Exceptional (38 page)

Islamic militants:
Ibid.

involved in the attack:
AIS Beth Jones email, September 12, 2012
http://chaffetz.house.gov/sites/chaffetz.house.gov/files/US%20Department%20of%20State%20-%20Beth%20Jones%20emails_O.pdf
.

CIA station chief:
Guy Taylor, “CIA Officer Confirmed No Protests Before Misleading Benghazi Account Given,”
Washington Times,
March 31, 2014,
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/31/cia-ignored-station-chief-in-libya-when-creating-t/?page=all
.

“prior to the attacks”
: U.S. Department of State, Accountability Review Board on Benghazi, December 19, 2012,
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/202446.pdf
.

by the CIA:
Hayes, “The Benghazi Talking Points and How They Were Changed to Obscure the Truth.”

“in the attacks”:
Ibid.

After an interagency meeting:
Ibid.

should have been focused:
David Blair and Alex Spillius, “US Consulate Attack in Libya: The Warning Signs Were There in Benghazi,”
Daily Telegraph,
September 12, 2012,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9539148/US-consulate-attack-in-Libya-the-warning-signs-were-there-in-Benghazi.html
.

“difficult challenges”:
Ben Rhodes email, September 14, 2012,
http://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/rhodes-email/
.

at least twenty attacks:
U.S. Department of State, Accountability Review Board on Benghazi, December 29, 2012,
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/202446.pdf
.

Ambassador Chris Stevens had asked:
Gregory Hicks, “Benghazi and the Smearing of Chris Stevens,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 22, 2014,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304302704579332732276330284
.

cut U.S. security staff:
Jay Solomon and Dion Nissenbaum, “Security Cut Before Libya Raid,”
Wall Street Journal
, October 10, 2012,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444799904578048344154761294
.

Libyan government had asked:
Editorial Board, “How to Help Libya's New Government,”
Washington Post,
July 9, 2012,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-help-libyas-new-government-succeed/2012/07/09/gJQAuhcCZW_story.html
.

“zero sum thinking”:
Ambassador Ryan Crocker, interview, “Losing Iraq,” PBS
Frontline,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/losing-iraq/transcript-66/
.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had become the leader:
Anthony Shadid, “Iraqi Insurgent Group Names New Leaders,”
New York Times,
May 16, 2010,
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/iraqi-insurgent-group-names-new-leaders/
.

quickly spread:
Joe Sterling, “Da'ara, the Spark That Lit the Syrian Flame,” CNN, March 1, 2012,
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/01/world/meast/syria-crisis-beginnings/
.

“believe he is a reformer”:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, appearance on CBS
Face the Nation,
March 27, 2011,
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-no-military-action-in-syria-for-now/
.

“democratic transition”:
President Obama, Remarks on the Middle East and North Africa, May 19, 2011,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-middle-east-and-north-africa
.

“to step aside”:
President Obama statement on Syria, August 18, 2011,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/18/president-obama-future-syria-must-be-determined-its-people-president-bashar-al-assad
.

“change my equation”:
President Obama, Remarks to the White House Press Corps, August 20, 2012,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/08/20/remarks-president-white-house-press-corps
.

“scotch any action”:
Panetta,
Worthy Fights,
p. 450.

“to the world”:
Ibid.

“believe you next time”:
Amr Al-Azm, interview, “Obama at War,” PBS
Frontline,
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/obama-at-war/transcript-84/
.

“regional allies”:
Oubai Shahbandar interview, “Obama at War,” PBS
Frontline,
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/obama-at-war/transcript-84/
.

“one hundred percent of their chemical weapons”:
Secretary of State John Kerry, interview, NBC
Meet the Press,
Sunday, July 20, 2014,
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-transcript-july-20-2014-n160611
.

chlorine gas attacks:
Elliott Abrams, “Chlorine Warfare in Syria Continues, Unpunished,”
Newsweek,
May 26, 2015,
http://www.newsweek.com/chemical-warfare-syria-continues-unpunished-335592
.

intelligence reports:
Former secretary of defense Leon Panetta, interview, and former ambassador James Jeffrey, interview, “Rise of ISIS,” PBS
Frontline,
October 28, 2014,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/rise-of-isis/transcript-70/
.

“jayvee team”:
David Remnick, “Going the Distance, On and off the road with Barack Obama,”
New Yorker,
January 27, 2014,
http: //www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/01/27/going-the-distance-remnick?currentPage=all
.

“stretched across territory”:
Ibid.

“interpretation of Islam”:
Graeme Wood, “What ISIS Really Wants,”
Atlantic,
March 2015,
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
.

“would order it”:
Remarks by President Obama at G20 Press Conference, November 16, 2014,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/16/remarks-president-obama-g20-press-conference-november-16-2014
.

“not defeat ISIS”:
General Jack Keane, Testimony, U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, May 21, 2015.

“deluding ourselves”:
Ambassador Ryan Crocker, “Islamic State Is Getting Stronger and It's Targeting America,”
Wall Street Journal,
September 8, 2014,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ryan-crocker-islamic-state-is-getting-stronger-and-its-targeting-america-1410218507
.

