Killing the Killers Read online

  The rescuers quickly search the compound. They find evidence that the American hostages were indeed once held there, but an hour of looking for false walls or other hidden rooms turns up nothing.

  The Delta Force pilots and soldiers all do their jobs with precision. The intelligence reaped from captured cell phones and computers is enormous. The infiltration and exfiltration of the rescue force without a single loss of American life is a remarkable success, particularly in such a hostile environment.

  But the hostages remain in captivity.

  April 29, 2019: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s first video appearance in five years, a month after Islamic State militants were driven out of their last stronghold in Syria.

  * * *

  On July 4, one day after the raid, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi shows his face for the first time in four years. He is preaching in Mosul’s Great Mosque. The ISIS leader is dressed in black robes and matching turban. This public sermon puts to rest any rumors that he is dead or injured. The United States has placed a $10 million bounty on his head, but al-Baghdadi is defiant.

  Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell to ISIS just one month ago. Its conquest is obviously a great victory for ISIS. This is al-Baghdadi’s moment to gloat, particularly in light of yesterday’s failed rescue attempt. “Khalifa Ibrahim,” as he calls himself, is puffed up and arrogant. The name refers to his self-anointed role as caliph of the Islamic State’s conquered territory; it also references the prophet Abraham.* In his twenty-minute oration, al-Baghdadi declares himself the ruler of all Muslims. He states that slavery is a fact of life—followers of Islam belong to Allah, but nonbelievers are destined to become the property of Muslims. This reference to Kayla Mueller and the other American hostages is very much intentional.

  Outside, ISIS fighters patrol the boulevards, searching for anyone in violation of Islamic law. Some wave large black flags, and all carry fully loaded AK-47 automatic weapons slung over their shoulders.

  “Do jihad in the cause of God, incite the believers, and be patient in the face of this hardship,” al-Baghdadi encourages the congregation. “If you knew about the reward and dignity in this world and the hereafter through jihad, then none of you would delay in doing it.”

  On July 12, 2014, the Islamic State publicly announces that it will murder Kayla Mueller within thirty days unless its ransom demand is met. Carl and Marsha Mueller fly to secretly meet with White House officials about potential ways to save their daughter. They are told little that offers them hope. So it is that the days until the ransom deadline tick down slowly.

  The beheadings will begin soon after.

  * * *

  Back in Syria, Kayla Mueller is transferred from a prison to a private home an hour away from where the other prisoners are being held. After the beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, Kayla and Peter Kassig are the only two remaining American hostages. They have been separated. Kayla will never see Peter Kassig again.

  The young hostage can definitely feel a change in the behavior of her captors. With two Americans brutally beheaded and videos of the crimes flashing around the world, the United States is finally taking military action against ISIS. But that action is not helping Kayla at the moment.

  Kayla is now in the small town of Shaddadah, in the custody of ISIS oil minister Abu Sayyaf and his wife, Umm. The other female captives in the house are the Yazidi women from northern Iraq. Some three thousand of them have been taken hostage and passed around by ISIS terrorists to be raped and abused.

  This is when Kayla finally meets Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is a frequent visitor to the Sayyaf home. The ISIS leader likes to stay up until midnight, then sleep until 10:00 a.m. He sometimes talks to the women but prefers to spend hours alone in his room. “Forget your father and your brothers,” al-Baghdadi tells the captives. “We have killed them, and we have married off your mothers and sisters. Forget them.”

  If anything, the increased American pressure leads al-Baghdadi to take an even deeper personal interest in Kayla. He has ordered an email sent to her parents, taunting them about the failed rescue mission. The deadline for ransom payment came and went on August 10, and Kayla is still alive. Four days later, she turned twenty-six. Al-Baghdadi once again uses her as a bargaining chip, emailing her parents that in addition to the $7.2 million in ransom, the US bombardment of ISIS positions must cease in order for her to be released.

