The Spy Who Rode with Warlords | Afghan Math | 2

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0:21November 4th, 2001. Kobaki, Afghanistan. It's day 19 of Team Alpha's mission inside Afghanistan. From a hillside, CIA officer David Tyson and Northern Alliance warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum are monitoring the route ahead. Team Alpha and Dostum's forces are heading for the strategically vital city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Their mission is to push the Taliban out and by doing so, establish control over northern Afghanistan. But just a few miles up ahead, a large Taliban unit is blocking their path. They will need air support to clear the road if they want to proceed.

1:13Over the radio channel, Tyson hears air control relaying the Taliban's position to a female US Navy bomber pilot.

1:23Dostum looks confused and points to the sky. A hermaphrodite? No, that's a woman. You have a woman flying a plane? Before Tyson can reply. Dostum's eyes widen. He's clearly just had what he thinks is a brilliant idea. Give me the handset. I want to talk to her. By now, several of Dostum's fighters have gathered round. Dostum takes the handset and radios the pilot. Lady, recite some poetry. Who the fuck is this guy? Tyson snatches back the handset. That's Abdul Dostum, our colleague in the Northern Alliance. Could you just go along with it? Poetry? There's not any fucking poetry, okay? Dostum grabs the handset back from Tyson.

2:20Then sing a song! A song? Tyson takes the handset back. Please, just hum him. I could do anchors away, I guess. Perfect. Thank you. As the F-18 Hornet pilot attempts to sing the unofficial US Naval Academy song, Dostum routes the broadcast through to the Taliban's radio channel. In the distance, Tyson sees the Taliban fighters looking confused as the singing pilot comes through their speakers. Then Dostum grabs the handset to address them Attention Talibs, this is Dostum You hear that singing Taliban? Since you're stupid and don't know English I will translate She is singing I am going to fuck you up I am going to drop my bombs on top of your men Because they are so weak And have such tiny dicks that even a woman can kill them.

3:29Moments later, the pilot's bombs rained down, clearing the path to Mazar-e-Sharif and control of northern Afghanistan.

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4:50I'm Raza Jeffery, and this is The Spy Who, an audible original. In the last episode, following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Dave Tyson and the CIA's Team Alpha headed into Afghanistan. Their mission? To join up with the Northern Alliance, to overthrow the ruling Taliban and hunt down Al-Qaeda. Now, they're heading for the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, alongside the forces of warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. If they can take this pivotal city, they can control all of northern Afghanistan. But first, they have to reach it. This is Episode 2, Afghan Math.

5:39November 9th, the White House, Washington DC, Mission Day 24. In the Situation Room, CIA Director George Tenet is trying to control his temper. He's watching as Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld holds court in front of President Bush and a gathering of intelligence personnel. Mr. President, the Defence Intelligence Agency's assessment is Dostum's armies are unlikely to take Mazar-e-Sharif until 2002. Tennant knows that Rumsfeld is fond of the sound of his own voice, but there's something personal to these attacks too. Rumsfeld's clearly still annoyed at the CIA taking the lead on the initial invasion.

6:22This is why he's so eager to criticise the plan. Tennant sighs to himself as Rumsfeld produces a copy of the New York Times. We're making news, but for all the wrong reasons. The word being used, the word I'm hearing, Mr. President, is quagmire. We are facing a new Vietnam. Tennant reaches for his glass of water. as President Bush looks to Hank Crumpton, the counterterrorism special ops chief at the CIA. Hopefully, he can bring a little balance to the discussion. Hank, when do you think we'll take Mazar-e-Sharif? Crumpton takes a second before responding. Mazar-e-Sharif will fall in the next 24 to 48 hours.

7:07Tennant almost spits out his water. He wanted Crumpton to undermine Rumsfeld, but he wishes he'd offered a caveat too. As he scans the faces in the room, many of whom look distinctly unconvinced, Tenet just hopes Team Alpha can deliver what the president has just been promised.

7:28The next day, Mission Day 25, about 150 miles from Mazar-e-Sharif. David Tyson and Team Alpha leader J.R. Seeger are in the back of a rusty 10-ton Soviet truck that's now part of a Northern Alliance convoy closing in on Mazar-e-Sharif. They found the truck after taking control of a nearby town. Seeger's already named it the Magic Bus after the song by The Who. His washing now hangs above their heads, dripping on a makeshift line. With them, inside the truck, are several Afghan fighters and a few Green Berets. Everyone stinks. Since arriving in Afghanistan, they've had to make do with airdropped wet wipes in splashes of water for personal hygiene, Tyson dreams of a long hot shower.

8:17Then he feels the truck starting to slow before lurching to a stop. The Afghans open the doors and jump out. Tyson follows them and is confronted by a scene of utter devastation. Craters in the ground, decapitated bodies, the mangled remains of a BM-12 rocket launcher, Stray limbs, smouldering vehicles upended like children's toys. These are the remains of a Taliban convoy that was fleeing to Kabul before being shredded by US airstrikes. Northern Alliance fighters comb the area for anything they could salvage. One of the green berets gets out a pocket camera. Another crouches down by a charred body with a blackened arm pointing to the sky.

9:05Hey, get one of me next to this guy. Tyson looks at one of his US colleagues, who just shrugs. Don't get involved. Just then, a Russian 4x4 rattles up from behind the convoy. Tyson turns and sees a familiar face inside. CIA Special Operations Man, Mike Spann. He broke off from Team Alpha's main group several days ago to help coordinate an attack on a city to the south. The hope is the assault there will further stretch the Taliban's already strained forces. Tyson greets Spann with a hug. I wasn't sure you'd make it back here in time. I didn't come all the way out here to miss out on the main event.

9:50How'd everything go in Bamiyan? Spann beams with pride. Mission accomplished. Should fall any moment. What's the score here? The latest reports are that the Taliban are pulling out of Mazayi Sharif. We're getting close.

10:15Several hours later, just outside of Mazar-e-Sharif, Team Alpha is bedding down for the night. The Taliban have fled the city, and tomorrow, when the sun rises, Team Alpha and the Northern Alliance will enter it. But not everyone is happy. Team Alpha leader J.R. Seeger looks up as Northern Alliance commander Dostum storms over to him, his face full of fury. That pig, Atta, has broken our pact. Whoa, slow down. Seeger braces himself. He's become something of a therapist for the temperamental warlord in recent days. Atta is a dirty swine. He broke our deal. Your deal. We agreed to enter the city together, us, Atta and Dostum, at dawn, together.

11:05Seeger tries to motion Dostum over to a crate to sit down, but he remains standing and pacing. And now? And now I heard he is already in the city, creeping in under the cover of darkness by himself. And now? He says he is the man who liberated Mazar-e-Sharif, that pig Atta. I knew you were a fool to trust him. Seeger knows he needs to deal with this grievance before the fragile alliance ruptures. Atta and Dostum are allies of convenience. They needed each other to get the Taliban out of Mazar-e-Sharif. But now that's done, they are reverting to their old rivalry. But to finish the Taliban, the CIA needs them working with, not against, each other.

11:50An idea comes to him. Seeger smiles and takes Dostum by the shoulder. Calm down. Take it easy. This is playing out perfectly. Dostum kicks at a stray stone, deep in a sulk. Perfectly for Hata. No, perfectly for you. Think about it. Hata sneaks in at night. No one sees him. But you. He will be the guy riding in on a truck before the welcoming crowds with the world's TV cameras on you. Arthur will say he was there first, but no one will believe him. Dostum shuffles back and forth, thinking about this. Grouse and TV cameras? We'll make it happen. Have faith. You, Dostum, will be the one known as the Liberator of Mazar-e-Sharif.

12:46The next morning, Dostum stands on the back of a white Toyota Land Cruiser. as his forces roll into Mazar-e-Sharif. Delighted crowds mob the vehicle. A few youths try to jump onto its flatbed as it passes. Others throw money into the air for good luck. Team Alpha follows behind in the magic bus. In the front of the cab are Tyson, Span, and a few green berets. The elation of the Taliban's fall is clear. Already, citizens are casting aside the oppressive rules they've been living under. He sees men without beards, people playing music, and women emerging from homes not wearing their burqas. One of the Green Berets leans to get a better look at the large fortress built into the mountainside.

13:33It's a massive structure of baked mud and wood, with walls 60 feet high, and it dominates the city skyline. Its walls are topped with parapets and firing slits. Around the walls are six triangular bastions. The Green Beret stares in awe. Goddamn. What is that place? Tyson smiles. It's Kali Jangi. Built in the late 1800s. The British paid for its construction to help counter Russian invasions. It's changed hands a lot since then. The Russians had it, then Dostum, and until today, the Taliban. Span is ejected. Yep, now it's our turn. The first mission is accomplished. With Mazar-e-Sharif now in alliance hands and within the 48-hour window the CIA promised, the White House now has the big win it needed to shore up support for the war.