“price of war”:
President Harry S. Truman, Remarks to a Joint Session of Congress, “Special Message to the Congress on the Threat to the Freedom of Europe,” March 17, 1948.

handed over the briefcase:
Gordon Corera,
Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of the A. Q. Khan Network
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 59–63.

weapons-grade levels:
David Albright and Andrea Stricker, “Iran's Nuclear Program,” Iran Primer, U.S. Institute for Peace,
http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/irans-nuclear-program
.

Tehran Research Reactor:
Arms Control Association, “Timeline of Nuclear Diplomacy with Iran,” p. 1,
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheet/Timeline-of-Nuclear-Diplomacy-With-Iran
.

world has now signed:
United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, “Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),”
http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/NPT.shtml
.

safeguards agreement:
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/documents/infcircs/1974/infcirc214.pdf
.

share of the Iranian economy:
Emanuele Ottolenghi,
The Pasdaran: Inside Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(Washington, DC: FDD Press, 2011), p. 1.

American casualties:
Kimberly Kagan,
The Surge: A Military History
(New York: Encounter Books, 2009), pp. 160–61.

Geneva nuclear talks:
U.S. Department of Defense, “Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” October 2014, p. 98,
http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/afghanistan-security-stability_201410.pdf
.

across the Middle East:
Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, USA (Ret.), Testimony, Joint Foreign Affairs and HASC Subcommittees, June 10, 2015.

secret nuclear facilities:
Alireza Jafarzadeh, Remarks on New Information on Top Secret Projects of the Iranian Regime's Nuclear Program, August 14, 2002,
http?//www.iranwatch.org/library/ncn-new-information-top-secret-nuclear-projects-8-14-02
.

room for 50,000:
Albright and Stricker, “Iran's Nuclear Program,” p. 4.

matter of weeks:
Matthew Kroenig,
A Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), p. 62.

“equipment in Isfahan”:
Prime Minister Netanyahu, Speech to the UN General Assembly, October 1, 2013,
http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-netanyahus-2013-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly/
.

broke the IAEA seals on:
“Iran Breaks Seals at Nuclear Plant,” CNN, August 10, 2005,
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/10/iran.iaea.1350/
.

at Natanz:
“Iran Breaks Seals at Nuclear Sites,” BBC, January 10, 2006,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4597738.stm
.

resolution 1696:
http://www.un.org/press/en//2006/sc8792.doc.htm
.

most often in New York:
Juan C. Zarate,
Treasury's War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2013), p. 26.

“a death sentence”:
“A Fearful Number,”
Economist,
June 5, 2015,
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21653673-bank-rejects-american-accusations-it-abetted-financial-crime-fearful
.

four resolutions:
Jason Starr, “The U.N. Resolutions,” Iran Primer, United States Institute of Peace,
http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/un-resolutions
.

that very bank:
Zarate,
Treasury's War,
pp. 300–301.

“raise suspicions”:
Ibid., p. 301.

to Iranian businesses:
Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Testimony, Senate Committee on Finance, April 1, 2008,
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp898.aspx
.

terrorist-financing institution:
U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Cuts Iran's Bank Saderat Off from U.S. Financial System,” September 8, 2006,
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp87.aspx
.

Bank Sepah:
U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Iran's Bank Sepah Designated by Treasury Sepah Facilitating Iran's Weapons Program,” January 9, 2007,
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp219.aspx
.

Bank Mellat:
U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Iranian State-Owned Bank for Facilitating Iran's Proliferation Activities,” May 17, 2011,
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1178.aspx
.

Bank Melli:
Zarate,
Treasury's War,
p. 304.

as did the Chinese:
Robin Wright, “Stuart Levey's War,”
New York Times,
October 31, 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/magazine/02IRAN-t.html?pagewanted=all
.

IRGC and Iran's Ministry of Defense:
Zarate,
Treasury's War,
p. 307.

work isolating Iran on hold:
Ibid., p. 324.

“we were the problem”:
Vice President Joe Biden, Remarks at the Rabbinical Assembly Convention, May 8, 2012,
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/08/biden-defends-iran-stance-we-were-the-problem/
.

was overrun:
Gates,
Duty,
p. 178.

Madeleine Albright apologized:
Kenneth Pollack,
The Persian Puzzle: Deciphering the Twenty-Five Year Conflict Between Iran and America
(New York: Random House, 2004), loc. 190.

“nation any good”:
Ibid., loc. 219.

holiday of Nowruz:
President Barack Obama, Videotaped Remarks in Celebration of Nowruz, March 20, 2009,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/VIDEOTAPED-REMARKS-BY-THE-PRESIDENT-IN-CELEBRATION-OF-NOWRUZ/
.

“Death to America”:
Stephen F. Hayes, “Iran Responds: ‘Death to America,' ”
Weekly Standard,
March 21, 2009.

sent a letter:
“Exclusive: U.S. Contacted Iran's Ayatollah Before Election,”
Washington Times,
June 24, 2009,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/24/us-contacted-irans-ayatollah-before-election/print/
.