  Al-Baghdadi wants Kayla to be treated better than the others. Umm Sayyaf is tasked with preparing the aid worker for the caliph’s visits, making sure he will be happy with her appearance. “There was a budget for her,” she will recall many years later, “pocket money to buy things from the shop. She was a lovely girl, and I liked her. She was very respectful, and I respected her. One thing I would say is that she was very good at hiding her sadness and pain.” *

  But Umm Sayyaf is no housewife. She is an ISIS warrior, doing a job Islamic law prohibits a man from undertaking. Her task is to procure women for ISIS senior leadership, imprisoning them and listening to their screams as they are raped. She is not beloved by the other women of ISIS, who are deeply irritated that their husbands frequent the Sayyaf household for sex with young women. In late 2014, there are nine Yazidi girls in addition to Kayla under Sayyaf’s supervision.

  There is no place to run for Kayla Mueller, so when al-Baghdadi decides it is time, she is led into his bedroom. “I am going to marry you by force and you are going to be my wife,” al-Baghdadi informs the terrified woman. “If you refuse, I will kill you.”

  So Kayla Mueller submits to the rapes. Each time, she emerges from the bedroom crying. She is given the new name of Iman and told to begin practicing Islam.

  She has now been held for sixteen months.

  * * *

  Late in November, Kayla is told that Peter Kassig has joined the list of the beheaded. Her spirits plummet. When two of the Yazidis attempt to coax her into joining them for a risky breakout, she declines, reminding them they will be killed if they fail. The young girls attempt the escape anyway and are successful, finding their way to Kurdistan, where US officials question them for intelligence regarding Kayla.

  But while the freed women can offer details about Kayla’s physical and mental well-being, and even specifics about life inside the home where they were captive, they cannot give the precise location of the home where she is being held.

  The truth is, Kayla Mueller has already been moved from the Sayyaf home to al-Baghdadi’s own residence in Raqqa. But when one of the caliph’s wives violently objects, Kayla is repositioned once again. So it is impossible to pinpoint her location.

  But there is some good news for Kayla, as Umm Sayyaf says no harm will come to her. Because she is the new wife of al-Baghdadi, she is no longer a captive. Kayla Mueller is now part of the ISIS “family.”

  * * *

  The search continues.

  On January 25, 2015, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough appears on ABC News’s This Week. Interviewer George Stephanopoulous brings up the issue of kidnap victims in Syria. Without intending to, McDonough breaks the news that an American woman is in ISIS custody.

  “As it relates to our hostages, we are obviously continuing to work those matters very, very aggressively. We are sparing no expense and sparing no effort, both in trying to make sure we know where they are and make sure that we’re prepared to do anything we must to try to get them home. Kayla’s family knows how strongly the president feels about this.”

  One week later, President Obama appears on the NBC morning show Today. This is an unusual step for a sitting president, but with growing pressure to rescue Kayla, Obama has little choice. The United States, he says, is “deploying all the assets that we can, working with all the coalition allies that we can to identify her location, and we are in very close contact with her family, giving them updates.”

  * * *

  On February 3, a captured Royal Jordanian Air Force fighter pilot shot down while launching missiles on ISIS positions in Syria is placed in a cage and publicly burned alive. Muath Safi Yousef al-Kasasbeh is twenty-six years old, the same age as Kayla.

  The video shocks the world, and calls for action against ISIS mount.

  * * *

  What happens next is unclear. Jordan launches more air strikes against ISIS-held positions. The date is February 6, 2015.

  This is the last day of Kayla Mueller’s life. She is not beheaded. Instead, the terrorists say that Syrian bombs kill Kayla Mueller.

  The truth is, Kayla Mueller is murdered. Umm Sayyaf will later confirm this during questioning after her arrest. She will claim that Kayla knew too much and presented a threat to ISIS leader al-Baghdadi.

