ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY DAMIEN LEWIS Back in cover, the CIA agent set up his spying equipment. He strung a dull, metal latticework from the branches of a stunted tree. With a set of headphones clamped over his ears, he proceeded to twist and turn the device.
Finally, a broad smile broke out on his bearded face, as he started picking up enemy cell phone calls. He spoke Arabic, Pashtun and Farsi, and he was monitoring the traffic for ‘pro-words’ - phrases of strategic importance. He pulled out an Iridium satphone with which he’d be able to speak directly with Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), back in the USA. Using a tiny Psion laptop, he could upload written information, photos and even video footage back to JSOC.
Night came quickly in the Afghan wildlands, and with it the temperature dropped to well below freezing. Soon, the trees above them were full of icicles. Each man spread out a poncho to shield himself from the damp, and rolled out a down-filled sleeping bag and a goretex sleeping sack. Joe was the first to wake with the dawn, his skull pounding with an altitude headache. Twelve hours sleep on 50% oxygen wasn’t healthy for anyone.
He shuffled over to start his sentry duty. As the dawn mist cleared he felt an early morning rumbling in his intestines: he needed to defecate, and quickly. Joe squatted behind a boulder, pulled out a plastic freezer bag and proceeded to try to perform the difficult task. All faeces and urine would be collected by the soldiers and carried out with them, so as to leave no signs to betray their presence to the enemy. When he was done Joe used the abrasive effect of the gritty soil in an effort to ‘wash’ his hands. By mid-morning several hundred young men and boys had gathered in the valley below. They were dressed in long, flowing robes with the ubiquitous white turbans, and were doing press-ups, sit-ups and jumping exercises. Joe figured that this had to be what US intelligence had identified as the unarmed combat school for terrorist recruits. He shot off a hundred photos with his massive telephoto lens, then transferred the digital
images onto CIA Bob’s Psion. The air assault on the valley was scheduled for five days hence, so they had time to prepare their targets. The following morning there was a repeat training session, by which time Joe and the CIA man were ready to send in their first report. It contained transcripts from cell phone intercepts, details of enemy movements, plus descriptions and photos of the early morning training sessions. At dawn on day four Joe and Sam headed back down the mountain in a desperate search for water. Using their Katadyn water filter in a faint trickle at the base of the mountain, they filtered 21 litres, which might just be enough to last them through to the end of the mission. On arrival back at the OP, the CIA man called them over to the sentry point. Down below in the Valley a huge crowd was milling about, a couple-of-thousand strong. At the far end a group of elders were addressing the crowd,
and there was a large black banner with Arabic writing. Every now and then there was a wild chorus of chanting. The CIA agent explained that the banner displayed a verse from the Koran about the path from death to the afterlife, followed by the exhortation, ‘Allahu Akhbar’ - God is Great. A discussion followed as to what was going on in the valley. Joe reckoned it was a big mobilisation drive, a terrorist recruitment rally. The CIA man agreed that that would fit with the intelligence they’d been given, but he remained doubtful. Something just didn’t seem right to him. Then the CIA man pointed out that the Afghans gathered in the valley were largely unarmed. “We’ve got more hardware amongst the seven of us than those couple thousand Afghans,” he concluded.
Main photograph: SBS operator having scaled 12,000 foot peak in Shan-iKhot, with bergen stuffed full of survival gear, weapons and surveillance kit A US special operations forces forward mounting base in Afghanistan, pictured from an arriving British helicopter delivering a combined SBS-SEAL team
...Joe and the CIA man were ready to send in their first report. It contained transcripts from cell phone intercepts, details of enemy movements, plus descriptions and photos of the early morning training sessions...
SBS and SEALs on operations in the al-Qaida cave complexes of Southern Afghanistan - note cave entrance at top left of picture (circled)
Heavily-armed SBS operators using video surveillance gear to record details of enemy forces, for uploading to headquarters
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