Operation Dark Heart

by Anthony Shaffer

  We arrived back at Bagram at the crack of dawn, and I went right back to work. Mr. White told me they’d already done a lot of work with the SEAL team, giving me a lot of good information to enhance my argument with Colonel Keller to pull my team out and swing them over to the SEALs’ mission.

  I also had to talk to General McChrystal and get him to agree to pull our guys out of the Ranger mission.

  I started with Colonel Keller. He was not an overly joyful camper.

  “The old man isn’t going to like this,” said Colonel Keller. “He is adamant that the Rangers get all of the support.”

  “Sir, I understand, but this isn’t working,” I argued. “If we keep them forward, you would be missing an opportunity to work with the SEALs and go after Hekmatyar and his lieutenants.”

  Colonel Keller persisted. “General McChrystal is going to want to know what we’re going to do and the chances of success.”

  “I’ve already talked to the SEALs,” I said. “We can’t assist them right now because the guys who would direct the team of Afghan assets can’t talk to them from out in the field.”

  “Tony, you heard the old man,” Colonel Keller said. “The Rangers are the main effort.”

  “We have done everything we can to support you and the Rangers,” I shot back. “We understand they are the main effort, but the moment the forward Ranger element in Asadabad signed up with the CIA, that screwed it up for everybody. And you saw the failure that came out of that raid on the village based on their information.”

  Colonel Keller relented on my last point. “All right, Tony, I’m going to let you talk to him. You’ve got to be very clear on what the value added is going to be to move your case officers over to the SEALs—and he will expect results.”

  I went back and grabbed Mr. White, telling him he was going to have to spell out in excruciating detail exactly what he could do to help the SEALs in their upcoming raid. Pulling out the rest of the team depended on that. He got it.

  Colonel Keller, Mr. White, and I met with General McChrystal in his small and Spartan office that was in a small subtent just off the main floor of the Death Star. As I came in, he and Colonel Keller were talking about the growing IED problem that had already taken out two Rangers.

  “We’ve been able to obtain an EA-6 to start doing counter-IED missions before our guys walk through the valleys,” Colonel Keller was telling him. “They should be able to set the things off in advance.”

  An EA-6 Prowler is a navy electronic warfare aircraft. Since the Taliban were using radio-detonated IEDs, 1099 had been sending an EA-6 flying low and fast over the route of a march, emitting on all known frequencies used by the Taliban. That would detonate the IEDs ahead of the troops. It became a very effective counter IED technique that resulted in no more deaths from IED during the winter operation.

  General McChrystal appeared pleased with what Colonel Keller had told him.

  “Excellent,” he said. “At least that’s good news.”

  Then he turned his attention to us and got tight-lipped and tense. I could tell he was already pissed. Combat operations had not netted anything so far, and two Rangers had been killed.

  Mr. White was with me, but he did his best to look inconspicuous. I ended up doing all the talking.

  “Sir, Maj. Shaffer needs to talk to you about the problem we’re having with his guys who are embedded with the Rangers,” Colonel Keller said.

  General McChrystal looked me square in the eyes. “Major Shaffer, I’ve already told you that the Rangers are our main effort in the current combat operations. I’m not keen on removing you from the Rangers. You know that.”

  “I’m fully aware of that, sir,” I said. While I’d been the bearer of bad news to general officers more than a dozen times in my career, it never got easier. I knew I had only a few minutes. “But it ain’t working.” I explained how the CIA had stepped on us and forced us to remove our warlord from the area.

  General McChrystal looked even more unhappy. “I don’t know why you had to remove him.”

  He was a tough cookie. “General,” I said, “there were two reasons. First, he is a valuable asset—a source with his own militia that can shut the back door on the Taliban trying to leave the battle space in the current operations. We don’t want to lose him. Second, sending my guys out to go village to village with the Rangers will not net us any long-term leads or create any goodwill with the local populace. In fact, people are intimidated by the Rangers. No matter how friendly our guys are, or how well they talk to the village elders, there is still this reality that they are with troops who are there to conduct combat operations—to kill people. It’s just not a good combination.”

