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00:13you want to know everything they're doing inside the CIA right because a lot of people see the
00:21movies you want to know how it works but there's a reason the CIA does things that they do working
00:28this secretive world of terrorist groups bad things happen so when you're planning an operation you're
00:34building off of information that's been gathered over a long period of time where you feel like you
00:38know the target you know what's going on in their minds we still don't know how they did it and
00:46they
00:47will want to keep that quiet because you want to do it again there was a raid against our top
00:52Taliban
00:53target he was very smart he was very crafty but he was just as evil how they tracked him is
01:02a very
01:02secretive operation to be pulled into this world seeing the level of hatred and killing and damage
01:10that I was being inflicted it was very dangerous and at the end of the day these people will take
01:16your
01:32life I have only once ever celebrated the demise of a human being being a CIA case officer operating in
01:45a
01:45foreign land always has a little bit of loneliness to it taking my family to this part of the world
01:53in
01:53the terrorism fight that I was fighting it wasn't an option so yeah it was lonely my name is Darrell
02:04Blocker
02:04I spent 32 years as an intelligence officer for in the military as an analyst and 28 at the Central
02:11Intelligence Agency as an operations officer five years after 9-11 I was serving as a station chief
02:21in East Africa when I got the notice that you're going to the war zone in the Pakistan Afghanistan
02:27theater now in the 2006 2007 timeframe we were losing in Iraq we were losing in Afghanistan and the
02:39terrorists were gaining ground after the Taliban were hosted in December 2001 most of the Taliban leaders
02:52run away into hiding so Pakistanis provided them safe havens facilitation and they kept their families
02:59and themselves hidden from the US forces I am lieutenant general Sami Sadat I served as commander of joint
03:08and special operations forces Afghanistan which was the main counterpart for the US special forces
03:14by 2006 slowly the Taliban had surfaced in small pockets attacking US and Afghan forces and scaring the
03:23population at that time there was little al-qaeda left to fight so the US immediately shifted focus on
03:35to going after the Taliban the top Taliban leadership all were based in Pakistan and that was an area where
03:47they could rest and refit but also be largely immune from attack my name is Mike Vickers I'm a former
03:54CIA
03:55operations officer and former undersecretary of defense for intelligence so when they spent a lot of time in
04:02Pakistan Pakistan they had sanctuary but then also when you go into Afghanistan to fight and lead forces you know
04:11Afghanistan is a big country it's the size of Texas it's mountainous and there weren't a lot of forces to
04:18counter them so given the terrain given some support in the country enabled them to operate so the idea that
04:28you'd come in for a while fight
04:30and then go back to Pakistan and then go back to Pakistan and then go back to Pakistan where it
04:32was more secure allowed these folks to survive for a long time the country of Pakistan became a safe haven
04:39for the Taliban because the US military wasn't based in Pakistan what a lot of them did is they live
04:46in Pakistan under false identities and that's how they're able to blend in
04:52I'm Sara Adams I'm Sara Adams I was the targeter for the top three of the Taliban both in Afghanistan
04:58and Pakistan so a targeter is really one of those professions that came out of post 9-11 world
05:06finding new ways to track down terrorists and the Taliban paid attention to where the US government was able to
05:13do operations and so they're very smart and savvy to basically stay in what we call the settled areas of
05:19Pakistan where it would be harder to track and locate them
05:22that was like the big shift where the CIA started targeting like the top 10 of the Taliban so the
05:30mission was to stop the fighters from coming outside of the region who wanted to join their terrorist buddies in
05:37the fight my job was to stop them at the source to capture them and stop them from crossing back
05:43and forth across Pakistan Afghanistan borders
05:46but at the end of the day the main guy we wanted our top Taliban target was Mullah de Dela
05:53Lang also known as MDL
05:58Mullah de Dela Lang was basically operating as like the number two number three of the Taliban
