Summary
Overview
This episode chronicles the deployment of CIA Team Alpha into Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks, focusing on CIA officer David Tyson and the agency's mission to overthrow the Taliban by partnering with Northern Alliance warlords. The team faces treacherous terrain, complex warlord politics, and deadly combat as they attempt to pave the way for America's invasion of Afghanistan.
The CIA Takes Lead on the War Response
In the aftermath of 9/11, CIA Counterterrorism Chief Cofer Black pitches an aggressive plan to President Bush in the White House Situation Room. Rather than waiting for a traditional military buildup as Defense Secretary Rumsfeld suggests, Black proposes deploying small CIA pathfinder teams to work with Afghan resistance groups. Using vivid language about making flies walk across Taliban eyeballs, Black secures presidential approval for the CIA to lead America's response, with Team Alpha designated as the first boots on the ground.
- Two days after 9/11, Bush's inner circle debates America's response in the White House Situation Room
- Rumsfeld advocates for building up overwhelming conventional force, which could take months
- CIA's Cofer Black proposes deploying covert pathfinder teams to coordinate with local anti-Taliban forces
- Black promises the Taliban could fall in weeks with CIA teams coordinating Afghan allies and US air power
" Sir, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are tough sons of bitches. Our allies in Afghanistan say they never caught one alive. They'd rather die fighting. But with our plans, there are flies walking across their eyeballs. "
Tyson's Pre-9/11 Mission to the Lion of Panjshir
Two years before 9/11, CIA officer David Tyson traveled to Afghanistan to meet with legendary Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, known as the Lion of Panjshir. Massoud, the last commander still fighting the Taliban, pressed Tyson for weapons rather than just communications equipment. Their meeting established a crucial relationship, with Massoud warning that America would eventually have to confront al-Qaeda and that the Northern Alliance would be their only hope when that day came.
- Tyson meets with warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud in his northern Afghanistan compound in October 1999
- Massoud requests weapons to fight the Taliban, not just communications equipment and funding
- Massoud warns that America gave Afghans rockets to fight Soviets but disappeared after, allowing the Taliban takeover
- Massoud prophetically warns there will come a time when America must deal with al-Qaeda
" Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, my friend. But believe me, there will come a time when you will have to deal with this al-Qaeda. And when that day comes, your only hope will be here in the north with our alliance. "
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