A Rope and a Prayer Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Acknowledgements

  A BLOOD MESSAGE TO OBAMA - David, November 9-10, 2008

  “FUN FEARLESS FEMALE” - Kristen, November 10-11, 2008

  MILLIONS - David, November 11-17, 2008

  CRASH COURSE - Kristen, November 12, 2008

  THE EMIRATE - David, November 18, 2008

  THE TALIBAN CALL COLLECT - Kristen, November 19, 2008

  ALL THREE OF US - David, November 19, 2008

  HUMAN RESOURCES - Kristen, November 20-December 15, 2008

  SPEAK GOOD WORDS TO AN ENEMY - David, Late November-Late December 2008

  VIDEO GAMES - Kristen, December 22, 2008-Early January 2009

  FUTILITY - David, Late December 2008-Mid-January 2009

  MULTITASKING - Kristen, Early to Mid-January 2009

  THE TALIBAN TRUST THE RED CROSS - David, Mid-January 2009

  LOVE LETTERS - Kristen, Late January 2009

  WORDS AND PICTURES - David, Late January 2009

  A FRENCH STREET GANG - Kristen, Early to Mid-February 2009

  ARE YOU THERE? - David, Early to Mid-February 2009

  MY FUNNY VALENTINE - Kristen, February 15, 2009

  GOLDEN CHANCE - David, February 16, 2009

  MIDNIGHT - Kristen, February 16, 2009

  GIFT FROM GOD - David, February 16-20, 2009

  PEACE BE UPON YOU - Kristen, Late February-Early March 2009

  AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE - David, Late February 2009

  A GOAT WILL NEVER BE A COW - Kristen, Early to Mid-March 2009

  BIRTHDAY WISHES - David, Early to Mid-March 2009

  GREETING CARDS FOR THE MUJAHIDEEN - Kristen, Late March-Early April 2009

  A STONE WILL NOT BECOME SOFT - David, Late March-Late April 2009

  THE GIRL WITH THE SAD STORY - Kristen, April-Early May 2009

  LIES - David, Late April-Early June 2009

  HOME MOVIES - Kristen, Early May-Mid-June 2009

  PASHTUNWALI - David, June 19-20, 2009

  ANSWERED PRAYERS - Kristen, June 19, 2009

  THE GLORIOUS ISLAM - David, June 20, 2009

  GRATITUDE - Kristen, June 19-20, 2009

  INTELLIGENCE - David, June 20, 2009

  FEED THE BEAST - Kristen, June 20-21, 2009

  RETURN - David, June 20-21, 2009

  REUNION - Kristen, June 21, 2009

  EPILOGUE

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  INDEX

  ALSO BY DAVID ROHDE

  Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica,

  Europe’s Worst Massacre since World War II

  VIKING

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published in 2010 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill, 2010

  All rights reserved

  Portions of this book appeared in different form in The New York Times.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Rohde, David.

  A rope and a prayer : a kidnapping from two sides / David Rohde & Kristen Mulvihill.

  p. cm.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-44539-6

  1. Rohde, David—Captivity, 2008-2009. 2. Hostages—Afghanistan—Biography.

  3. Journalists—United States—Biography. 4. Afghan War, 2001—Personal narratives,

  American. 5. Taliban. 6. Mulvihill, Kristen. I. Mulvihill, Kristen. II. Title.

  DS371.43.R64A3 2010

  958.104’7—dc22

  [B] 2010024534

  Ward

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the authors’ alone.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To Faith

  Every man’s 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, Marc
ello 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 O’Connor, 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 D’Elia, and many others.

  For listening: Barbara, Roberta, Jan, Lynne.

  For supporting David’s 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 PLACES—AFGHANISTAN 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 Tayyeb’s “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 Pakistan—also known as the tribal areas—that is a Taliban and Al Qaeda stronghold

  Helmand: Province in southern Afghanistan—also known as “Little America”—that was the focus of the author’s 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 military’s top intelligence agency.

  PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS AND ORGANIZATIONS—NEW YORK

  David McCraw: Assistant general counsel for The New York Times

  Mary Jane Mulvihill: Kristen’s mother

  Lee Rohde: David’s older brother

  Carol Ruffo: David’s mother

  Michael Semple: Expert on the region who works on case

  AISC: American International Security Corporation. Security consultants hired to work on case

  Clayton Consultants: The New York Times’ crisis management firm

  AUTHORS’ NOTE

  This is not a story of triumph. Throughout our case we made numerous mistakes. We wrote this book in the hope of helping readers learn more about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the American effort there. This book’s central narrative is the seven months when David, Tahir, and Asad were held captive in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Kristen’s effort to bring them home. Woven throughout the narrative are sections of history and analysis that are based on David’s seven years of reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2001. We also try to explore militancy, faith, and religion’s role as both a positive and negative force.

  The second reason we wrote this book is in the hope of helping other kidnap victims and their families avoid the mistakes we made and survive their captivity. Around the world, the number of kidnappings is steadily rising, but governments have failed to develop a coordinated international response. Most hostages survive, but their panicked families frequently empty bank accounts, sell homes, or go into staggering debt to save the lives of their loved ones. We urge governments to develop a more unified approach to kidnapping.

  A portion of our earnings from this book will be donated to the FATA Education Foundation, a Pakistani government foundation that provides educational opportunities to the people of Pakistan’s tribal areas, and to Kiva.org, a nonprofit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries and the United States. We are also working with the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit press advocacy group, to develop ways to support and assist the families of kidnapped journalists.

  For seven months our family negotiated with the kidnappers—directly and through contractors—regarding a potential ransom. No ransom was paid. While David was in captivity, we believed the only way to keep him and his Afghan colleagues alive and encourage the kidnappers to remain in contact was to appear to be willing to pay for their release. In this book, we discuss Kristen’s calls with the kidnappers and the negotiations because they bring home the reality and pressures placed on a kidnap victim’s family. Yet we are not divulging our negotiation strategy or the amounts of money discussed. We believe such disclosures could encourage or complicate future kidnappings.

  What follows is a good-faith effort to reconstruct the period in our lives surrounding David’s kidnapping and eventual escape, and its aftermath. David was not able to take notes for the seven months he was in captivity. All descriptions of his experience stem from his memory, supplemented, where possible, by records kept by Kristen, other family members, and colleagues. Direct quotations from his captors are his recollections of what they said and are based on translations from Pashto, the language they spoke. Kristen’s descriptions stem from memory and, where possible, journal entries, e-mails, transcripts, and other records. Undoubtedly, our recollections are incomplete, altered by the passage of time and flawed i
n places. All of the views expressed in this book are solely those of the authors. Any mistakes in the pages that follow are wholly our own. For safety reasons, certain details, information, and names have been withheld.

  Chronology

  1. Flew from Laskhar Gah, Helmand, to Kabul, Afghanistan: November 9, 2008.

  2. Kidnapped outside Pul-e-Alam, Logar: November 10, 2008.

  3. Held in four different locations in eastern Afghanistan: November 10-17, 2008. Moved by car through Logar, Wardak, Ghazni, and Paktika provinces.

  4. Walked over mountains from Paktika, Afghanistan, into South Waziristan, Pakistan: Night of November 17-18, 2008.

  5. Drove through Wana, South Waziristan, to Miran Shah, North Waziristan: November 18, 2008. Held prisoner in five different houses in Miran Shah, North Waziristan: November 18, 2008 to mid-March 2009.

  6. Moved from Miran Shah, North Waziristan, to Makeen, South Waziristan: Mid-March. Held in one house in Makeen until late April 2009.

  7. Moved from Makeen, South Waziristan, to Dosali, North Waziristan: Late April 2009. Held in one house in Dosali until late May 2009.

  8. Moved from Dosali to Miran Shah, North Waziristan: Late May 2009-June 19, 2009. Held in two different houses in Miran Shah from late May 2009-June 19, 2009. Escaped night of June 19-20, 2009.

  9. Flown by Pakistani army helicopter from Miran Shah, North Waziristan, to Islamabad, Pakistan: June 20, 2009.

  10. Flown by American military plane from Islamabad, Pakistan, to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan: June 20, 2009. Flown by private plane from Bagram to Dubai, U.A.E., June 21, 2009.

  A BLOOD MESSAGE TO OBAMA

  David, November 9-10, 2008

  On a Sunday afternoon, the Kabul Coffee House and Café is an island of Western culture in Afghanistan’s capital. American and European contractors, aid workers, and consultants sip four-dollar café lattes and cappuccinos. Young, English-speaking Afghan waiters dressed in Western clothes serve chicken quesadillas, fried-egg sandwiches, and cheeseburgers.