiba

Abu Risha, Ahmad

Abu Risha, Sheikh Sattar

Abu Rumman, Mohammad

Abu Teiba

Abu Yasser

Accountability and Justice Commission

Adesnik, Ariel David

al-Adhami, Sheikh Muayad

Adhamiya

al-Adib, Ali

Adnan, Adil

Afghan Ministry of Interior

Afghan Ministry of Justice

Afghan National Army (ANA)

Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP)

Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS)

Afghan National Police (ANP)

Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF)

Afghan Regional Security Integration Command

Afghanistan

assumptions about

attacks on NGOs in

civilian death toll

civilian surge in, call for

COIN theorists’ failure to question the U.S. invasion of

context of, in-depth knowledge of, lack of

and defensive jihad

drug trade in

failure of U.S. COIN operations in

fighting picking up in

jihadis in

loss of U.S. influence due to war in

new U.S. strategy for

oppression in, continuation of, by U.S. military

population of, characteristics of

prisons in

Rumsfeld’s view of U.S. troops in

situation in, and the resurgence of U.S. troops, aspects of

Soviet invasion and occupation of

and the surge in Iraq

U.S. initial invasion of

withdrawal of Soviets from, American neglect following

Aflaq, Michel

Ahad, Ghaith Abdul

al-Ahdab, Musbah

Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud

al-Ajami, Mukhtar Shaaban

Akef, Mahdi

Akhundzada, Sher Muhamad (SMA)

Akkawi, Khalil

Al Akhbar newspaper

Al Aqsa Mosque

Al Arab al-Yawm newspaper

Al Arabiya television

Al Ashur al-Hurm period

Al Azhar University

Al Basa’ir newspaper

Al Furat television

Al Hawza newspaper

Al Hayat newspaper

Al Iraqiya television

Al I’tisam newspaper

Al Jazeera television

Al Manar television

Al Mustafa Mosque

Al Mutaibeen alliance

Al Qaeda

accusation of Syria helping

and Afghanistan

and Fatah al-Islam

groups/people inspired by

and Lebanon

major reason for the growth of

new U.S. strategy for targeting

sources of funding

worldview of

Zarqawi’s rejection of

See also Tawhid and Jihad group

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)

in Amriya

and the Awakening groups

and the banks of the Tigris River

believed to be lying dormant

creation of

and implementation of COIN

initial Sunni support for

jihad conditions breached by

and Lebanon

local resistance against

and the Mahdi Army

remnants of, targeting

Sunni opponents of

and the surge

and tribal leaders

Al Qaeda paradigm

Al Qaqa Battalions

Al Rai newspaper

Al Rusufa prison