I am also thankful to Julie Tate, Charlotte Wiemann, and Stefan Pauly for their extraordinary work as fact-checkers and researchers. They have been a great source of enthusiasm and worked on this project with an unstoppable spirit.
Many important characters and sources who appear in this book and helped me with information and access cannot be named. They are spread across five continents and couldn’t be more different from one another. They have trusted me with their opinions and stories, and this book could not have been written without their assistance.
I was helped immensely throughout this writing process by the support and encouragement of a number of friends, especially Antje and Robert Ehrt (my godparents), Laila Alaoui, Loulwa Bakr, Steffen Burkhardt, Michel Friedman, Lama Hourani, Adam Hunter, Ali Ibrahim, Lonnie Isabel, Ryan Nibblins, Claudia Sautter, Baerbel Schaefer, Soraya Sebti, and Dina Shoman. They have cheerfully served as editors and sounding boards as well as indispensable sources of strength and steadiness.
My friend Nicholas Kulish—also my coauthor on The Eternal Nazi—offered suggestions and support that were invaluable.
My Washington Post colleagues and friends Joby Warrick, Greg Miller, and Anthony Faiola helped with their suggestions and edits to shape the book.
I could not have attempted this book without the generous support of my employer, the Washington Post, and so many Post colleagues and friends. I am especially indebted to Marty Baron, Cameron Barr, Tracy Grant, and Scott Wilson for their kindness in allowing me to pursue this project. I am also grateful to Michael Birnbaum, William Booth, Karen DeYoung, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Adam Goldman, Anne Hull, David Ignatius, Doug Jehl, Carol Morello, Ellen Nakashima, Missy Ryan, Anthony Shadid, Mary Beth Sheridan, Kevin Sullivan, Griff Witte, and Jia Lynn Yang.
Special thanks to some family friends and colleagues for their help and insights throughout the years, among them Abdulla Alkhan, Silvia Console Battilana, Raymond Bonner, Martin Bussmann, Desmond Butler, John Crewdson, Inge Feldhusen, Judith Fessler, Marcie Goldstein, Christian Haenel, Michael Hanfeld, Ingeborg Hensel, Almut Hielscher, Jason Isaacson, Yaakov Katz, Vivian Kervick, Renate Lehnert, Moulay Tayyib Mdghri-Alaoui, his wife Aisha and daughter Leila, Guy Raz, Majda and Boris Ruge, Steven Sokol, Yaroslav Trofimov, and Ivan Vatchkov. I thank Ann Marie Lipinski and Stefanie Friedhoff for their kind support during my Nieman Fellowship, where I had the chance to work with amazing writing teachers like Anne Bernays and Paige Williams.
My New America Foundation fellowship gave me freedom to report and write this book for some time without distractions. I would like to thank especially Peter Bergen for his help and friendship.
Thanks also to the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, the Weatherhead Center at Harvard University, and the Geneva Center for Security Policy, for their access to valuable information. Special thanks as well to Professors Carla Adams, Vali Nasr, and Karl Kaiser.
At ZDF, I would like to thank Elmar Thevessen and Claus Kleber for their support.
The former executive editor of the New York Times Bill Keller provided the backing and support that allowed me to gain a foothold in American journalism.
At the New York Times, I was lucky to work with some amazing editors like Matt Purdy during my time at the Investigative Unit. I also had the honor to work with some very talented colleagues, and I can’t thank them enough for their insight, among them Richard Bernstein, Chris Chivers, Bryan Denton, Steven Erlanger, Carlotta Gall, Mike Kamber, Mark Landler, Mark Mazzetti, Jehad Nga, Richard Oppel, Monique and Lonnie Schlein, Eric Schmitt, Elaine Sciolino, Alison Smale, Craig Smith, Marion Underhill, and Don Van Natta.
A very special thanks goes to all the fantastic local reporters whose help and input have been crucial in so many projects throughout the years: Fakhr al Ayoubi, Said Chitour, Jamal Ismail, Ranya Kadri, Leena Saidi, Marwan Shada, Ahmad Zouhir, and others who cannot be named here due to possible threats to their lives.
Some people have helped to provide spaces where I was able to work on this book in my free time: special thanks to Abdelilah al Aouni, Samy Boukhaled, Kamal Bouskri, and Malek Houssein.
I am ever grateful to my literary agent, Gail Ross, for her suggestions, spirit, faith in this project, and advice, and to the entire staff of the Ross Yoon Literary Agency for logistical support.
I’m indebted as well to the people at Henry Holt and Company, including Leslie Brandon, Patricia Eisemann, Fiona Lowenstein, Devon Mazzone, Maggie Richards, and Stephen Rubin.
And I’m profoundly thankful for the assistance of my remarkably talented editor Paul Golob, who saw potential in my book proposal. Any successes in these pages are a tribute to his strong ideas, peerless editing skills, and patience.
Finally, and most important, I would like to express my love and deepest gratitude to my parents, Aydanur and Boujema, and my siblings, Fatma, Hannan, and Hicham. None of this book would have been possible without all of them. And not one day passes where I don’t remember my grandparents, who have influenced my life so much and are no longer with us.