Near the end of 2001 a Delta Force team from Ft. Bragg would be just meters away from where Osama Bin laden was holed up with a group of Afghan fighters.
Lead by a 37 year old, named Major Fury (not his real name) a team of fifty Delta Force operators in the mountains of Tora Bora near the Pakistan border, elevation 14,000 feet.
Major Fury and his team had come up with two seperate mission plans to capture Bin laden both would be denied by someone unknown in the chain of command. “Whether that was Central Command all the way up to the president of the United States, I’m not sure,” The Major says.
When asked by CBS 60 minutes how often mission planning would be denied by the chain of command Fury said, “In my experience, in my five years at Delta, never before,”
Denied the opportunity to use stealth and surprise and concerned there could be up to 1000 fighters in the area defending Osama’s position. And at the behest of a CIA handler called George Delta would take on the help of a rag tag band of Afghan militia ran by a self styled general, Ali.
George of the CIA would convince Ali to assist the Delta group by giving him millions of dollars in US currency but Major Fury and his men would soon find out this would not buy the loyalty of the Afghan guerrillas.
While making a frontal assault on Osama’s position with the Afghans, Delta would soon discover that the CIA bribed Ali and his men where not keen on fighting their fellow Afghans.
General Ali and his militia would abandon the Delta Force team in the evenings to return to their villages and would only half heatedly engage those protecting the mountainous region hiding Bin Laden. “It was almost like there was an agreement between the two to put on a good show and then leave.” Says Fury.
When Delta did get close to Osama’s position the CIA paid Afghans turned their weapons on Fury and his 50 man Delta team and claimed they had negotiated a cease fire with Al Qaeda. After a 12 hour debate on the mountain side just minutes away from Bin Laden’s suspected position the local militia agreed the cease fire was now over.
The delay would allow Osama to move from his position in a mountain cave into a small town near a cometary and poppy field close to the Pakistan border.
Once when Osama was transmitting via radio, Ali’s men held up a small transistor radio in the air and the Afghan militia with Fury would gather around to listen. Fury adds, “Osama Bin laden is many a Muslims hero. When they heard him talking on the radio they would stand wide eyed and in awe of his [Osama's] presence.”
Video: 60 Minutes interview with Delta Commander Major “Fury”
Every want to know what it would be like to be flying from the U.S. to Baghdad, Iraq? Well it depends if you are a civilian VIP aka politicians and their corporate sponsors, perhaps you are a general officer in the Armed Forces, or maybe you’re just a regular American doing the real work of fighting.
Below are some photos you decide who gets which accommodations on their flight to the War Zone.
“Would you like a stale bag of opened peanuts and some moldy canteen water?”
This is one of several modified Airstream trailers installed in a C-130.
TV, VCR, DVD, fresh food and drinks and when you get sleepy after lunch you can retire to one of two beds.
These Airstream capsules are stationed around the world and cost around $18,000 dollars.
The Airstreams were not up to standards for many Air Force generals who felt there was a need for a “comfort capsule.” So far $331,000.00 in counterterrorism funds have been spent for the planning and design of the capsules.
The Washington Post says at least four generals have been involved in discussions about the “design details” associated with this $7.6 million program, including the color of carpeting and leather chairs in the so-called SLICCs and SLIPs.
After a brief meeting at the Midsummer Encampment at the Bohemian Grove….
WASHINGTON - Contending that the U.S. is not pursuing a sound strategy for keeping Americans safe, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Tuesday that fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan would be his top priority after ending the war in Iraq.
“This is a war that we have to win,” Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery at the International Trade Center in Washington.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP): By JASON STRAZIUSO – 1 hour ago— U.S. troops on Monday reinforced a remote military outpost after well-armed militants got inside and killed nine American soldiers in the deadliest assault on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years.
Sunday’s assault has deepened doubts about the U.S. military’s ability to contain Islamic militants. Attacks in Afghanistan are becoming more complex, intense and better coordinated than a year ago, U.S. officials say.
Militants with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars attacked the remote base in the village of Wanat in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday, with insurgents firing from homes and a mosque.
It was a “concerted attempt” to overrun the small base near the Pakistan border that was built only about three days ago, said an official with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information, estimated the attacking force was several hundred.
An unknown number of militants got inside the outpost, the reason the fighters were able to inflict such high casualties, said a second military official who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
After the breach, U.S. troops pushed back against the invading militants, and attack helicopters swooped in. The second official said more than 40 insurgents were killed in the fighting. Fifteen U.S. soldiers also were wounded.
“Instead of looking at it necessarily from the perspective of the Taliban or terrorists being more aggressive in coming after NATO or U.S. forces or Afghan forces, in this particular case it was an example of NATO, U.S. and Afghan forces being aggressive in combatting cross-border infiltration,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The latest assault came at a time of rising violence in Afghanistan.
Monthly death tolls of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan surpassed U.S. military deaths in Iraq in May and June. And last Monday, a suicide bomber attacked the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing 58 people in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001.
U.S. officials are considering drawing down additional forces from Iraq in coming months, in part because of less violence in Iraq and the need for additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have said they need at least three more brigades in Afghanistan — or more than 10,000 troops.
NATO confirmed nine of its soldiers had been killed and 15 wounded. A Western official said the nine dead were Americans, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the troops’ nationalities. Four Afghan soldiers also were wounded, NATO said.
The attack was the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 American troops were killed — also in Kunar province — when their helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Also on Sunday, a suicide bomber targeting a police patrol killed 24 people, including 19 civilians, while U.S. coalition and Afghan soldiers killed 40 militants elsewhere in the south.
More than 2,300 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures. Attacks in eastern Afghanistan are up 40 percent this year compared with last year.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul last week that there are more foreign fighters, including al-Qaida members, in Pakistan’s tribal areas, militants who cross the border and launch attacks against U.S. and Afghan troops.
Associated Press writers Noor Khan in Kandahar and Rahim Faiez and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.
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