06:13Mullah de Dela Lang was one of the Afghan Mujahideen he was violent he was heartless he had lost his
06:23leg in fighting against the Soviets
06:30there's stories of Mullah de Dela
06:32there's stories of Mullah de Dela running into the villages killing all the men shooting women
06:38in one instance a Taliban fighter had saw Mullah de Dela entering a house where everyone was dead and a
06:45baby was crying and the Taliban fighters didn't know what to do
06:49so he grabs the baby and you know throws him into the wall where the baby dies instantly and the
06:59other fighters say why are you doing this and he says that this is the son of a snake
07:05a son of a snake will become a snake
07:09he had a propensity to just be very very brutal he fought against the Soviets so he had the credentials
07:16of fighting jihad against foreigners
07:19and he turned that same attention against the Americans and the and the UN allies that were in there
07:25Dela was responsible for all the beheadings that have gone in Afghanistan he is behind all the suicide bombings in
07:30Afghanistan he has beheaded people himself
07:32Mullah de Dela is one of the commanders who brought suicide bombers into the south strapping up young teenage boys
07:42with explosives and having them detonate
07:45today a suicide bomber struck near the Pakistani border
07:49violence across the country is at its worst since the start of the war according to the United Nations
07:54in 2004 I think there was like six suicide attacks in the country
07:57but in 2006 it was Mullah de Dela who started the big southern offensive which basically reinvigorated the Taliban
08:06at 8 15 on Saturday morning another strike
08:09and in that year there was like 140 suicide attacks and that's when the Taliban then started gaining momentum and
08:17really getting involved in like hey we can win this like we didn't actually lose in 2001
08:25MDL was known within Taliban circles as the butcher you don't earn that title easily amongst killers so you can
08:35just imagine he was the worst of the worst
08:39there was a video of him essentially forcing a very young boy 10 to 12 years old to behead a
08:47man that MDL claimed was responsible for this kid's father's death
08:53and all I could think about was this child is never going to be the same
09:02my son was in his senior year of high school during the year that I was away so I missed
09:08my own kid in his final year of high school
09:10and all I could think about were my own two kids and if they had been exposed to this level
09:17of depravity how would they be so for me after seeing this video
09:23and after recognizing that MDL was already on the top of my list he was a person that I wanted
09:30to come into my area so that I could be responsible for taking him down
09:37operationally end of 2006 beginning 2007 MDL was probably the number one target in Afghanistan due to how many deaths
09:46were being caused
09:48he was he was the top of the food chain planning those operations and so he knew he was at
09:54the top of the hit list for the CIA for our partners in the region
09:59but the operation targeting MDL became really complex because he moved around a lot he got to the point where
10:08he would only start giving commands or talking to his commanders face to face
10:14it was rare to hear his voice on internal Taliban comms or on the open line because he knew he
10:23was being tracked
10:26so there's a lot of different places you can get information to track and locate them
10:32you rely very heavily on human intelligence but then also this newer generation they actually post social media and as
10:40you can imagine
10:40and that's very helpful when you're trying to locate someone you also use a lot of signals intelligence like just
10:45tracking phones for example
10:47in the old days signals intelligence was largely about airwaves and people talking to each other over the radio
10:54it now expands obviously to the internet and to getting into the computers of the bad guys
11:01as well as still intercepting communications over mobile telephones
11:08my name is Michael Smith
11:10I spent a decade in British military intelligence before becoming a journalist
11:18even when you're not talking on it your cell phone will stay in contact with the antennae as you travel
11:25around and that frequency can be accessed to actually not just listen to your telephone conversations they can listen into
11:35you
11:35so that's the capabilities of signals intelligence
11:42so we found out that MDL is in country and he is in this specific location in my area of
11:50operations
11:50and we came up with a plan which was this raid directed at MDL
