Horse Soldiers
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The following books, articles, and websites were instrumental in re-creating Mike Spann’s journey from Winfield, Alabama, his hometown, to his final hours at Qala-i-Janghi. Of special importance was “Love in a Time of War,” by Edward Klein, published August 18, 2002, in Parade magazine, in which Shannon Spann gave a detailed account of her life with Mike.
Other reporting by the New York Times was also helpful: “One for His Country, and One Against It,” by Blaine Harden with Kevin Sack, published December 11, 2001; “Agent Praised as Patriot in Graveside Ceremony,” by Diana Jean Schemo, published December 11, 2001; and “CIA Names Agent Killed in Fortress,” by James Risen, published November 29, 2001. An article titled “Community Recalls a Native Son with Clear Goals,” by Kevin Sack, published November 29, 2001, contained details of Spann’s boyhood pastimes. And I also drew from CNN.com transcripts: “CIA Officer Michael Spann Buried at Arlington National Cemetery,” which aired December 10, 2001; “Discussion with Widow of First American to Die in Afghan Combat,” which aired September 14, 2002; “Interview with Shannon Spann,” which aired July 16, 2002; “Family of Michael Spann Speak to Reporters Following Lindh Not Guilty Plea,” which aired February 13, 2002; and CNN Presents: House of War: The Uprising at Mazar-e Sharif, which aired August 3, 2002. The following articles by Richard Serrano, published in the Los Angeles Times, were also helpful: “Detainees Describe CIA Agent’s Slaying,” published December 8, 2004, and “Driven by a Son’s Sacrifice,” published April 7, 2005.
The following helpful articles about Spann and his family were written by Jeffrey McMurray and published by the Associated Press: “Father on Crusade to Prove Afghanistan Ambush Killed CIA Officer,” published March 12, 2005, and “CIA Agent’s Dad Probes Deadly Afghan Riot,” published March 13, 2005. Several websites also offer photos and information about Mike Spann, his extended family, and his career in the U.S. Marine Corps and the CIA, including his 1999 CIA application essay. The websites are www.honormikespann.com and the Arlington National Cemetery website, featuring “Johnny Micheal Spann, An American Hero.” For information about correspondence between Shannon Spann and Mike Spann while he was in Afghanistan, I referred to the report “Shannon Spann,” published on the website www.embracehisgrace.com. For information about Spann’s death announcement and eulogies about his death and burial, see also various press releases and statements released by the Central Intelligence Agency; “CIA’s Spann Buried at Arlington,” by Mary Orndorff, published December 11, 2001, in the Birmingham News; and “CIA Reports Officer Killed in Prison Uprising,” by Vernon Loeb and Josh White, published November 29, 2001, in the Washington Post. “The CIA’s Secret Army,” by Douglas Waller, published February 3, 2003, in Time was especially illuminating, as was “A Street Fight,” by Evan Thomas, published April 29, 2002, in Newsweek. The website www.winfieldcity.org provided details about Spann’s hometown.
Likewise, I was aided in reconstructing the thoughts, words, and actions of John Walker Lindh by consulting voluminous pages of court documents from Lindh’s trial, describing Lindh’s movements, and numerous newspaper and magazine accounts about Lindh and his family, as well as Mark Kukis’s courageously researched My Heart Became Attached. Lindh’s father, Frank Lindh, has written and spoken publicly about his family’s ordeal, offering insights into his son’s journey from California to Afghanistan. See especially the elder Lindh’s speech before the Commonwealth Club of California, January 19, 2006, titled “The Human Rights Implication of ‘The American Taliban’ Case,” as well as “The Real Story of John Walker Lindh,” by Frank Lindh, on AlterNet, posted January 24, 2006; and “Father of a U.S. Taliban Fighter Speaks Out,” posted January 20, 2006. See also “Taking the Stand, The Crimeless Crime: The Prosecution of John Walker Lindh,” by Frank R. Lindh, www.dcbar.org, May 2005; “He’s a Really Good Boy,” by Karen Breslau and Colin Soloway, a Newsweek Web exclusive, updated December 7, 2001; and “John Lindh Not a Traitor, Father Argues,” by Kevin Fagan published by the San Francisco Chronicle, January 20, 2006.
For information about Lindh’s classmates’ perceptions of him in Yemen, I referred to “Bright Boy from the California Suburbs Who Turned Taliban Warrior,” by Julian Borger, published by the Guardian, October 5, 2002.
For information (physical details, dialogue, and psychological insight), the following magazine articles were especially helpful: Jane Mayer’s keenly observed “Lost in the Jihad,” published in the New Yorker, March 10, 2003; “The Making of John Walker Lindh,” published in Time, October 7, 2002; “The Long Strange Trip to the Taliban,” by Evan Thomas, published in Newsweek, December 17, 2001; “Periscope,” by Colin Soloway, published in Newsweek, December 31, 2001; “Tale of an American Talib,” a Newsweek Web exclusive, by Colin Soloway, posted December 1, 2001; “In Defense of John Walker Lindh,” a Newsweek Web exclusive, posted March 16, 2002, by Karen Breslau; and “Innocent,” by Tom Junod, published in Esquire, July 2006. The Center for Cooperative Research has also published useful, encyclopedic-like information about Lindh. See “Are You Going to Talk to Us?” published December 17, 2001, by Newsweek, for a transcript of Spann’s interrogation of Lindh; and “U.S. Taliban Fighter Describes Fortress Horror,” by Michael Ellison, published by the Guardian, December 3, 2001. See www.CNN.com, “Transcript of John Walker Interview,” posted July 4, 2002, for information about Lindh’s state of mind and medical treatment after his capture; and “Walker’s Brush with Bin Laden,” by Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff, published December 31, 2001, in Newsweek. In particular, Colin Soloway has been an omnipresent reportorial lens on the Lindh story.
For my account of Lindh’s actions at the Turkish Schoolhouse in Mazar-i-Sharif, I also relied on my interviews with soldiers tasked with guarding him. In particular, Lindh’s attorney James Brosnahan spoke to me about the legal issues concerning the trial and provided me, among sundry documents, with the transcript of Lindh’s encounter with Special Forces medic William Bennett and a freelance reporter, Robert Pelton, after Lindh’s capture. For my account of Colin Soloway’s discovery of Lindh in Afghanistan, I referred to Soloway’s article in Newsweek, December 7, 2001, describing his odd encounter with Lindh after the Qala-i-Janghi battle, as well as a written account of the event provided to me by photographer Damien Degueldre, who accompanied Soloway during the discovery of Lindh.
For information about the Qala-i-Janghi Fortress and the battle there, I relied on my interviews with a majority of the soldiers involved, particularly Mark Mitchell, Kurt Sonntag, Dave Betz, Roger Palmer, Steve Billings, Martin Homer, Pete Bach, Jason Kubanek, Ernest Bates, and Malcolm Victors, Air Force combat controller; Burt Docks, Air Force combat controller; Don Winslow, Paul Syverson, Craig McFarland, and Kevin Leahy; and a number of U.S. Army Tenth Mountain Division soldiers.
Roger Palmer and Steve Billings recounted to me Dave Olson’s account of Spann’s death, including Olson’s mad dash to safety. Najeeb Quarishy graciously provided invaluable information about the battle at Qala-i-Janghi, as well as a thorough account of the Americans’ entrance into the town, and a portrait of Afghan life under Taliban rule. Thank you, Najeeb.
Further details were provided to me through extensive monographs written by the soldiers involved in the battle, which offer a nearly hour-by-hour account. I also consulted after-action reports written by Mitchell and Sonntag. Further documentation and photos of the Qala-i-Janghi battle were gleaned from copious U.S. Army briefings delivered by the men afterward. For Major Mark Mitchell’s statement at his November 14, 2003, Distinguished Service Cross ceremony, I referenced the videotaped and transcribed record of the event, as well as the recollections of Mitchell himself.
To see the site of the battle firsthand, I spent several days with former Northern Alliance soldier Ali Sarwar, walking through Qalai-Janghi, stepping over bullet casings, land mines, and shards of human bone left from the battle. (In a corner of the fort, we found a human skull that had resurfaced in the mud.) As we walked, Ali narrated his and his men
’s actions, a bold, harrowing account. Ali posed on the fort’s south parapet and explained the fighting that had raged several hundred yards below him. I am grateful for this rare, close-up view of the battle.
Likewise, I want to express my admiration and gratitude to Time reporter Alex Perry and videographer Dodge Billingsley of Combat Films for their invaluable assistance. These two men made their way into the fort during the fighting, recording some of it in print and film.
I am grateful to Dodge for sending me a dozen hours of his raw footage, and to Alex for studiously and with good humor answering my copious questions by phone and e-mail, about both his experience in the fort and the events unfolding around the Americans, Brits, Afghans, and other reporters during the battle. Perry’s prescient article for Time “Inside the Battle at Qala-i-Janghi,” published December 1, 2001, as well as his other reporting about events before and after the war in Afghanistan make for fascinating, humane, and accurate reading about this historical moment. See especially Perry’s Q & A titled “Update: American Rescued from Taliban-held Fort,” published by Time, November 27, 2001. Heartfelt thanks to both reporters.
For information and details about German reporter Arnim Stauth’s encounter with CIA officer Dave Olson, I consulted “Those Would Have Killed Us,” published August 2002; and from Transnational Broadcasting Studies, Issue 9, “Thirteen Months After the 9/11 Attacks: Terrorism, Patriotism and Media Coverage.” I also relied on the documentary House of War: The Uprising at Mazar-e Sharif as well as the recollections of reporter Alex Perry and videographer Dodge Billingsley.
For information about Mullah Faisal’s surrender at Qala-i-Janghi, as well as Dostum’s actions and state of mind after returning to the fort following the uprising, I referred to Damien McElroy’s story “I’m Sick of Death, Says Dostum the Warlord,” published November 29, 2001, by the Telegraph (London); Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers’s firsthand recollections of accompanying Dostum during the surrender; the reporting of Guardian reporter Luke Harding, Kurt Sonntag, and Mark Mitchell’s post-uprising analysis of its genesis; the work of reporter and videographer Dodge Billingsley; and the recollections of numerous Special Forces privy to the uprising’s aftermath. News of the blood money paid by Mullah Faisal to Dostum comes from Jane Mayer’s “Lost in the Jihad,” published in the New Yorker, March 10, 2003. Information about various traits and concerns of Taliban and Al Qaeda soldiers are drawn from their statements made, after their capture, to U.S. government officials contained in “Detainee Statements. Combatant Status Review Tribunals conducted at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base” (www.defenselink.mil). Other information about the Taliban was drawn from “Mazar-e Taliban, R.I.P.,” by Daniel Lak, published by Outlook India, December 16, 2001; “The Massacre in Mazar-i-Sharif,” Human Rights Watch, November 8, 1998 (vol. 10, no. 7); “Taliban Kabul Diary,” by Jason Burke, published by the London Review of Books (vol. 23, no. 6), March 22, 2001; “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994,” submitted to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, by the Department of State, 1995; “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1995–96,” submitted to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 1996; Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid; and Reaping the Whirlwind: The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan, by Michael Griffin.
While touring Qala-i-Janghi and Mazar-i-Sharif, I received important logistical assistance and welcome hospitality from Colonel Brian Harris, Lieutenant Daryl Hodges, Staff Sergeant Jeffrey Ewing, Sergeant Christopher Carpenter, Sergeant Kasey Phillips, Specialist Damien Miller, and Specialist Oliver Jackson. Major Eric Bloom was a gracious and helpful press officer at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan; and while I was there, Sergeant Major Stan Parker helped get me onto an instructive ride on a Chinook helicopter. Thanks also to Brigadier General James Champion who, as deputy commanding general (Operations) of Combined Joint Task Force-76, met with me while I was at Bagram. Thanks as well to photographer Jonas Dovydenas for his hospitality in Kabul. Too numerous to thank individually are all of the other Special Forces and regular Army soldiers at Bagram and Camp Tillman, near Mazar-i-Sharif, who aided my travel to key research sites. A special thanks to Jesse Ooten for loaning his hootch at Bagram to this traveling writer.
