Table of Contents
ALSO BY DAVID ROHDE
Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica,
Europes Worst Massacre since World War II
To Faith
Every mans hand is against the other, and all against the stranger.
Winston S. Churchill
The fruit of patience is sweet.
Pashto saying
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For Pashtunwali: Tahir Luddin and Captain Nadeem.
For countless hours: Mary Jane Mulvihill, Lee Rohde, David McCraw.
For never giving up: Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.
For steadfast support and encouragement: Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, John Geddes, William Schmidt, Craig Whitney, Susan Chira, Matt Purdy, Christine Kay, and so many other longtime friends at The New York Times.
For friendship, insight, and bravery in Afghanistan: Afghan colleagues and friends, Carlotta Gall, Chris Chivers, Tyler Hicks, Dexter Filkins, Rich Oppel, and many others.
For friendship, insight, and bravery in Pakistan: Ismail Khan, Salman Masood, Beena Sarwar, Pir Zubair Shah, Jane Perlez, and many others.
For pointing Kristen in the right direction: Richard Holbrooke, Karl and Ching Eikenberry, Marin Strmecki, Tim Golden, Kay McGowan, Samantha Power.
For consistency, clarity, eloquence, and humor: Michael Semple.
For working on the case: John, Mike Taylor, Duane Clarridge, Jack Holly, Dwight, Mark, Chris, Wayne, and all the incarnations of Team Kabul.
Thank you to the government officials who tried to help us, especially Jim, Tom, Joe, John, Cathy, Phil, Leanne, Ken, Tenzen, Mike, Eric.
For help in Washington: Mark Mazzetti, Eric Schmitt, Douglas Frantz, Milt Bearden.
For expertise: Ahmed Rashid, Rina Amiri, Barnett Rubin, James Alvarez, Nancy Dupree, John Dixon, Tom Gregg, Patricia Ferrari, Kelly Moore.
For support and understanding at Cosmopolitan, especially: Kate White, Abby Greene, Ann Kwong, John Lanuza, Micah Rubin, Heather Pfaff, Miriam Friedman, Micaela Walker, Maggie Hong, Rebecca Hessel.
For maintaining privacy: Catherine Mathis, Diane McNulty, and Vanessa Palo.
For friendship, empathy, and holidays: Eric and Sylvan Wold.
For support, guidance, confidence: Jonathan and Katie Moore, Chloe Breyer, Marcello Picone.
For happy memories: Vincent Manoriti, Denise Morgan, Julian Borger, Kathleen Reen, Ivan Obregon, Greg Scholl, Lisa Ferrari, Kannan Sundaram, Jay Solomon, Don Nay, Dan Morrison, Paul Haven, Victoria Burnett, Tomas Munita, Bob Nickelsberg, Celia Dugger, Barry Bearak, Shelley Thakral, Anthony Loyd, Gary Bass, Stacy Sullivan, Emma Daly, Laura Pitter, Kit Roane, Katya Jestin, Joel Brand, Mike OConnor, Tracy Wilkinson, John Pomfret, Roger Cohen, Ben Ward, Mark Dennis, Fred Abrahams, Leigh Cheng, John Bastian, Pete Brandt, Al Erickson, Matt Borger, Rod Peterson, Damon Struyk, Jim Williamson, Bob Perkins, Eric Mabley, Ian Marsh, Steve Cote, Jim Webb, Chris Charters, Peter Boisvert, Jay, Joe, and Doris Brenchick, Rocky and Martha Manoriti, John Atwood, Ed Quinn, and many others in Fryeburg.