  Predictably, ISIS boasts about Kayla’s death on Twitter. The terrorists then send an email to Kayla’s parents. Included in the message is a photograph of Kayla, face bruised and an open wound on her cheek. She lies on her back beneath a shroud.

  “May God keep you from any more harm or hurt,” Kayla’s brother, Eric, tells Kayla as he addresses the crowd at a packed memorial service later that month. His voice trembles. “Only now will you be able to see how much you truly did for the world, by looking down on it.”

  But there is no burial. Rather than return her body to America, the sadistic al-Baghdadi disposes of Kayla in a hidden location—one that remains secret to this day.

  * * *

  “My immediate reaction is heartbreak,” President Obama says as news of Kayla’s death careens around the world. He has telephoned the Mueller family to offer his condolences. “She was an outstanding young woman and a great spirit. And I think that spirit will live on, the more people learn about her and the more people learn about what she stood for in contrast with the barbaric organization that held her captive.

  “But I don’t think it’s accurate … to say the United States government hasn’t done everything we could. We devoted enormous resources—and always devote enormous resources to freeing captives or hostages anywhere in the world.”

  * * *

  On June 24, 2015, four months after Kayla Mueller’s death, President Barack Obama officially announces a change in US policy regarding kidnap victims. There will no longer be prosecution for American citizens who raise the money to make ransom payments to terrorists.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  JULY 17, 2015

  GUANTÁNAMO BAY, CUBA

  8:00 A.M.

  If he is captured, a top secret prison cell awaits Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

  “The Star-Spangled Banner” echoes across Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, as it does precisely this time every morning. US military personnel immediately stop what they are doing and stand at stiff attention, saluting the nearest American flag, until the anthem is complete. More than five thousand American servicemen and -women, as well as their families, call this Cuban installation home, enjoying all the luxuries of a normal naval base—commissary, McDonald’s, child development center, and even hiking at the nearby Hutia Highway trailhead. But just over the hill from the base, on a barren stretch of rocky coastline fronting dark-blue, shark-infested waters, is a stark world of cellblocks, electric fences, and high cement walls surrounded by roll after roll of razor-sharp barbed wire.

  This is the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been in United States custody before, but that period of incarceration in 2004 is nothing like what awaits him in Cuba.

  Now two sailors in pressed white uniforms run the Stars and Stripes up the flagpole. But they stop when the standard is only halfway up. Flying the colors at half-mast is a sign of respect and mourning. And on this summer dawn of glaring sun and balmy trade winds blowing in off the Caribbean, sailors and marines stationed here in Cuba have much to grieve. Yesterday afternoon, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an ISIS terror attack took lives on American soil. Four marines and a sailor were shot dead when an ISIS killer opened fire at a military recruiting center. The gunman, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a twenty-four-year-old American citizen of Kuwaiti birth, was then shot dead by officers from the Chattanooga Police Department.

  To most Americans, the manners and behavior of terrorism perpetrators are largely unknown. But to the men and women serving a tour of duty at remote Guantánamo Bay, Islamic terrorists are not just the talk of the base but the flesh-and-blood reason Americans are posted to this far-flung location.

  The purpose of Guantánamo Bay is detaining and interrogating the world’s most dangerous killers—war criminals who have sworn allegiance to men such as al-Baghdadi and bin Laden. The terrorists are treated not just as prisoners but as sources of intelligence about lethal operations.

  Some methods of extracting information are simple, like sleep deprivation or standing in place for hours until the monotony becomes a degrading mental exercise. Others, such as the technique known as “waterboarding,” make a man believe he is about to die.

  “Gitmo” is six thousand miles from the ISIS strongholds in Syria and Iraq and, at this time, houses forty inmates. There has been talk of shutting it down, though that is almost impossible: the men held within these walls are not welcome anywhere on earth. It is a common practice to release those detained at Guantánamo after a period of incarceration, but this is out of the question for some detainees. These hardened terrorists will never reject the global jihad. They are determined to inflict death and destruction, no matter what the cost.

