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, and CIA drone strikes are not made public. As per my interview with Pentagon officials, “That we can’t confirm or deny.” State Department officials also refuse to comment on CIA drone attacks and deflect attempts to get confirmation on the CIA’s role in drone operations. While visiting Pakistan in December of 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a group of journalists who were inquiring specifically about drone strikes, “I’m not going to comment on any particular tactic or technology.” In reality, the strategic partnership between the CIA and the Air Force that began with Bissell’s CIA and LeMay’s Air Force in 1955 is back together again.
21. the Beast of Kandahar: Originally reported by Air & Cosmos magazine, http://www.air- cosmos.com/site/, the story was quickly picked up in the U.S. press. David Hambling, “Mysteries Surround Afghanistan’s Stealth Drone,” Wired magazine, Danger Room Blog, December 4, 2009; interview with unnamed Lockheed official.
22. Defense Department confirmed: Interview with secretary of the Air Force, Public Affairs Engagements Office.
23. synthetic aperture radar, or SAR: Sandia National Laboratories: Synthetic Aperture Radar: What is Synthetic Aperture Radar? Sandia Synthetic Aperture Radar Programs (Unclassified
programs and participants); http://www.sandia.gov/.
24. thirty miles south of Area 51, at Indian Springs: Physical tour of Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada, October 9, 2009.
25. “Wicked Problems”: “Report of the Defense Science Board, 2008 Summer Study on Capability Surprise, Volume II: Supporting Papers, January 2010. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense For Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Washington, DC, 20301-3140, chapter 2, Appendix 2-A, Wicked Problems, 127-31.
26. “playing the game changes the game”: Ibid., 127.
27. shot down one of their own: Carl Hoffman, “China’s Space Threat: How Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites,” Popular Mechanics, July 2007.
28. The official Pentagon story: Jim Garamone, “Navy to Shoot Down Malfunctioning Satellite,” American Forces Press Service, February 14, 2008; “Navy Says Missile Smashed Wayward Satellite,” MSNBC.com News Services, February 21, 2008; “U.S. Missile Shoots Down Satellite — But Why?” Christian Science Monitor, February 22, 2008.
29. not required to tell the truth to Congress: Killian, Sputnik, Scientists and Eisenhower, 25.
30. “A satellite cannot simply drop a bomb”: Ibid., 287. Killian originally wrote this as “a study of space science and technology made at the request of the President for the non technical reader,” which was released from the White House on March 26, 1958. “Much has been written about space as a future war theatre, raising such questions as satellite bombers, military bases on the moon and so on… most of these schemes, nevertheless, appear to be clumsy and ineffective ways of doing a job. Take one example, the satellite as a bomb carrier. A satellite simply cannot drop a bomb.”
31. by his own admission, was not a scientist: James Killian had only an undergraduate degree in management, as per my interview
with MIT’s archivist who researched the question for me in March of 2010.
32. United States Space Surveillance Network: NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, Frequently Asked Questions, July 2009, http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/faqs.html.
33. “A one-centimeter object is very hard to track”: Carl Hoffman, “China’s Space Threat: How Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites,” Popular Mechanics, July 2007.
34. “spy satellites launched into space”: Interview with Colonel Leghorn.
35. Leghorn founded the Itek Corporation: Itek, which stood for Information (I) Technology (tek), was founded in 1957 with seed money from venture capitalist Laurance Rockefeller. Itek built Corona cameras from the beginning of the program until Corona ended in 1972. The CIA/NRO follow-on systems were contracted out to PerkinElmer; interviews with Colonel Leghorn, Dr. Wheelon. In his memoir, Helms wrote, “Corona flew 145 secret missions, with equally rewarding results,” 267.
36. Leghorn spent decades in the commercial-satellite business: U.S. Air Force official Web site, Biography of Colonel Richard Sully Leghorn, Retired, Air Force Space Command,
http://www.afspc.af.mil/library/biographies/bio.asp?id=9942.
37. W61 Earth Penetrator: Leland Johnson, “Sandia Report: Tonopah Test Range Outpost of Sandia National Laboratories, SAND96-0375, UC-700,” March 1996, 80.
38. launch the earth-penetrator weapon: Nelson, “Low-Yield EarthPenetrating Nuclear Weapons,” 3, figure 3.
39. and signed by five of the then seven or eight nuclear-capable countries: Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (http://www.ctbto.org/). The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom,
and Russia on September 26, 1996, in New York. The nuclear-armed states who did not sign (and as of 2011 have not signed) are India, Israel, and Pakistan. According to CTBTO, Israel has not reported testing but is generally assumed to be a nuclear-armed state. In 2006, Korea announced that it had conducted a nuclear test. Notably, the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, to which I also refer, prohibits nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater but allowed for underground nuclear tests. The Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban
