The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU

by Marc Cerasini

  First Sergeant Haj Illijec was the communications officer. Haj was an Army Ranger who served in Somalia. His parents were born in Yugoslavia, and he spoke Serbian like a native. I’d been in the field with Sergeant Illijec twice, and he performed well in both operations.

  First Sergeant Gary Graham was the medical officer. Graham was a former Green Beret and a physician—a graduate of McGill University Graham learned trauma medicine by treating gunshot victims in a Watts emergency room before joining Delta. Graham was to be married that June, and was leaving Delta Force. Nightfall was supposed to be his last mission.

  Technical Sergeant Roger Voss was our Air Force Special Operations* combat controller. Though we wouldn’t see him until the mission was over, Roger was officially a part of our team. In Operation Nightfall, Voss was parachuted in many hours ahead of the main force, to establish a secure exfiltration zone where our escape helicopter could land.

  Master Sergeant Fred Peltzer was our intelligence specialist. Everyone called him “Peltz.” Peltzer knew Kosovo like the back of his hand—in fact, he swore he would write a Lonely Planet travel guide about Serbia after the war. He also knew every member of the Drazen family on sight, which was another plus. Peltz was older than the rest of us, and did double duty as team sergeant—which made Peltzer the guy responsible for assembling the gear we would need to accomplish the mission. On the flight over to Italy, it was Peltzer’s job to refamiliarize me and the other team members with the proper techniques of HALO* jumping—

  DRISCOLL: (Interrupting) Please explain HALO jumping, Special Agent Bauer. Despite Representative Schneider’s concern for expediency, I do wish to understand you.

  BAUER: HALO means High Altitude, Low Opening. The OD team jumps out of aircraft flying at a very high altitude. Wearing masks and breathing oxygen, the team free-falls for several minutes until opening parachutes at a predetermined altitude that is very close to the ground. The aircraft we jump from is too high to alarm Serbian antiaircraft defenses, and the OD team open their chutes too low to be visible to Serbian radar.

  DRISCOLL: You took a lot of care not to be seen, Special Agent Bauer. Were such efforts really necessary? After all, NATO controlled the skies above Kosovo—why not ride into the combat zone on a Black Hawk helicopter?

  SCHNEIDER: Pauline, I’m impressed. You suddenly know what a Black Hawk is? (Pause) You saw that movie, didn’t ya?

  DRISCOLL: As a matter of fact, Roy, I did.

  FULBRIGHT: Let’s not get off the subject. Agent Bauer, answer the congresswoman’s question. Why the special operation theatrics?

  BAUER: Because our mission was technically illegal, in that it violated the terms of the United Nations resolution concerning military action in Kosovo, Operation Nightfall was to remain a secret—even from our allies. We used HALO jumping techniques because we were hiding from NATO radar, too.

  And there was another reason for using such a covert insertion method. Victor Drazen’s bodyguards had stolen lots of equipment from the Serbian Army, including a Soviet-made portable radar array, two BOV-3 self-propelled antiaircraft guns, and a Praga armored truck suited with a 30-millimeter antiaircraft cannon. The radar made constant sweeps of the airspace around Drazen’s compound, and the vehicles were placed in strategic locations. By the time we located him at Dakovica, the compound was surrounded by an effective antiaircraft screen. Drazen’s army had the capability to detect and shoot down a helicopter, or even a jet aircraft—which was another reason we opted for the HALO jump.

  Once we arrived at Aviano, we had a few hours to rest before the final briefing. At 0300 hours—3:00 A.M. local time—we boarded an Air Force Special Operations MC-130 Combat Talon,* which took us over the drop zone at an altitude of 27,000 feet. One hour and twenty-two minutes later—at 0422 hours—our 0D team jumped from the loading ramp into the dark skies above Kosovo.

  By 0500 hours we had assembled on the ground just northwest of our target, buried our parachutes and HALO gear, secured our weapons, and were moving along the banks of the Erenik River. The terrain was fairly mountainous, but we stuck to the river valley, so movement was easy. It was late April, so there were still patches of snow on the ground. We avoided them when possible, leaving no footprints. We were to avoid all contact, so we steered clear of any farms or settlements. There were also NATO ground forces in the region, so we maintained complete radio silence until it was time to contact Hammer One—

  FULBRIGHT: (Interrupting) Contact whom?

  BAUER: I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman. I should have mentioned that the radio call* sign for our OD team was “Anvil.” When we located Victor Drazen, we were to call down “Hammer One”—the code name for the F-18 Hornet* that was going to make the air strike against Drazen’s compound, once our ground team firmly established he was present and painted the target.

  DRISCOLL: (Interrupting) Painted the target? I’m sure that particular term has nothing to do with a trip to Home Depot. Please explain.

  BAUER: It’s a shorthand term for marking the target. Every member of the Nightfall team had an AN/PEQ-2 Infrared Aiming Laser attached to the rail of his M4A1 Carbine.* Once we established the whereabouts of Victor Drazen, we were to illuminate the target with the lasers. The precision-guided bomb—an AGM-84E Standoff Land-Attack Missile fired from Hammer One—would follow our projected beam right down to the marked or “painted” target.

  DRISCOLL: Explain something else to me, then, Agent Bauer. If you were going to blow Drazen up with a bomb anyway, why not just drop one on his house? Why risk placing a special operations team on the ground?

  BAUER: JSOC wanted to guarantee that our target was neutralized and that collateral damage was kept to a minimum—

  DRISCOLL: (Interrupting) Well, things didn’t quite turn out that way, did they, Agent Bauer?

  BAUER: No, ma’am, they did not.

  FULBRIGHT: Please continue, Agent Bauer.

  BAUER: At 0800 hours we arrived at a narrow dirt road that led to Victor Drazen’s compound. After establishing a primary and secondary path of withdrawal and two separate rendezvous points, we split our forces. Warrant Officer Shelton, along with Gardener and Graham, were to circle around Drazen’s compound to locate and then neutralize the antiaircraft guns so Hammer One could approach the compound safely.

  Sergeants Illijec and Peltzer accompanied me on a reconnaissance run of the house and barn. Both units were in constant contact through our short-range helmet radios, and reconnaissance was complete by 0900. We established that the compound consisted of two structures circled by a low stone fence.

  The larger structure was the manor house, which appeared to be unoccupied. The other structure was a barn, but was not used as living quarters for Drazen’s security detail. Our OD team counted eleven men inside the compound, with six more manning the antiaircraft guns and the portable radar station camouflaged in a copse of trees about half a klick behind the compound—excuse me, that’s half a kilometer, Congresswoman Driscoll.

  DRISCOLL: Thank you, Agent Bauer, I appreciate the thought.

  BAUER: All of Drazen’s men were heavily armed, with a mix of Russian-made weapons, including AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades, and several light machine guns.

  Fortunately, discipline was lax, which indicated that Drazen was not at this location. After securing the area, we hunkered down among the trees and watched the approach to the compound, waiting for Victor Drazen to show up. Meanwhile Shelton’s team prepared to neutralize the radar station and antiaircraft guns at the first sign of our target.

  It didn’t take long for Drazen to show his face.

  At 1111 hours we spotted movement on the unpaved road. A moment later we heard the sound of an engine. It was a Serbian armored car with a driver and a single passenger. Peltz watched the approach through binoculars and verified the passenger’s identity. It appeared to be Victor Drazen. We both watched as he entered the house. Then we gave Shelton, Brice, and Graham a heads up and called Hammer One.

  The pilot a
lerted us that his ETA to the target zone was under six minutes.

  I never blinked once for the three hundred and sixty seconds it took Hammer One to arrive. There was no indication that anyone but Drazen was inside that building, and when I painted the target with my infrared illuminator, I was convinced that Victor Drazen—and only Victor Drazen—was going to die.

  Ten seconds before the final ETA, Hammer One indicated that he had a positive lock on the laser beam. At that second an explosion signaled that Shelton, Graham, and Gardener had neutralized the antiaircraft guns. I refused to let the blast distract me and continued to aim the laser. Three seconds later the pilot launched the SLAM missile and veered away.

  We never saw or heard the aircraft.

  I watched, the house until a yellow streak rushed over our heads seven seconds later. There was a second explosion—much larger than the first. The missiles had entered a small window near the door. The house was completely destroyed. There was no possibility of survivors.

  I wanted to get my team out of the area while Drazen’s men were still in shock, but it didn’t happen that way. I keyed my radio and ordered Shelton’s team to meet us at the first rally point—a ditch close to the unpaved road where we first separated. But as Peltz, Illijec, and I moved out of the woods, we heard the shots. Something had gone wrong.

  I keyed the radio for a situation update, but it didn’t work. I turned to Sergeant Illijec, but he just tapped his earphones and shook his head—his radio wasn’t working either. Peltz cursed and tore his helmet off.

  “I think we’re being jammed,” he said.

  Which should have been impossible. We were using encrypted ASTRO SABER* digital radios—anyone who tried to jam us would need to know the precise frequency we were using as well as our encryption codes. Our radios were preprogrammed at JSOC, and the only people who should be able to interfere with them were the people who programmed those radios in the first place.

  I ordered Peltz and Illijec to move to the rally point, while I doubled back to find Shelton, Brice, and Graham. As I moved through the trees and entered the compound, I could hear Drazen’s men calling to one another from among the trees. They had gotten over their shock pretty quickly, and now were spreading out through the woods in a concerted effort to locate us. They were out for blood.