14:30And with that done, Team Alpha's focus will shift to finding Osama bin Laden and destroying his terrorist network, Al-Qaeda.

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16:0311 days later, November 21st, Kalijangi Fort, Mazar-e-Sharif. In the headquarters of Kalijangi Fort, Team Alpha leader J.R. Seeger is sitting in as an observer on a high-stakes summit between the Northern Alliance and its sworn enemy, the Taliban. Under discussion is the future of Kunduz, a city 100 miles to the east and the Taliban's last northern stronghold. The Northern Alliance has the city surrounded, and with no way out, the Taliban want to negotiate a peaceful handover. So now, Northern Alliance commanders Dostum, Atta and Mohaqique are face to face with Mullah Faisal, the Taliban's commander in the north.

16:48They sit on frayed armchairs. Faisal sits on a battered sofa, flanked by bodyguards. He is plump and cruel, but canny with it. Mohaqik, the commander of the Hazara faction, stares at Faisal with unconcealed hatred. It is said that Faisal oversaw the mass slaughter of his people. Siga just hopes this won't destroy these talks. Not that the CIA will intervene if it does. This is the Alliance's war, and everyone here knows that the surrender of Kunduz must be on terms it can accept. Leaning forward to make his points, Faisal seems to be pushing for a swift agreement. If you do not accept the Taliban's surrender now, you know what it will mean.

17:38But Dostum, the Alliance's lead negotiator, seems to be enjoying the moment. He will not be rushed. And what is that? You will have to fight house by house, street by street, to take the city. It will be a bloodbath. And all of this in front of the world's cameras. Dostum bristles. Seeger knows that Dostum and Atta both dislike the idea of more bloodshed. They are eager to show to the world they aren't the murderous warlords they are made out to be. Faisal leans forward again, this time eyes fixed on Dostum. Dostum, if you agree, you and your forces would enter Kunduz as the conqueror of the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan, just as in Mazay Sharif.

18:37All they ask is that our men are allowed to return to their home villages. Siga knows Dostum will be tempted by this. If the Taliban surrender now, it'll be his soldiers that will take the city. But if the city has to be taken by force, Dostum will need help from Atta's Tajik soldiers. Doing a deal now ensures Dostum's Uzbek army gets the glory and strengthens his case for a key role in the post-Taliban regime. It will also please Pakistan's president, Parvez Musharraf, who's been pushing Dostum to sideline Atta because the Tajiks oppose Islamabad's influence in Afghanistan. Dostum sighs theatrically.

19:22This is all very nice to hear, but there's a problem. We cannot let the foreigners who are fighting with you just walk away. Our American friends won't accept that. Seeger catches Faisal glaring at him with contempt. But it's gone in a second. Faisal softens. We can be flexible on these matters. Perhaps we are willing to hand over the foreigners. Tyson settles back to watch the real horse trading unfold. It's close to midnight before the talks end. But it ends with a deal. The Taliban will peacefully surrender Kunduz. Their Afghan fighters will stop fighting and be allowed to return to their villages.

20:14The foreigners suspected of being al-Qaeda will be brought to the fortress in Mazar-e-Sharif for interrogation. As Dostum and Faisal pose and shake hands in front of the world's media crews, SIGA wonders if the Taliban will stay true to their word. Six hours later, November 22nd, Wawona, California Shannon Spann hurries to the ringing phone in the cabin her family's renting In the woods of Yosemite National Park Mike? You know it, on time as always, happy Thanksgiving Mike is calling from the CIA's new base of operations In a former school in Mazar-e-Sherif How's our boy? He's good. Smiling a lot now.

21:06Also, he's discovered his feet. Well, give him a hug from his dad. I will. All going okay? You get any Thanksgiving rations? Yeah, yeah we do, but I'm missing out of cooking. And not for much longer. What do you mean? I've got news. The replacements for the team should arrive in December. Once they're here, I'll be heading home. Shannon needs a second to take this in. For real? That's wonderful news. For a few precious moments, they trade warm trivialities. Mike explains how he named a landing zone after five-month-old Jake, much to the annoyance of the bosses at Langley. Shannon asks him to look for the moon tonight.