  Thus, the Guantánamo Bay detention center is not likely to be shut down anytime soon. United States officials consider the facility a most effective counterterrorism tool—and a place from where there can be no escape.

  So it is that when the day comes that US forces capture al-Baghdadi, officials here at Guantánamo will only be too happy to make room for the ISIS butcher.*

  * * *

  Guantánamo Bay is the oldest overseas base in the United States Navy. First opened in 1903, the facility was leased from Cuba to serve as a coal depot. The lease was a paltry $2,000 in gold until 1974, when the rent increased to $4,085. Even after Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government in 1959, the United States continued to maintain control of the tactically important forty-five square miles on the southeastern corner of Cuba. The base was temporarily abandoned as a safety precaution during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, then immediately reoccupied once the emergency passed. For ninety-nine years, America has maintained control of Gitmo despite acrimony with Communist Cuba.

  After the 9/11 terror attacks, President George W. Bush declared a global war on terrorism. US troops entered jihadi strongholds such as Afghanistan to actively take the fight to murderous groups like al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Taking prisoners was inevitable, particularly in a conflict where the enemy constantly lived and worked in the shadows. For their roles in killing Americans, these terrorists fall into a category known as “enemy combatant.” Remote Guantánamo Bay, which contained an empty facility that once housed Cuban and Haitian refugees, was the ideal location to confine these radical prisoners.

  The first detainees arrived at Guantánamo Bay on January 11, 2002, just four months after the 9/11 murders. US marines led the twenty new arrivals down the steps of a military cargo plane.

  Their citizenship is diverse: Afghani, Saudi Arabian, Pakistani, Algerian, Yemeni, and more. The most dangerous prisoners are known as “high-value detainees,” coveted by interrogators because of what they may know. Each “high-value” terrorist is held in solitary confinement. Some are forced to wear headphones and opaque goggles to block out the sight and sounds of other inmates. Each cell has a prayer mat with arrows pointing in the direction of Mecca, the Muslim holy city, where adherents face as they bow and worship Allah five times a day.

  Upon his arrival at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will be given a “detainee assessment” to categorize his mental and physical health. This is true for all arrivals. One example reads: “Detainee attended militant training on fitness, pistols, the AK-47 assault rifle, the PK machine gun, and the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at the al-Faruq Training Camp [outside Kandahar, Afghanistan] and taught small arms training there.”

  The report also notes that this individual, Mohammed Ahmad Said al-Adahi, “has a history of depression and schizoaffective personality disorder.” *

  An essential aspect of each detainee assessment is a history of each prisoner’s personal life and career as a terrorist, charting the various campaigns in which they participated. A typical report is ten single-spaced pages, listing places, dates, and names. Known aliases are listed, as are accomplices and employers.

  But these complex assessments, loaded with pages of specific documentation and detail, are not easily written. The tight-lipped behavior that allows a recruit to rise through the ranks to terror leadership requires a strict adherence to confidentiality. In short, these detainees are trained not to betray information.

  Thus, detainee assessments can only be written with the assistance of complex interrogations.

  In almost every instance this ongoing questioning is assisted by the one activity most often connected with life at Guantánamo Bay: “enhanced interrogation.”

  In truth, there is a revenge factor on the part of some American interrogators. Al-Baghdadi well knows that if he is captured, the United States will spare no painful, shame-inducing technique to extract every last bit of information from the man who raped and murdered Kayla Mueller.

  * * *

  The treatment Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi might expect will mirror that of the most famous terrorist already in custody. High-ranking al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured on March 1, 2003, in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. He loathes America, a nation in which he once briefly lived, labeling it a “debauched and racist country.” The fifty-year-old Mohammed is not only the “principal architect” of the 9/11 attack, even appearing on Al Jazeera television to celebrate the first anniversary of the mass murder, he also famously beheaded the American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was taken hostage in the city of Karachi.*