A Green On Blue Close to Home

A little over a year ago I left ISAF Joint Command headquarters at the Kabul International Airport. One of my jobs as an intelligence analyst was to research and gather information on insider attackers and help get as many of those individuals who had escaped after conducting those attacks on the JPEL/kill list. This post explains a bit why I took the job seriously, and a bit personally.

Despite all the insider attacks, or as we called them, green on blue attacks, I never felt unsafe or threatened on the base. There were plenty of people around (not that that would have mattered) and very few Afghan soldiers. I was more concerned with the pack of jackals that wandered around the base than I was of being shot by in infiltrator. Not even the insider attack had occurred on the base a couple years prior to my arrival gave me much concern.

Yesterday, an Afghan in a security force uniform (some say police, some say army) killed 3 US contractors and another Afghan.

Just a unpleasant reminder that you're never truly safe over there.

Another Aussie Gift

Way back in February, one of my Insider Attack targets was detained in Pakistan. The individual had killed 3 Australian soldiers and wounded 2 more. Australia worked for months to have this individual transferred from the Pakistani authorities over to Afghan control. The knowledge that this guy was detained was kept on the down low since Australia has a better relationship with Pakistan than the US does and Australia didn't want to jeopardize anything. Every once in awhile somebody not in the loop would ask about this guy and all I could say was, "he's detained, but I can't talk about it."

It was a tad frustrating. But that's part of working at a joint/coalition command.

Today, however, I came into work and discovered the glorious news that Australia had announced Hekmatullah's capture and transfer to Afghanistan. Happy happy joy joy. Two months and 2 targets officially off my list, both involving the Australians.

I'm crossing my fingers that one or two more of these guys get actioned by the time I go home.

Aussie Revenge

Oh, look at that. One of my targets is dead. Hope you enjoyed the bullet to the face!

Made my day yesterday when I got confirmation of the operation. Thank you Afghan Security Forces and Australians for the gift prior to me going on leave. It took nearly 2 years to hunt this guy down...for various reasons...but better late than never. Crossing my fingers that one or two more of my targets get a bullet or hellfire while I'm on vacation.

I'm Going To Get Myself In Trouble

You may recall that for some baffling reason I've been allowed to name the objective names for one of ISAF Joint Command's target sets. That target set happens to be the insider attackers (also known as green on blue shooters) who have escaped after conducting their attack. I've had a maddingly good time naming these assholes and I have to supress my giggling when a few of them are mentioned in a meeting. I can also see that others often have to supress their own giggling. It brings a bit of joy and humor in this frustrating and stressful headquarters.

Yesterday I was sitting in an update to IJC's officer in charge of intelligence (a 1 star general) on this current target set when at the end he asks about Fuzzy Jackal and who named him. My boss laughed a bit and then indicated that I was the one who named a majority of the individuals on the target set. For a moment I thought I was going to get lectured about professionalism but luckily for me I think the general is just as amused by the objective names as the rest of us.

However, there is a bit more to the story, as there usually is. For some odd reason, a majority of the insider attack perpetrators...and potential perpetrators for that matter...come from one province. The insider attacks are an Afghan wide problem but for reasons unknown to me at this time, this particular province breeds individuals who join the security forces and eventually conduct an attack more than any other province.

So the general tasked us with developing and targeting the network in this province. He mentioned that since 60% of the attackers come from this province we need to go after the facilitation network. Where did that 60% figure come from? An off-hand comment that I made a couple of days prior to a colonel when he asked how many of the attackers come from this province. I made a quick "ball park" guess based off what I was seeing in the reporting. Now my SWAG (scientific wild assed guess) is being quoted by general officers. Shit...I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut. Luckily I'm pretty sure that 60% number is somewhat accurate.

The general also tasked us with naming this network so it gets some attention. A colonel quickly spoke up and said...

"Mike is not allowed to name the network."

Damn, fun times are over.

Been Awhile Since I Had This Much Hate

Rage..

...rage and revenge.

I'm currently focused on Green on Blue (Afghan Security Force members who attacked Coalition Force soldiers) targets and in the course of developing one of the targets I read the unit's incident report of the attack. I can't get into details about it but the way the attack was conducted builds up the anger. But it's not how the attack played out that is making me rage right now. It's who it was against.

1-14 Cav and 502nd MI.

This fuck and some of his buddies attacked soldiers from two of my old units.

I take all the GoB targets seriously and put the same effort into all the targets. However, this one is personal for me. My rage just adds more motivation. The hellfire for this guy can't come quickly enough.