11:57and what you're planning is not just the capture of this guy but getting out safely
12:04and that could be the difference between success or someone losing life
12:20unfortunately turns out that the actual location MDL might be in was a mosque
12:27so I had to make a decision whether to to hit a mosque or not
12:32when it comes to like a mosque or madrasa
12:35terrorists use these as covers some really aren't even used as a mosque at all
12:40they put the sign on the building and then obviously if anything is done against it
12:45you know it can become a human rights violation
12:47and so it's almost impossible to do a CIA operation against them
12:52and remember in these villages there's people who are armed just like in America everyone has a gun
12:58and there is some you know sympathizers to the mullah some sympathizers to the mosque
13:03there's a lot of risk that you need to consider
13:05out of respect for the religion out of respect for the actual physical location of this place of worship
13:15we were ready to walk away
13:20our foreign partners however said we don't have the same concerns
13:25we're also Muslim he is making our religion look bad
13:29we're going to do this on our own if you guys don't join us
13:33well we know how it was going to end if if they let it they were going to kill him
13:39but we needed to capture him to gather more intelligence
13:43and counter-terrorism capture operations
13:46the goal is to isolate this person
13:49stop them from doing more harm
13:51and then pick their brain and gather as much information as you possibly can
14:01so we needed to capture MDL and talk about things
14:05these raids they're always different every day
14:09you can plan them for as long as you want
14:11but things almost never go as they're planned
14:15which is why you plan for contingencies
14:19all day every day
14:22as the senior CIA guy on the particular raid
14:26I would be in the command vehicle
14:28in touch with all the parties that were actually moving
14:36our officers were armed
14:38our foreign intelligence service partners were armed
14:42we were flanking from two different sides
14:47we put somebody on a rooftop
14:49so we were ready for all possibilities
14:56it was time to execute
15:02we launched the raiding party into the objective
15:13these are very fast
15:14from the time they launch
15:16to when they're coming out with whoever they have
15:18could be as short as two or three minutes
15:22so you're not waiting a long time
15:25but you're amped up as high as you can get
15:50the fact that a mosque was involved
15:52to know that there are armed people moving around inside
15:57who might meet resistance
15:59and might have to pull a trigger
16:00that I'm responsible for
16:03even though this operation is being completely led
16:07by our local partners
16:13I've compared it to like waiting for your kid
16:16to come home from a date
16:17and you're the parent at home late at night
16:20and you don't know what's going to happen
16:25it's kind of like that
16:27it's a little unnerving
16:29to not know
16:31what's going on
16:33or what's happening
16:38eventually the team members
16:40they came back
16:41and I was disappointed
16:43when I recognized that
16:45the three people that they were walking out
16:47none of them had a prosthetic leg
16:48or was limping in a way that might suggest
16:51that they had prosthetic leg
16:55MDL didn't look anything like the people
16:57that were captured
16:58and then the third person
16:59I thought it was a girl at first
17:02but it was a very effeminate young kid
17:0515, 16 years old
17:08somewhere in that range
17:10who I thought was odd
17:13that they would capture a child
17:15because to that date
17:16we never had
17:19and after the three people
17:21were taken into custody
17:23the team that did the assault
17:26came running back to the vehicle
17:29like someone was chasing them
17:33and it was weird
17:35because they typically didn't run
17:36I could tell something was different
17:38and I said
17:39well what's wrong
17:40and I said
17:40well do you hear the voices coming from the loudspeakers
17:43I said
17:44yeah it's time for you know
17:46midday prayers
17:48no sir
17:49that's them saying service is here
17:52they've taken someone from a mosque
17:54and get out in the streets
17:56and stop any vehicle that they're traveling in
17:58right this second
18:04and this kind of tactic was used time and time again
18:07when we went into the raids into these villages
18:10the way to get their attention
18:12is to use the mosque's loudspeaker
18:14and call the men
18:15it's like hey
18:15foreign forces are here
18:17if anyone wants to you know kill them
18:19this is your moment
18:20come out and fight
18:23I know what they do to people
18:25that they capture
18:25so I went from
18:27being completely relaxed
18:29to chaos is about to happen
18:38they're describing us
18:40they're describing our vehicle
18:43if those guys stop us from leaving
18:46we're going to be captured or killed
18:55but pre-planning
18:57and knowing the roads in and out
18:58was our job
19:00so we were able to get everybody out safely
19:03with zero shots fired
19:09unfortunately
19:09the main guy we wanted
19:11MDL
19:13was not there
19:15I think
19:16for a person like
19:17Mullah Dadella
19:18to race through the ranks
19:20and survive so many wars
19:21he must have been very smart
19:24he was someone who knew
19:26how to hide
19:27and how to survive
19:28for so long
19:31he could be anywhere
19:34so we were crestfallen
19:36we were like
19:37we can't catch this guy
19:38the US had been chasing him
19:40for four or five years
19:42we're never going to catch this guy
19:46but as it turns out
19:47we captured
19:48three people
19:49who were significant
19:50to him
19:56so once someone is taken
19:58into custody
19:59they're in the care
20:00of our foreign partners
20:03fed
20:04housed
20:04and then brought
20:06to debriefing sessions
20:10I've seen debriefings
20:11probably be the best type
20:13of intelligence
20:14right
20:15because
20:15at the end of the day
20:16we're still just humans
20:17talking to humans
20:19and you have to have
20:20that level of humanity
20:21because
20:22the debriefing
20:23isn't to sit there
20:24and say
20:25I know everything about you
20:26and you're a bad guy
20:28it is a fact-finding mission
20:35so I started a series
20:36of debriefings
20:38to get information
20:39people call it interrogation
20:41interrogation
20:41just has a negative connotation
20:43so with each debriefing
20:45my approach was to make sure
20:47I was kind to everyone
20:49even people that I knew
20:50were mass murderers
20:51and there were some
20:53that were mass murderers
20:54but I knew they were better
20:55than the worst thing
20:56they ever did
20:56so that was typically
20:58my mindset
20:58when I was going to
21:00sit across from
21:00someone that
21:02would look at me
21:03and say
21:03I want to kill you
21:05and everything that you
21:06stand for
21:06and it's really difficult
21:09to not allow
21:10those people to impact you
21:12in a way
21:13that's going to make you
21:14come down
21:14to their level
21:15but they're not really
21:17directing that at me
21:18I'm not really the focus
21:20of their animus
21:22or their hatred
21:23my system
21:24my government
21:25my country might be
21:26but if I can get them
21:27on a one-to-one level
21:29then you can start
21:30to break down
21:31those barriers
21:32I always felt
21:33it was important
21:34to treat people
21:34with respect
21:36no matter what
21:36they've done
21:37growing up
21:38that was always my thinking
21:42I grew up in the
21:43hill of the boot
21:43Italy
21:45Okinawa Japan
21:46and Texas
21:46before we moved
21:48to Georgia
21:48when I was 11
21:49my father was
21:51an intelligence
21:52NCO
21:52in the Air Force
21:54my interest in
21:54foreign relations
21:55really is born out of
21:56the fact that I grew up
21:57in other cultures
21:58and then I was this
22:00black kid moving to
22:01Georgia a couple years
22:02after desegregation
22:03and it was weird
22:05cause growing up on
22:06military bases
22:07everybody's together
22:08I get to Augusta, Georgia
22:09and big groups of black
22:11kids here
22:11big groups of white kids
22:12here but only a little
22:14bit of groups in the
22:15middle
22:15and I always felt like
22:17I was in the middle
22:17not trapped
22:18just a bridge
22:20so I studied things
22:22that most people
22:23didn't want to talk
22:24about
22:24I studied the Klan
22:25I wanted to know
22:26about the KKK
22:26I'd heard about it
22:28I knew that people
22:28were afraid of it
22:29I studied the Mafia
22:31and I studied Hitler
22:33I think it's important
22:34to study people
22:35because you need to
22:36understand what their
22:37positions are
22:38why
22:40did they come to this
22:41what is ultimately
22:43their goal
22:43and once you have
22:45an understanding
22:45of not just what
22:47their position is
22:48but why
22:48it's so much more
22:49powerful
22:50in terms of actually
22:52reaching out
22:53and understanding
22:54a situation
23:00so with each debriefing
23:02with each session
23:03where you're talking
23:04to them
23:05you got a little bit
23:06more granularity
23:07and turns out
23:08we had captured
23:09two of MDL's lieutenants
23:12and what is known
23:14as the Bacha Bazi
23:17which is
23:19let's just say
23:20he was a sex toy
23:21and he was MDL's sex toy
23:26Bacha is a boy
23:28and Bazi means play
23:30Bacha Bazi is playboy
23:35it actually surprised me
23:37that he had a Bacha
23:41it's not allowed
23:43in the religion of Islam
23:44to keep young boys
23:46as your sex partner
23:48it's very important
23:50to you know
23:51to understand
23:51the culture
23:52and older men
23:54take young boys
23:56for entertainment
23:58they have them dance
24:00but there's also
24:02a sexual dimension
24:04to it as well
24:05they're sort of
24:05sex slaves
24:06the Taliban
24:08officially banned it
24:10and so
24:10their practice
24:11is frowned upon
24:13but it's
24:15also widely practiced
24:16by Taliban leaders
24:18you know
24:18so there's an element
24:19of hypocrisy
24:24there as well
24:24it's a part of the world
24:26where you don't
24:26acknowledge
24:27their wives
24:28their sisters
24:29their mothers
24:30or their daughters
24:31and so they are more
24:32comfortable
24:33being physical
24:34intimate and sexual
24:35with a young boy
24:37than they would
24:38with a young girl
24:39because that would
24:39get them killed
24:40the homosexual aspect
24:42has somehow been separated
24:44from their Islamic thought
24:46and preaching
24:47because this is cultural
24:49not religious
24:54that's probably the dichotomy
24:56that they're dealing with
24:57and it's the lesser
24:58of two evils
25:04so for me
25:05I wanted to talk
25:07with this young man
25:08and understand
25:10everything that's going on
25:11but also
25:12maybe he would be able
25:13to find some trust
25:14in me
25:17so it's super valuable
25:18to get someone that close
25:20to your target
25:20even when you collect
25:22intelligence from assets
25:23they might be one step
25:24two steps away
25:26from the individual
25:27right
25:27when you have
25:29someone captured
25:30who is close
25:31to the person
25:32you're looking for
25:32or travels with them
25:34all the time
25:34or lives with them
25:35all the time
25:36they're gonna have
25:37insights
25:37that you were never
25:38even aware of
25:41they're gonna know
25:42things that help you
25:43target that you just
25:45weren't gonna be able
25:45to collect
25:54so my approach was always
25:56please take the chains off
25:58I can't talk to somebody
25:59chained up like an animal
26:00I'm just not gonna do it
26:01out of principle
26:05and I knew that if I was
26:07able to connect with them
26:08as a human being
26:09then you could find something
26:11that you could talk about
26:15MDL did become to me
26:17a very personal
26:18thing
26:19my kid
26:20who I was away from
26:21this kid
26:22who he had co-opted
26:24and abused
26:25the other child
26:27in the video
26:28I hated the fact
26:30that I was away from my son
26:31for a senior year
26:32of high school
26:33I hated the fact that my family
26:35was still in East Africa
26:37and I was you know
26:38in another part of the world
26:39without them
26:40so MDL did become personal
26:42when I first sat across
26:44from this young man
26:45my heart was broken
26:46because he was just a scared
26:48frightened child
26:50maybe I saw a little bit
26:52of my son
26:53in him
26:54and maybe I even saw
26:56a little bit of my daughter
26:57in him and well
26:58because he
26:59he wore makeup
27:00he more presented
27:02as a female
27:03than a male
27:05but he was putting on
27:07this facade
27:08of
27:08I'm tough
27:09I've chosen this life
27:11you're the person
27:12who's wrong in this
27:13so
27:13I knew
27:16that this kid was scared
27:17because he was absolutely
27:20under the 100% control
27:22of MDL
27:25so being kind
27:27is
27:28a kind of a mechanism
27:29that you use
27:30but it was also authentic
27:31to me because
27:32that's who I am
27:33and that's who I was
27:35and
27:35so
27:36I believe we were able
27:37to disarm
27:38this young man
27:39by treating him
27:40with respect
27:41and eventually
27:42he shifted
27:43and changed a little bit
27:44we started talking
27:45to one another
27:46about history
27:47and poems
27:48and music
27:49and all this other stuff
27:51music was my first love
27:52I would ask him
27:53about their favorite singer
27:55I always made sure
27:56that the music
27:57of that particular artist
27:59that he liked
27:59was playing in the background
28:01we started talking
28:02about art
28:03and turned out
28:04that this kid
28:04was a gifted artist
28:06I don't know
28:07what it's like
28:07for your child
28:09to be a
28:11I don't know
28:11if that's a good thing
28:13or a shameful thing
28:14or what it is
28:16so I don't know
28:16how long
28:17he had been living
28:18in that life
28:19but I knew
28:20that at the end of the day
28:21he didn't know
28:22anything different
28:23he knew he was in custody
28:25he knew he was probably
28:26in trouble
28:27but for us
28:27he wasn't in trouble
28:29we hopefully removed him
28:31from the trouble
28:37when the young boy
28:39was arrested
28:39and kind of irritated MDL
28:41into using more technology
28:43to finding out
28:44what's happening
28:46not having access
28:47to his bachibazi
28:49made him lose his mind
28:52he got sloppy
28:54and he became
28:55a little more active
28:56on the radio
28:57once it became apparent
28:59that we had someone
29:00that mattered very much
29:01to Muller Dadella Lang
29:03we knew that we had
29:05maybe that next piece
29:06of the puzzle
29:07to track his movements
29:10he started making phone calls
29:12he started making demands
29:13he wanted to know
29:15who was responsible
29:16for the raid
29:18and then radio communication
29:20was used
29:22to find his footprint
29:24and having that
29:26was significant
29:27because ultimately
29:29as an intelligence service
29:30what you're trying
29:31to project
29:31is what that person
29:32is going to do next
29:35it's quite ironic
29:37to think
29:38that a person
29:39so sophisticated
29:40like Muller Dadella
29:41will fall into the trap
29:43but that's the miscalculation
29:46on Muller Dadella's part
29:51while this was happening
29:53there were a number
29:55of very significant operations
29:56that were going on
29:58some of them included
30:00and involved
30:01Muller Dadella Lang
30:02an Italian journalist
30:04with an Afghan journalist
30:06and their interpreter
30:07came to conduct
30:09an interview with him
30:10and he had given them
30:12permission to come
30:13and conduct an interview
30:14with Muller Dadella
30:15when they arrived
30:16they were arrested
30:18the Dadella released
30:20a video of them
30:21blindfolded
30:23on their knees
30:24with Taliban
30:25pointing guns at them
30:33the Taliban frequently
30:35kidnapped people
30:36and they did it
30:38to get ransoms
30:39or to get prisoners out
30:40Muller Sharma's Mansour
30:43who was Dadella's brother
30:44had been captured
30:46by the Afghan forces
30:48so Dadella saw
30:49this kidnapping
30:50as a way
30:51of A
30:52getting money
30:52from the Italians
30:53and B
30:54getting his brother
30:55out of jail
30:56the local Helmandi
30:58facilitator
30:59was beheaded
31:01in front of
31:02the Italian journalist
31:05the Italian journalist
31:06was kept
31:07as a prisoner
31:11the Italian government
31:12paid a large sum of money
31:14to Muller Dadella
31:15asking him
31:16not to kill
31:17the journalist
31:17and later
31:19Muller Dadella
31:20exchanged
31:20the Italian journalist
31:22with five prisoners
31:24and one of them
31:25included his brother
31:26Mansour Dadella
31:28who was then released
31:32so those five Taliban
31:33were handed over
31:34and now he had money
31:36and now he had the resolve
31:38and his resolve
31:40and his resolve
31:40was focusing on
31:41how to get
31:42this young kid
31:43sprung from
31:44the local authorities
31:46It was certainly seen
31:48by Dadella
31:49as a great victory
31:50but at some point
31:52during the negotiations
31:53there was a realisation
31:55that there was a way
31:57to turn this
31:58on its head
32:00when Dadella's brother
32:01is released
32:02someone decided
32:04we put a tracking device
32:06on him
32:07and so the minute
32:09he's back with Dadella
32:11they know
32:12where Dadella is
32:14that was the clever bit
32:16really
32:18we literally followed him
32:20from city to city
32:22village to village
32:24until he made the mistake
32:27of moving in a part
32:29of Afghanistan
32:30where he felt comfortable
32:32he is from
32:33Helmand province
32:34where he was hiding
32:36and Helmandis
32:37are very loyal
32:38to each other
32:38so he used his
32:40local network
32:42his brothers
32:42his family
32:43and his former
32:44combat friends
32:45to go into Helmand
32:47and found a refuge
32:48for himself
32:50so it's not easy
32:52to catch someone
32:54who is moving around
32:55in their own backyard
32:57but also
32:58once
32:59he was
32:59ensconced
33:00within the southern
33:02provinces
33:02in Afghanistan
33:03that operational control
33:05is no longer mine
33:06it shifted to
33:08the international
33:10security forces
33:11that were there
33:13in terms of
33:15the alliance
33:16in Afghanistan
33:17Helmand
33:18was controlled
33:19by the British
33:20the special operations
33:21force there
33:22is the SPS
33:24a special boat service
33:26it's the UK equivalent
33:27of SEAL Team 6
33:30they were tasked
33:32to go to Bram Chah
