Zero Dark Thirty

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?!

Zero Dark Thirty, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jessica: A farmer on the Afghan border near Tora Bora reports a diamond shaped pattern in the hills, tall male in the center of the diamond, flanked by four guards. It's consistent with UBL's movements. Jeremy: That's supposed to be his Royal Guard? Maya: That's pre-9/11 behavior. Jessica: [irritated] We don't have any reason to believe he's changed security tactics. Maya: We invaded Afghanistan. That's a reason.

Zero Dark Thirty, CC BY-SA 4.0

Maya: [to Ammar, referencing the 2004 Khboar massacre] 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. 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 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: [casually, but annoyed] I can go eat with some other dude and hang you back up to the ceiling. Ammar: Hamza Rabia, Khabab al-Masri, and Abu Ahmed.

Zero Dark Thirty, CC BY-SA 4.0

Joseph Bradley: Well, that's good. You still don't... Maya: [cutting him off] Yeah, we don't know if Abu is on the outside of the network — part of a series of cutouts and dead drops — or if he has a direct connection to bin Laden. Does bin Laden invite him into the living room and hand him a letter directly? Or is Abu just the last guy in a long line of couriers, so that's why everybody knows him? Joseph Bradley: That's not all you don't know. You don't have his true name, and you don't have a clue where he is. Maya: We know that he's important. The fact that everybody's heard of Abu Ahmed but nobody will tell me where he is suggests that. Joseph Bradley: Maybe. Detainees could withhold his location for any number of reasons. Perhaps they don't know; perhaps this Abu is just a cover story and he's really a fucking unicorn. The withholding doesn't reveal what you want it to, does it? Maya: No. Joseph Bradley: And if you did find him, you don't know that he'd be with bin Laden. Dan: We

Zero Dark Thirty, CC BY-SA 4.0

Maya: [to Hassan Ghul] I want you to understand that I know you. I have been following you for a long time. I chased you in Lahore. I had you picked up instead of killing you because you're not a violent man and you don't deserve to die. Hassan Ghul: Thank you. Maya: But you do have deep ties to al-Qaeda that I want to ask you about before you get sent to your next location, which might be Israel. However, depending on how candid you are today, I may be able to keep you in Pakistan. Hassan Ghul: What do you want to know? Maya: I'm going to ask you a series of questions based on your knowledge of al-Qaeda and your position as key financier for the organization. Hassan Ghul: I have dealt with the Mukhabarat, I have no wish to be tortured again. Ask me a question, I can answer it. Maya: What can you tell me about Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. Hassan Ghul: He works for Zawahiri. He's in charge of military tactics. Maya: In what context have you heard the name Abu Ahmed? Hassan Ghul: He works for F

Zero Dark Thirty, CC BY-SA 4.0

Larry: This guy you're obsessed with, what's his name again? Maya: Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti is the nom de guerre. His true name, we think, is Ibraheem Sayeed. His family lives in Kuwait. Larry: Wasn't it, like, eight brothers and a million cousins that we know about? Anyone could be calling home. It's not like he's saying "Hey mom, it's me, the terrorist." Maya: Over the course of two months he's called home from six different pay phones, from two different cities, never using the same phone twice. And when his mother asked him where he was, he lied. He said that he was in a place in the country with bad cell reception - implying he was in the Tribals - but he was in Peshawar. I'm sorry, but that's not normal guy behavior. That's tradecraft. Larry: Maybe he just doesn't like his mom? Look, if he talks about an operation, or refers to anything remotely fishy, I'll get on him, okay? Maya: No. Not okay. Look, Abu Ahmed is too smart to tip his hand by talking about ops on the phone: he works f

Zero Dark Thirty, CC BY-SA 4.0