Show Notes
On 14 November 2001, a small CIA team and U.S. Special Forces secretly inserted Hamid Karzai into southern Afghanistan. Less than a month later, Karzai would become Afghanistan’s interim leader.
In Part 1 of this exclusive interview, Don Parnell, former CIA Chief of Ground Branch, who was by Karzai’s side throughout the mission, tells the inside story of one of the most consequential operations of the war in Afghanistan.
Parnell recounts how the CIA assembled the mission in the aftermath of 9/11, the dangerous helicopter insertion into Uruzgan, working with Pashtun tribal elders, and the race to build a southern uprising against the Taliban. He also describes surviving behind Taliban lines with little food or water, the devastating U.S. friendly-fire strike that nearly killed Hamid Karzai, and witnessing the moment Karzai learned he had been chosen to lead Afghanistan’s new post-Taliban government.
A rare first-hand account from one of the CIA officers at the centre of the campaign that toppled the Taliban.
Coming in Parts 2 and 3: the secret negotiations with the Taliban, the fall of Kandahar, entering Mullah Omar’s residence, the removal of the Taliban flag, Mullah Omar’s escape, and the extraordinary final days of Taliban rule, and its aftermath.
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📺 Watch/Subscribe on YouTube Producer | Host: Roh Yakobi Assistant Producer/Researcher: Sa-aadat Yakobi Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rohyakobi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theafgpod X: https://x.com/theafgpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Afghanistan with Roh Yakobi
In Part 2 of this exclusive interview with acclaimed journalist and author Jon Lee Anderson, we investigate one of the most consequential assassinations in Afghanistan’s modern history: the killing of Ahmad Shah Massoud, just two days before the attacks of September 11, 2001.
In this episode, I sit down with acclaimed journalist and author Jon Lee Anderson to trace Afghanistan’s long road to 9/11 through the eyes of someone who witnessed or followed much of it firsthand.
On 9 September 2001, two al-Qaeda operatives posing as journalists assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud, just two days before the 9/11 attacks. But how did they manage to get so close to him?
More than two decades after helping overthrow the Taliban and witnessing the birth of Afghanistan’s new government, Don Parnell looks back at what became of the country — and the people — he left behind.
As Hamid Karzai emerged as Afghanistan’s new interim leader, the Taliban’s first regime was collapsing. But behind the scenes, the final days of Taliban rule in their Pashtun heartland, were shaped as much by negotiations as by military force.