  General McChrystal was listening carefully. “Major Shaffer, what are you proposing?”

  “Sir, I’ve been talking to the SEAL team, and they’re planning a raid on a suspected compound of Hekmatyar in the mountains about 50 klicks from last night’s operation, and they are about three days away from execution. If we pull my guys out of the Rangers today, we can get them back to Kabul, have them tasked, and dispatch one of our Afghan asset recon teams ahead of the SEALs to get real-time situational awareness on the target site.”

  General McChrystal sat back, his arms crossed. “I don’t like this,” he said bluntly.

  His gaze was like steel. “I don’t like this at all, but you can pull them out. But I’m telling you, I want to see results.”

  “Thank you, sir,” I said, moving rapidly out of the room, before General McChrystal had a chance to change his mind. Colonel Keller and Mr. White left with me. I was relieved I could keep my word to my team and get them off the Ranger mission, but I knew we had better damn well deliver with the SEALs.

  I walked outside the building to get a clear shot to the satellite and called Mr. Pink to give him the good news. He immediately passed the news to the rest of the team. They were relieved as hell. Apparently the day’s activities at the front with the Rangers had not gone well. I told them to get to a known landing zone, tell me where it was, and we would get them a helo immediately.

  After two hours of coordination and leveraging the folks I knew in the air force element of the 160th Aviation Regiment, the team landed at Bagram just as daylight was fading to the west.

  They were grateful I’d pulled it off and got them out of the field. I got them cold water, promised them hot chow, and brought them to the meeting with the SEALs. The idea was to get through the planning meeting and get them back to Kabul, even though it was getting dark, so they could contact their assets and get them moving to the village with the suspected Hekmatyar compound. They needed to have the enemy on target for at least twelve hours.

  The targeted village was about 10 kilometers north of the village that was the target of the air assault. The SEALs had ID’d what they believed to be a Hekmatyar senior lieutenant in the village and wanted help to confirm the particular compound where they were staying. The thinking was clear: roll up Hekmatyar’s lieutenant, who was thought to be helping protect bin Laden and his inner circle, then the quicker we can get to bin Laden to kill or capture him.

  Unlike the Rangers’ village-to-village searches, the SEALs had a more covert mission to conduct precision raids on leadership targets. Get in and get out. No hanging around.

  We believed that working with the SEALs was a better use of our limited resources. We could get a recon team of Afghan assets into an area, where they could blend in, ahead of the SEALs. We had several teams of tribesmen who could come and go at will. For the SEALs, we had to know exactly what was going on, including which building the bad guys were in, so we didn’t nail the wrong house and hit civilians.

  I made a quick excursion to the Rangers’ tent to make sure there were no hard feelings. No sense pissing off a bunch of commandos. The Rangers’ J2 was gracious and said his guys forward had screwed the pooch by committing to work with the CIA, not realizing that he had worked on giving us the mission.

  At the SEALs�
� tent, we went quickly over the operation. We would send one recon team into the village. They would arrive within thirty-six hours and then, within twenty-four hours, the SEALs would pay their visit. We got a handle on the warlord to make sure he was safe and could set up blocking positions north and west of the village to prevent the enemy from escaping. The SEALs wanted me to go on the raid, and even furnished me with one of their tan uniforms, but I felt it was best to be on the ground in Bagram.

  At the end of the meeting, we went outside, where night was descending and the wind was blowing in short gusts. To the west, a violet hue glowed as the sun set.

  “It’s going to be tough to get our guys to that location,” Randy said. “It’s really bad territory.”

  “We can do it.”

  “I think so, but the case officers are new,” said Randy, referring to Mr. Pink and Mr. White. “Jim Brady had an excellent rapport with the assets, and the case officers are just learning how to work with them.”

  “I understand,” I said. “You’re really going to have to help them.”

