Area 51_ An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base - Annie Jacobsen [241]
Interviews: T. D. Barnes, Colonel Leghorn, Hervey Stockman, Gerald Posner, Stephen Younger, John Pike, Gene Poteat, EG&G engineer, David Myhra
1. engineers and aerodynamicists had concerns: Interview with Barnes. This is educated speculation; Barnes did not work on the drone project. Coll also writes about this.
2. targeted assassination by a U.S. intelligence agency was illegal: December 4, 1981, President Ronald Reagan Executive Order 12333.
3. State Department gave the go-ahead: Coll, Ghost Wars, 539.
4. CIA and the Air Force teamed up for an unusual building project: Ibid., 534. “The Air Force ought to pay for the Afghan operation, CIA officers believed, in part because the Pentagon was learning more about the drone’s capabilities in a month than they could in a half a year of sterile testing in Nevada… Having seen the images of bin Laden walking toward the mosque at Tarnak, Black was now a vocal advocate of affixing missiles to the drone.”
5. on the outer reaches of Area 51: In Ghost Wars, Steve Coll places the mock-up “in Nevada” (549). One source interviewed by me placed the mock-up at Area 51; a second source interviewed by me placed the mock-up inside the Nevada Test and Training Range (speculating Area 52). The exact location where this took place remains classified.
6. CIA director George Tenet decided: Coll, Ghost Wars, 535. “There was a child’s swing. Families lived at Tarnak. The CIA estimated that the compound contained about one hundred women and children—bin Laden’s family and family members of some top aides.” Tenet would have made the final call.
7. CIA drones provided intelligence for NATO forces: Jim Garamone, “Predator Demonstrates Worth Over Kosovo,” American Forces Press Service, September 21, 1999.
8. The first reconnaissance drone mission in the war on terror: 9/11 Commission Report, 213–214.
9. “a very successful tactical operation”: Wolfowitz’s interview with CNN anchor Maria Ressa appeared in print as “U.S. Missile Strike Kills al Qaeda Chief,” CNN, November 5, 2002. Wolfowitz added, “one hopes each time you get a success like that, not only to have gotten rid of somebody dangerous, but to have imposed changes in their tactics and operations and procedures.”
10. exclusive interview to the Christian Science Monitor: Yemeni Official Says US Lacks Discretion as Antiterror Partner,” Christian Science Monitor, November 12, 2002.
11. Hull spoke Arabic: Ibid.; Seymour Hersh, “Manhunt: The Bush Administration’s New Strategy in the War Against Terrorism,” New Yorker, December 23, 2002.
12. Mohammed Atef, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan: Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, “The Drone War: Are Predators Our Best Weapon or Worst Enemy,” New Republic, June 3, 2009.
13. targeted assassination spearheaded by the CIA: Mark Hosenball and Evan Thomas, “The Opening Shot,” Newsweek, November 18, 2002.
14. Predator got a new designation: MQ-1B Predator, official Web site of U.S. Air Force, fact sheet.
15. company that built the Predator: General Atomics Aeronautical, http://www.ga-asi.com/accessed December 30, 2010.
16. “big differences between the Reaper and the Predator”: Travis Edwards, “First MQ-9 Reaper Makes Its Home on Nevada Flightline,” U.S. Air Force Public Affairs, March 14, 2007.
17. Brigadier General Frank Gorenc was remotely viewing: Major John Hutcheson, “Balad Predator Strikes Insurgents Placing Roadside Bomb Near Balad,” Red Tail Flyer, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, Public Affairs, Balad Air Base, Iraq, March 31, 2006, 5.
18. “put a weapon on a target within minutes”: Ibid.
19. By 2009 the number of drone strikes would rise to fifty-three: http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes.php; these numbers vary. Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann are considered the authorities on the subject of drone strikes. The pair keep track of numbers and provide analysis for organizations including New America Foundation and the New Republic magazine.
20. “These are just the assets we know about”: This is because when missiles are fired it is often the work of the CIA,