33:33and take out
33:34Dardula
33:35and get what intelligence
33:37they could
33:38but a lot of the planning
33:40of course
33:41was based on CIA intelligence
33:44and sharing
33:45of that intelligence
33:46with those partners
33:48the level of planning
33:50and the rehearsal
33:52that goes into this
33:54is crazy
33:56especially the tactical troops
33:57that are going to be deployed
33:59and conducting this raid
34:00they need to simulate
34:01a similar situation
34:02or an area
34:03they plan
34:05how many people
34:05should go
34:06how should they attack it
34:08how many enemies
34:08there
34:09what kind of weaponry
34:10they need
34:11it's very intense
34:13a lot of pressure
34:14on your mind
34:15there's a lot
34:16of risks involved
34:18landmines
34:19booby traps
34:20and there will be
34:21the enemy using
34:22women and children
34:23and they're using
34:24shelters
34:25that is full of civilians
34:27this is where leadership
34:29is tested
34:30to their bones
34:31the SPS
34:35they sent in
34:36a supercat
34:376x6
34:38one went in
34:40to do
34:41reconnaissance
34:42saw where it was
34:43got a picture
34:44of what it was
34:45so they could plan
34:46the raid
34:48finally
34:49we were ready
34:55we knew where he was
34:57we knew
34:58the defenses
34:59of the area
35:00in which he was
35:02he felt like
35:03this is my ancestral
35:04home
35:05I'm probably safer here
35:06than anywhere
35:07that I've ever been
35:11May 2007
35:13the British SPS
35:14went in
35:15three dozen
35:16guys
35:16in Chinook helicopters
35:21the problem was
35:22that Chinook helicopters
35:23is a very noisy
35:24beast
35:24so
35:26Dadula and his men
35:28worked out
35:28what was going on
35:29so they were prepared
35:34and so you had
35:35what was essentially
35:36an old-fashioned
35:37infantry battle
35:38with the SPS
35:40and their Afghan
35:41colleagues
35:41attacking a building
35:46it took time
35:47but they got there
35:55the special forces
35:57shot a bunch of Taliban
35:59running away
36:00and one of the people
36:01was
36:01Malad Adela
36:02he was shot
36:04beside a canal
36:05he didn't die
36:06instantly
36:06he was injured
36:07he threw himself
36:09into the canal
36:10only to be drowned
36:12by water
36:14and later
36:15and later
36:15he was identified
36:16that this is MBL
36:18the hunt for
36:20Mullah de Dela Lange
36:21was
36:22over
36:23eight to ten
36:24months
36:24for me personally
36:28for me watching
36:29him
36:30in a video
36:31forcing a child
36:32to behead
36:33a grown man
36:34was
36:35something that I
36:36still can't get
36:37out of my mind's eye
36:38and
36:39so
36:40I celebrated
36:41that evening
36:42with a cigar
36:43on the balcony
36:45but I didn't let it linger
36:46it was
36:47a man who died
36:49and I always would
36:50remind my officers
36:51that
36:52even
36:53the people
36:54were killing
36:54have mothers
36:55and fathers
36:56and family
36:57and friends
36:57that love them
36:58so
36:59I don't think
37:00we should be cheering
37:01you know
37:02someone's death
37:02but cheering the fact
37:04that this guy
37:05can no longer
37:06cause additional deaths
37:08I'm proud of that
37:09but
37:10I did celebrate
37:11and I never
37:13celebrated
37:13another
37:14another death
37:15not since
37:16and not before
37:29the thing is
37:31a lot of these terrorists
37:32get reported as killed
37:34numerous times
37:35and they don't actually die
37:36right
37:36or people don't believe
37:37they die
37:38if you're the public
37:39and you're not really
37:40believing
37:41that they killed
37:42MDL
37:43the only way to prove it
37:44as you can imagine
37:46is through the media
37:47of it
37:49his body was brought back
37:51into Kandahar
37:51the governor of Kandahar
37:53at the time
37:54decided to display his body
37:55for public
37:56and for the media
37:57and to take pictures
37:59and see it
37:59this is not a typical situation
38:02in Afghanistan
38:03usually it's not good
38:05to display bodies
38:06according to our traditions
38:08but because of the significance
38:10of who he was
38:11and how brutal
38:12of a man he was
38:14it was important for people
38:16to know
38:16and also to learn
38:17that bad people die
38:19in a terrible way
38:20and the other allies
38:21is really dead
38:23we needed the Taliban
38:25to know
38:27definitively
38:28that one of their top commanders
38:30has now
38:31been eliminated
38:39of course
38:40the Taliban
38:41is used to losing
38:42its leaders
38:43but
38:44Tadolo was
38:46he was a legend
38:47and
38:48a very successful
38:50leader
38:51of the Taliban
38:53it was a huge
38:55huge impact
38:55on the Taliban
38:57at the time
38:57on the morale
38:58on the other