  I went back over to Colonel Keller and told him we were good to go on the SEALs’ mission. He emphasized again how the old man was very concerned about pulling us off the Rangers’ mission. He said we needed to talk more about how to better support the Rangers next time. I promised to do that after this mission with the SEALs. The only way to fix the situation with the Rangers, I told him, was for him to work with the CIA chief of station to make sure there was a clear delineation of responsibilities.

  This damned SEAL mission had better work, or my ass was in a sling.

  *** ****** ***** **** **** *** ***** ****** ** **** *** “Thanks for getting us out of there. You came through for us.”

  “It was the right thing to do,” I said.

  He grinned at me. “It’s like you’re a Jedi knight. Somehow, you get things done.”

  “You guys did a hell of a job out there,” I said.

  Sean slapped me on the back and headed for the truck for the dangerous night convoy back to the Safe House.

  I smiled as they drove off into the night. Time for a cigar.

  I hadn’t slept for two days and was at the outer limit of exhaustion, but I decided I had to go back to the 180 tent and check on e-mail and what had come in from Clarendon. I had not seen Kate or had time for a cigar for nearly three days. I had a sudden longing to see her, even though I was just about asleep in my boots.

  She was her usual witty self, and it was a luxury just to sit and be quiet and listen as I pulled on my stogie. I asked her to come out to the Safe House with us for the planning meeting the next day.

  “It’ll be good to spend time with you.”

  21

  “ALPHA TEAM, GO”

  IN the SEALs Tactical Operations Center in the Task Force 1099 compound, the assault team was in its final walk-through in real time for its assault on the Hekmatyar compound—as soon as our assets confirmed where it was and whether the right people were present.

  On my trip to the house, I’d coordinated the specifics with Mr. Pink and Mr. White, *** ********** ***** ****** ****** **** *** ****** **** to support the SEAL assault. And, oh yeah, I’d finally collected a quality massage from Kate and gotten some extended sleep in a real bed. I felt almost human again.

  While in Kabul, I detoured the convoy from its route to make a stop at Blue, the Western-style concession store located on the outskirts of the Kabul airport that sold all manner of Western luxuries—everything from Jack Daniel’s to the latest PlayStation. It had all the Western luxuries that were forbidden to the devout Muslim, and signs posted in the store said as much.

  I had an order to pick up two dozen steaks for the 10th Mountain Intel NCOs. Blue sold the most outstanding, thick-and-juicy Australian T-bones, and everybody would buy them on a regular basis. We would always buy the 10th Mountain Intel NCOs a few more than they ordered to show our appreciation for the help they gave us, and I always liked to pick up some for the ***** folks, who never got the appreciation they deserved.

  I had spent thirty-six hours integrating our HUMINT intelligence-collection into the SEALs’ planning. I knew if there were any problems with the mission because of us, I’d have to answer for it to General McChrystal.

  Mr. Pink, Mr. White, and I had each been issued two sets of SEAL assault uniforms. Unlike the Rangers, the SEALs appeared to have an unlimited supply of kit, and they wanted all of the team—including me and my guys—to wear the same uniform.

  At that time the SEALs were in their tan uniforms. They had blood-type markers—black writing on tan with Velcro backing that went on the top left arm. There was no rank insignia, only Velcro-secured patches with two-letter insignia denoting who was doing what on the team similar to those noting blood type on the top of the sleeve.

  They’d pulled their weapons out, broken them down, and re-oiled them. Some carried M-4s with scopes and silencers or smaller MP-5s with silencers. A sniper, who would stay on a helo, had an M-14 in case the enemy decided to bolt the compound and he could get a bead on them from up above.

  The SEALs were prepped to go in quietly—at first. Choppering in on five MH-6 Little Birds, they would land out of town and proceed in on foot to surprise the enemy. No use coming in accompanied by a brass band and lots of shooting—the bad guys would just escape and melt into the village.

