The Disappeared (A Father, a Son, and the War on Terror)

From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Spencer Ackerman, the story of an immigrant father and the radicalized son he lost—first to al-Qaeda, then to two decades in CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay’s notorious Camp VII—a landmark work of investigative reporting that uncovers the operational heart of the War on Terror and the lives of the world’s most wanted terrorists within it

When Majid Khan landed a lucrative coding job straight out of his Baltimore high school, he was on the verge of securing a place in the American middle class for his Pakistani immigrant family. But his mother’s unexpected death unraveled his life. On a visit back to Pakistan—before his father, Ali, could catch on—Majid fell in with a jihadist branch of their extended family, who introduced him to the “brotherhood” and its mysterious leader. Within weeks, Majid was wearing a suicide vest and couriering money that the United States later claimed was used to finance the Jakarta Marriott bombing. Only when he saw the brotherhood’s commander on his TV did Majid recognize him as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11.

In a historic feat of investigative reporting, Spencer Ackerman reconstructs Majid’s time in al-Qaeda’s post-9/11 inner circle and follows him through the secret torture facilities where the United States would detain him for decades alongside figures like Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed himself. In parallel, Ackerman follows Ali Khan’s search for his disappeared son, even as the FBI put Ali under investigation—drawing little distinction between Majid and his pro-American father.

Never before has an American journalist gained such access to the al-Qaeda of the pivotal period right after 9/11. The Disappeared delivers the most comprehensive account of CIA torture ever reported, including sexual assaults that the agency called medical procedures. Ackerman also affords us history’s only glimpse inside Guantanamo Bay’s top-secret Camp VII—and the first English-language report of the 2003 Jakarta bombing from the survivors’ perspectives. Unlike the few existing glimpses we have of life inside Guantanamo, Majid Khan’s story is not one of mistaken identity or accidental imprisonment. Majid was a member of al-Qaeda—but that is where the moral reckoning starts, not ends.

This is the untold story of the War on Terror working precisely as its architects designed. Now the authoritarian consequences for America have come due.