38:59top leaders starting
39:00to turn against each other
39:02that's how important
39:03he was
39:05all he wanted
39:06was his prized boy back
39:08and ultimately
39:09his ego
39:10his desire
39:11to get this child
39:12back in his custody
39:13I believe
39:14led to his demise
39:16our foreign intelligence partners
39:20at this point
39:21they thought
39:22that this kid
39:23is 15
39:2316 years old
39:25let's return him
39:25to his family
39:26my argument was
39:28you realize
39:29this is the same family
39:30that sold him
39:31into this life
39:32so
39:32how about we not
39:34return him
39:35to his family
39:35as a father
39:37of a kid
39:37along the same age
39:39of this young man
39:40there was no way
39:41that I was going to
39:42hand over this child
39:43back to his abusers
39:49I took every measure
39:51I took every measure
39:51that I could
39:52within the CIA
39:53to make sure
39:54that this kid
39:55didn't have to return
39:56to this life
39:58I knew that this kid
39:59was a gifted artist
40:00but if you've seen
40:01the trucks
40:02in the Pakistan
40:03Afghanistan area
40:04they're all
40:05brightly colored
40:06with words
40:07and symbols
40:08we were able
40:09to find
40:11someone within
40:11that community
40:12where you can
40:13teach this kid
40:14a trade
40:15so he wouldn't have
40:16to go back to
40:17selling his body
40:18for you know
40:20feeding his family
40:21and again
40:22this was me
40:23as a dad
40:24as a humanitarian
40:25as someone
40:25who cared about
40:27this particular child
40:30saving that boy
40:32from MDL
40:34CIA wouldn't put that
40:35on my list
40:36of achievements
40:37of success
40:38but as a human being
40:39as a father
40:40that was probably
40:41the one operation
40:43that I felt
40:43was the most significant
40:47I knew at the end
40:48of the day
40:49MDL was either
40:50going to be captured
40:51or killed
40:52that's the goal
40:53that's the intent
40:54but being faced
40:55with it
40:56and being a part
40:57of it
40:57on the day-to-day
40:58on the ground
40:59I know that I was
41:01getting to the point
41:02where
41:02I needed to not see
41:05the hatred
41:06and killing
41:07and damage
41:07that was
41:08that was being inflicted
41:09and so I went back
41:11to my family
41:12went back and
41:13you know
41:13re-engaged
41:15and just kind of
41:16decompressed as a family
41:18there's nothing
41:19that I did at CIA
41:20that I would do differently
41:22I loved everything
41:23about it
41:24and the ride
41:25in between the 1990
41:26and 2018
41:27took me to West Africa
41:29and North Africa
41:30and Europe
41:30the Pakistan
41:32Afghanistan theater
41:34it was a joy
41:35for me to
41:36allow my children
41:38to kind of grow up
41:38in different cultures
41:39and learn different languages
41:41my son graduated
41:42high school in Uganda
41:44my daughter graduated
41:45high school in Switzerland
41:46they're children of the world
41:48and if I did anything right
41:51on this planet
41:52I think having my kids grow up
41:54recognizing that
41:55as great as the United States is
41:57there are a lot of great countries
41:59in the world
41:59and I needed them
42:00to be exposed
42:01to those
42:11I'm proud of my record
42:12I'm proud of the institution
42:15I fought a lot of fights
42:17but I fought them because
42:19it was the right thing to do
42:20I would always make sure
42:22that people understood
42:23that there was life
42:25at the other end
42:26of every decision
42:27and every discussion
42:28that we had
42:29the CIA
42:30has some really dedicated officers
42:33who care about human life
42:35who has a lot of integrity
42:37who actually does a lot of good things
42:39around the world
42:41the really funny thing is
42:43is when someone finds out
42:44your CIA
42:45they're always surprised right
42:46really the CIA is just like
42:48normal people
42:48who can kind of go to any country
42:50and talk to any person
42:52and like form a relationship
42:53like that's the key
42:54right
42:54we're like the best in the world
42:57at getting to know you
43:04CIA makes sure that our world is safer
43:07because we have people
43:08who are out in the field
43:09speaking the languages
43:11talking to the people
43:12at the ground roots level
43:14if we can fight these battles abroad
43:16then they're not brought to our homeland
43:19at the end of the day
43:21that is why we do what we do
43:24there's a large part
43:25that you're never going to know
43:26or see
43:27because we're protecting something
43:29we're protecting
43:31our advanced technology
43:33we're protecting
43:33this well-placed source
43:35we're protecting you
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