Memorable Quotes from Reda Kateb
2 quotesConfrontation and Power Dynamics in Interrogation
Dan
Right now, this is about you coming to terms with your situation. It's you and me, bro. I want you to understand that I know you, that I've been studying you for a very long time. I could have had you killed in Karachi. But I let you live so you can I could talk.
Ammar
You beat me when my hands are tied. I won't talk to you.
Dan
Life isn't always fair, my friend. Did you really think that when we got you, I'd be a nice fucking guy?
Ammar
You're a mid-level guy. You're a garbage man in a corporation. Why should I respect you?
Dan
And you're a money man. A paperboy! A disgrace to humanity! You and your uncle murdered three thousand innocent people. I have your name on a five-thousand dollar transfer via Western Union to a 9/11 hijacker; and you got popped with 150 kilograms of high explosives in your house! And then you DARE question me?!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Interrogation Insights and Unexpected Connections
Maya
After we kept you awake for 96 hours, you gave us names of some of your brothers and saved the lives of a lot of innocent people.
[to Ammar, referencing the [[w:2004 Khobar massacre|2004 Khboar massacre]
Dan
Which is the smart thing to do, you're starting to think for yourself. Eat up! You earned it!
Dan
So you flew via Amman to Kabul to hang out with your uncle? Mukhtar.
Amar
How did you know that?
Dan
I told you man, I know you. Alright, you got me - flight manifests. It must've been pretty fucked up for you guys after 9/11. What did you do after the invasion and before you went back to ]?
[[w:Peshawar|Pesh]
Ammar
After 9/11 we had to choose: fight, to protect our turf - or run.
Dan
You chose to fight.
Ammar
I wanted to kill Americans. We tried to get into Tora Bora, but the bombing was too high. We couldn't cross.
Maya
Sorry, who is the "we" in that sentence?
Dan
I can go eat with some other dude and hang you back up to the ceiling.
[casually, but annoyed]
Ammar
], ], and ].
[[w:Abu Hamza Rabia|Hamza Rabia; [w:Midhat Mursi|Khabab al-Masri; [w:Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti|Abu Ahmed]
Maya
Who's Abu Ahmed? I've heard of the other guys.
Ammar
He was a computer guy with us at the time. After Tora Bora, I went back to Pesh - as you know - and he went North, I think, to Kunar.
Maya
What's his family name?
Ammar
Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti
Maya
Abu Ahmed means father of Ahmed," it's a kunya. Ammar, I know the difference between a war name and an Arabic name.
Dan
She got you there, dude.
Ammar
I swear to you both: I don't know his family name. I would have never asked him something like that. It's not how my uncle worked. My uncle told me he worked for bin Laden. I did see him, once, about a year ago, in Karachi. He read us all a letter from the Sheikh.
Maya
A letter?
Dan
What did it say?
Ammar
It said: "Continue the jihad. The work will go on for a hundred years.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.