  **** **** *** ****** *** **** ********* ** *** *** **** ****** ****** **** **** ******* *** **** ******** *** ***** ****** ********* ******* *** **** ******** **** ********** ** *** ************ ******* *** * *** ****** *** ***** ** ** **** **** ** *** ****** ** ****** **** * ************** ****** ******* *** **** ******** *** *** ****** ** ** *** ** ** **** ******* ** ***** * ********* **** ** ****** *** **** ** *** ******* **** *** ***** *** ***** ** ***** ********* ***** ** *** ****** *** *********** ** **** **** ******* ** ******* ** *********** ******* ********** **** ******** ** ******** *** ****** ****** ***** **** **** ***** ****** **** *** ***** *** *********** ** *********** ***** ******* ******** **********

  They had located the Hekmatyar compound. A small one—pretty typical—in the midst of about eighteen other compounds in the village. It was a remote burg, in the mountains about 10,000 feet up, where no one in the current war had conducted combat operations. The challenge was to get in—and out—safely.

  The question was: Was Hekmatyar himself there? At the very least, we knew that one of his senior lieutenants was.

  At 2100, there had been little movement in and out of the house since 1600. Our assets were watching it closely. They didn’t know when the assault would go down—we didn’t trust them that much—but they’d been told to plan to stick around for another twenty-four hours.

  “We’d like one last report from your guys before we hit,” the SEAL commander told me. “Is that possible?”

  “What time do you want the update?” I asked.

  “Wheels up at twenty-three hundred hours. We’d like an update while we’re in the air,” he said.

  “Around midnight?” I asked.

  “Would be good, but later than that if possible,” he said.

  “How about oh one hundred or oh two hundred?” I asked. They were expected to hit their target about 0300.

  There was already a Predator above, sending down images, and those were appearing on a large screen in the main Tactical Operations Center of the Death Star.

  We had maps showing approaches to the village, where the helos would drop off the SEALs. The overwatch helo with the sniper would hang off to the side for the first twenty minutes while the guys made their way to the village on foot.

  Start was delayed slightly while they made sure the moon was over the mountains. At 0100, we had our usual global teleconference at the Top Secret/SCI level. Admiral Eric Olson, *** ** *** ** **** was on, along with the Counterterrorism Center at Langley, **** **** **** ****** CENTCOM HQs from MacDill Air Force, and Special Operations Command HQs, also at MacDill.

  Colonel Keller reported in on our SEAL oper
ation. He noted that DoD HUMINT had provided key information for the planning of the raid. McChrystal shot me a warning look. I smiled. Winking would have been too over the top.

  Back at the SEAL TOC, I dialed the house on the Iridium.

  “Individuals walking in and out of the house twice during the evening, but none of the targets of interest,” Randy told me. Good news. A mass exodus of vehicles would signify they’d gotten wind of something.

  “Anything else?” I asked.

  “That’s the best we can do,” said Randy.

  “That’s all they can ask of us,” I responded. I told him to tell his assets to stay put after the raid so they could check out the village chatter.

  I signed off with Randy and went back to the TOC and gave the senior intel guy the news. Swallowing cup after cup of coffee, I tried to kill time by talking to Colonel Keller about retooling the scout project. I was also trying to keep my mind off the upcoming raid. Once again, lives were on the line based on our intel. I was confident it was quality stuff, but life can take some left turns at times. I just hoped this moment wasn’t one of them.

  We were getting updates from a helicopter via the team leader on board.

  At 0200, I walked back to the SEAL tent. They had gotten their helos into the valley and expected to have SEALs on the ground about 0220. The challenge was to drop them off close enough so they could get there quickly, but far enough away so that the sound of the helos didn’t wake everybody up.

  The SEALs would start their walk-in to the village at 0245, and the raid was at 0300. I went back out and called Randy one more time to make sure nothing had changed. Randy said they hadn’t called. I took that as positive news. I hoped.

  The SEAL recon element was up in the mountains looking down on the compound, setting up blocking positions.

  Back at Bagram, in the SEAL HQ tent, there was near silence. The room was filled with a group of men with a great deal of stress on their faces. I decided to move out and leave them be. There was nothing more I could do from here on. The intel was in, the operators were moving into place, so I decided to go into the main TOC and join Colonel Keller to watch the raid.