I am indebted to Lieutenant Colonel Pablo Hernandez for his guidance as I interviewed Afghan government officials and former mujahideen fighters at the presidential headquarters in Kabul. Chuck Ricks, of Indiana, was also an invaluable ally in Kabul. When we met, Chuck was working in the Office of Parliamentary Relations and Public Affairs, Afghanistan Ministry of Defense, and he immediately helped arrange interviews with General Abdul Rashid Dostum and General Atta Mohammed Noor, as well as with key former members of the Northern Alliance then serving in the government. To meet these men, many of whom had fought against the Soviets, was an honor.
I want to thank the following Afghan generals and soldiers for their generosity in meeting with me in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, where some of them provided important insights and details about the overall battle: General Atta Mohammad Noor, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Deputy Defense Minister A. Yusuf Nuristani, Muhamad Tamimi Huma, Matin Sharifi, General Taj Mohammed, General Atta Yama, Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Humayun Fawzi, General Baz Mohammad Jowhari, Deputy Defense Minister of Policy and Strategy Major General Muhebbulah, Major General Taj Mohammad, General Azimi, and subcommander Ali Sarwar, of General Dostum’s army. Some information about the events of Ahmed Shah Massoud’s last day come from my interview with “Colonel Paima,” who was with the Tajik leader the day of his assassination.
Other information about General Dostum came from: “Mujaheddin Write Their Name in Blood,” by Jon Swain, published by the Sunday Times (London), November 11, 2001; “Makeover for a Warlord,” by Anthony Davis, published in Time, June 3, 2002; “Profile: General Rashid Dostum,” on BBC World News, September 25, 2001; and “Rashid Dostum, The Treacherous General,” by Patrick Cockburn, published December 1, 2001, by the Independent (UK).
Other important interviews, as well as assistance with translation and logistical support, graciously came from, among many, Mohibullah Quarishy, Najeeb Quarishy, Nadir Shihab, “Rocky” Bahari, Yama Bassam, Nadir Ali, and, last, Abdul Matin, who accompanied me on key visits with Dostum and Atta in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. I apologize in advance for any others whose names I have inadvertently missed.
For information about Afghan wildlife and woodcraft, I consulted Crosslines Essential Field Guides Afghanistan, second edition, 2004, Media Action International. Information about Afghan villages and the devastation inflicted by Taliban soldiers came from reports prepared by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. For fascinating information about the country, see Afghanistan, by Louis Dupree, a book that has been forgotten but should be read by everyone wishing to grasp the complexity of Afghan life.
I want to thank the various U.S. Air Force pilots who shared with me their combat experiences over Afghanistan, in particular the nighttime attack of the Spectre gunship over Qala-i-Janghi Fortress.
I am also indebted to the brave soldiers of the Tenth Mountain Division for sharing their recollections about their rescue of the Special Forces soldiers injured in the errant bombing: Major General Franklin “Buster” Hagenback, Colonel Robert Caslen Jr., Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, Sergeant Major Dennis Carey, Command Sergeant Major Frank Grippe, Staff Sergeant Thomas Abbott, Private First Class Eric Andreason, Private First Class Thomas Beers, Sergeant Douglas Covell, Sergeant Jerry Higley, Specialist David Hine, Private First Class Michael Hoke, Specialist Roland Miskimon, and Private First Class Thomas Short.
For some details about these soldiers at the errant JDAM bombing, I referred to “U.S. Soldiers Recount Smart Bomb Blunder,” by Vernon Loeb, published February 2, 2002, in the Washington Post; “Troops of 10th Recount
Mayhem at Mazar-e Sharif,” by Paul Hornak, published by the Watertown Daily Times, April 4, 2002. Recollections by Special Forces soldiers who witnessed the Tenth Mountain troops in action also provided important details.
I also want to thank editor and author Heather Shaw, author of the wonderfully reviewed literary novel Smallfish Clover, for her invaluable research and editorial assistance in organizing the material early in the process, and for her help sketching early versions of some of the book’s maps. Thank you, Heather. Thanks also to good neighbor John William for his help with map creation, and to Terrie Taylor for her interest. Last, we lost a dear friend and fellow author, Lori Hall Steele, September 1, 1964–November 19, 2008. Thanks to her family and young son, Jack: prayers and memories.