21:50Whenever you see it, we're 7 ,000 miles and 12 time zones apart. Twelve and a half. But we're both seeing some little piece of the same thing. They say their goodbyes. But as Shannon hangs up, something shifts inside her. She struggles to understand the sudden sadness she feels. As she heads back to her family, she finds herself crying.

22:22Two days later, November 24th, Mazar-e-Sharif. Twilight. Tyson and Spahn watch as truck after truck pulls into Kali-Jangi Fort. Each one is filled with the foreign fighters the Taliban agreed to hand over. The hope is these prisoners will provide intelligence that will lead the US to Osama bin Laden. David Tyson and Mike Spann are the only members of Team Alpha present. With their colleagues busy elsewhere, they've been tasked with kicking off the interrogations of the Al-Qaeda prisoners. The only security is a platoon of Northern Alliance soldiers. Kalijangi is vast. It's a circular space, big enough to fit three soccer fields, and surrounded by thick walls with ramparts and towers.

23:08A central wall divides the interior into two halves. The fortress headquarters sits at the top end of the northern half, while in the middle of the southern half is a large pink building that everyone calls the Pink House. And it's about to become a prison for the fighters handed over by the Taliban. As the sun sets, the Alliance guards start unloading foreign fighters from the trucks and carrying out slapdash searches before leading them down into the basement of the Pink House. Span and Tyson watch from a distance, as more and more prisoners are unloaded. Span looks concerned. How many were we told to expect?

23:49Tyson doesn't even try to count. Not as many as this. There must be three or four hundred. Tyson laughs, mainly to help break the tension. Afghan math. They're imprecise, they say one hundred, but really they just mean a lot. And this is a lot. The searchers seem pretty haphazard too. There could be weapons going down there with them. This time, Tyson doesn't laugh. It's an Afghan custom. People aren't searched, they're taken to their word. He gestures to the guards. Also, these people all fear Al-Qaeda. They don't want to be near them. At the far reach of the growing line of prisoners, Spann sees one of the men being searched pull a grenade from his clothes he yanks the pin and shouts Allah!

24:40Rahman! Jesus! When the smoke clears the man, the soldier who was searching him and several nearby prisoners are dead the Alliance soldiers respond by hurrying the prisoners into the basement even faster and with even less searching

25:03The next morning. Out in the fort's southern yard, Tyson and Spann are ready to start the interrogations. They're dressed informally, Spann in blue jeans with a rifle slung over his shoulder, Tyson in a grey Uzbek tunic that reaches down past his waist. The Alliance guards start bringing out prisoners from the Pink House. They're all young men. Guards watch from the walls overlooking the grounds. Overnight, trouble broke out in the basement of the pink house. Another grenade was let off. There was gunfire. Everyone is on edge. The prisoners are brought out, one at a time. They are searched, and their guns, grenades and knives are removed and piled in a corner by the entrance.

25:49Next, they have their arms tied at the elbows with cloth, before being made to kneel in rows on the dirt and parched grass. Soon, there are around 50 men kneeling Then, 100 Nearby, in the ditch, flies buzz around the remains of the fighter who blew himself up yesterday Spann and Tyson start trying to identify where the foreign fighters are from Aided by Dostum's intelligence chief, Sayyid Kamal And these three? Arab, Tajik, Bengali What about him over there with the long matted hair? The guy who keeps shouting, Indonesian. He wants water. Tyson and Spahn have already planned their interrogation approach.

26:36Tyson will play bad cop, accusing people of being terrorists, and Spahn will be good cop, trying to build rapport. They're both home in on an overweight Arab, suspecting his weight is a sign of his importance next to his underfed companions. I am a reporter, Al Jazeera. I am not Mujahid, American passport. Where in the US? I know the United States more than you. Spann walks off. They're going to get nothing from this guy. The Iraqi next to the overweight Arab pipes up. I'm just a student. Ask the US Embassy in Islamabad. Tyson responds as he follows Spann. Don't you worry, we'll find out everything.

27:21thing. They then spot a white-skinned prisoner being led out of the pink house. He's barefoot but seems unused to walking on rough ground. He's also wearing a British military pullover with shoulder patches. Spann marches over to him. Hey, you! You with your head down! Look at me! I know you speak English. Where did you get the British sweater? The prisoner doesn't reply. He just keeps his eyes down so his shoulder-length hair covers his face. Tyson looks around. There must be about 150 prisoners in the courtyard now. The pile of confiscated weapons is getting larger. There are now brass knuckles, rocket launchers and pistols among them.