For sustenance and support from friends, including: the Moss family, the Chivers family, the Bissell family, Andrea Elliott, Salman Ahmed, Chuck Sudetic, Cindy Searight, Renannah Weinstein, Josh Brown, Claire Mysko, Judson Wright, Madeleine Arthurs, Adivije Sheji, Arthur Belebeau, Juliette Merck, Natalie Hawwa, John Lin, Tamara Schlesinger, Jamal Rayyis, Neal Lesh, Erinn Bucklan, Jim Ledbetter, Erik Swain, Noah Green, Frances Northcutt, Amy Waldman, Megan Re, Sarah Smith, Elliot Thomson, Mariane Pearl, Kati Marton, Nic Robertson, George Packer, Leon Wieseltier, Peter Bergen, Somini Sengupta, Elizabeth Rubin, Jonathan Landay, Faye Bowers, Mary Anne Schwalbe, Sandra Cook, P. J. Anthony, Hari Kumar, Chuni Lal, Pan Singh.
For prayers: Marie Chisholm, Maryann Zocco, Fabienne LeRoux, Father Renald Labarre, Monika Stedul, Ben Borger, Helen DElia, and many others.
For listening: Barbara, Roberta, Jan, Lynne.
For supporting Davids research: Aryeh Neier, Patricia L. Rosenfield, and Laura Silber. This book was made possible in part by grants from the Open Society Foundations and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors.
For making this book a reality: Sarah Chalfant, Clare Ferraro, Wendy Wolf, Carolyn Coleburn, Linda Cowen, Sonya Cheuse, Risa Chubinsky, Nancy Resnick, Jeffrey Ward, Emily Votruba, Margaret Riggs, Meredith Burks, Carolyn Freeman, Tracy Breton, Kate Toth.
For courage and bravery: Sultan Munadi, Daniel Pearl, Piotr Stanczak, Asad Mangal, Jere Van Dyk, Sean Langan, Stephen Farrell, John Solecki, Alan Johnston, Roxana Saberi, Maziar Bahari, Amanda Lindhout, Nigel Brennan, Laura Ling, Euna Lee, and all journalists who remain in captivity.
FOR EVERYTHING: our parents Carol, Harvey, Mary Jane, James, Andrea, and George; our siblings Lee, Laura, Erik, Karen, Jason, Joel, Daniel, Christie, Chris, Howard, Christina, and all of our family.
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND PLACESAFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN
Abu Tayyeb: Taliban commander who invites David to interview and kidnaps him
Akbar: Guard who allows access to newspapers and radio; nephew of Akhundzada
Akhundzada: Taliban commander who serves as Abu Tayyebs intelligence chief
Asad Mangal: Afghan driver kidnapped with David
Badruddin Haqqani: Son of Jalaluddin Haqqani who provides houses and cash during kidnapping
Chunky: Heavyset guard who leads prayers
Jalaluddin Haqqani: Patriarch of the Haqqani family and famed anti-Soviet fighter who is supported by the CIA in the 1980s and who joins the Taliban in the 1990s
Mansoor: Guard who speaks broken English; son of Akhundzada
Mullah Omar: Leader of Taliban movement. Since 2001, he is believed to have been based in the Pakistani city of Quetta. Said to now lead a more moderate Taliban faction known as the Quetta Shura.
Qari: Taliban fighter who carries out kidnapping and later serves as guard
Sharif: Taliban commander whose house serves as a prison
Sirajuddin Haqqani: Son of Jalaluddin Haqqani who succeeded his elderly father as commander of the Haqqani network
Timor Shah: Chief guard, younger brother of Abu Tayyeb
Tahir Luddin: Afghan journalist kidnapped with David
Federally Administered Tribal Areas: Mountainous region in northwestern Pakistanalso known as the tribal areasthat is a Taliban and Al Qaeda stronghold
Helmand: Province in southern Afghanistanalso known as Little Americathat was the focus of the authors original book project
North and South Waziristan: Regions inside the tribal areas where the author was held captive
Frontier Corps: Pakistani-government-funded tribal militia charged with policing the tribal areas
ISI: Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistani militarys top intelligence agency.
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS AND ORGANIZATIONSNEW YORK
David McCraw: Assistant general counsel for The New York Times
Mary Jane Mulvihill: Kristens mother
