In 2009 , during the Camp Chapman attack , Maya 's fellow officer and friend Jessica ( Jennifer Ehle ) is killed . A case manager that liked the Abu Ahmed lead shares with her an interrogation with a Jordanian detainee claiming to have buried Abu Ahmed in 2001 . Maya learns what the CIA was told five years earlier : Ibrihim Sayeed travelled under the name of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti . Realizing her lead may be alive , Maya contacts Dan , now a senior officer at the CIA headquarters . She speculates that the CIA 's photograph of Ahmed is that of his brother , Habeeb , who was killed in Afghanistan . Maya says that their beards and native clothes make the brothers look alike , explaining Ammar 's account of Ahmed 's " death " in 2001
Camp Chapman attack
Camp Chapman attack
Zero Dark Thirty