  I hopped the stone fence and entered the compound. The heat from the house was intense. I could smell cordite and burning flesh. As I approached the barn, the door burst open and one of Drazen’s men stumbled out. He was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. As he fumbled with his AK-47, I gave him a double tap and moved on—

  DRISCOLL: (Interrupting) Excuse me again, but I’d like you to define for the record a double tap.

  BAUER: Two shots to the head in quick succession. It’s the fastest way to drop a man so he won’t get up again.

  FULBRIGHT: That’s fine. Please continue.

  BAUER: I moved to the rear of the compound, hopped the back fence, and approached the copse of trees where the antiaircraft guns had been. They were still burning, their crews dead. Brice had done a good job putting the guns down, but there was no sign of him, nor of Graham or Shelton. I doubled back through the woods and found the road. I could hear Drazen’s thugs clumping through the forest, but they were heading away from me. The shooting had stopped.

  Seven minutes later I arrived at the rally point. Peltz and Illijec were there, but there was still no sign of Shelton, Gardener, or Graham. I pleaded with Illijec to get the radios working again, but nothing he did seemed to help. Then we heard shots coming from the northeast—AK-47s first, then the sound of an M4A1 automatic weapon. I knew Shelton’s team had ran into more trouble.

  There was also another group of soldiers approaching from the south—the Serbs were trying to surround us, and I wondered how they knew where we were. I told Peltz and Illijec to follow the banks of the Erenik to the exfiltration point while I covered their retreat. When they were gone, I took off after Shelton’s team.

  As I approached the woods, there was an explosion that knocked me off my feet. Smoke billowed around me as I rolled with the force of the blast. Crouching between two trees, I spotted figures moving through the forest. I tested the radio again but couldn’t raise Shelton. Someone must have seen or heard me and opened fire. I fired back, dropping two men.

  FULBRIGHT: In all that chaos, how did you know you weren’t shooting at Shelton’s team?

  BAUER: Munitions manufactured in the former Soviet Union give off green traces. NATO munitions give off a red trace. The Serbs used munitions made in the former Soviet Union, and the bullets flying at me were tracing green.

  FULBRIGHT: I see.

  BAUER: I found the men I’d shot. They were part of Drazen’s entourage—I recognized one of them as the armored car driver. A few minutes later I found Shelton, Gardener, and Graham…. I found their bodies….

  FULBRIGHT: (After a pause) Agent Bauer? (Muffled voices) Do you need a moment, Agent Bauer? (Muffled voices) Take some water, son. Take a moment.

  BAUER: As I was saying, I found my men. They were dead, along with five of Drazen’s men. Shelton’s team had been ambushed. Shelton and Graham had been shot repeatedly—and Brice had detonated the last of his explosives to finish off the Serbs and to buy us some time. There wasn’t much left of him.

  DRISCOLL: Were the remains of your teammates recovered and returned to their families?

  BAUER: Yes, ma’am, they were.

  DRISCOLL: I’m glad to hear that.

  BAUER: It was time to move on. I set out through the forest, using my GPS* system to follow the terrain. I knew Illjjec and Peltz were moving parallel with the river. All I had to do was catch up “with them. I was alone, and moving through unfamiliar territory, so I was happy to hear the radio crackle and the sound of Peltz’s voice.

  “Did Haj get the radio working?” I asked.

  “No, the jamming stopped,” said Peltz. Then it hit me. When I tried to use the radio in the woods, Drazen’s men vectored in on me. Shelton, Gardener, and Graham were probably trying to communicate with us when they were hit.

  “Get off the net,” I shouted. “The Serbs are using our radio frequency to locate us.”

  But my warning came too late. I heard shots, and the sound of grenades. I started running, down a hill toward the river. I could see the dark, sluggish water through the trees. I hit a patch of snow and slipped, just as a green tracer whizzed over my head and struck a tree behind me. I raised my carbine and pumped off some shots-hitting one of Drazen’s men as he rose from cover to fire again.

  Then I jumped to my feet and kept shooting as I ran toward the water. I kept shooting until I was sure I’d killed all of Drazen’s men. But I was too late again. By the time I got to the river’s edge, Peltz was dead, and Sergeant Illijjec’s body was floating in the middle of the river, facedown. I knew I had to move, I knew the Serbs wouldn’t give up until all of us were dead. And I was running out of time.

  I was afraid to use the radio to contact Tech Sergeant Voss, but I kept moving toward the extraction zone anyway. I had nowhere else to go. Finally I got to the designated exfiltration point. (Pause) Roger Voss was dead. The Serbs ambushed him too—cut him to pieces. He never had a chance. Voss must have been trying to raise me on the radio when the Serbs vectored in on his transmission. I found the Phoenix transmitter in Roger’s pocket and called in the Pave Hawk. The helicopter arrived forty minutes later.

  I got out—but my team didn’t.

  FULBRIGHT: It was a tragic mission, Special Agent Bauer, but I commend you on your resourcefulness in the face of tough odds. And I am sorry for the loss of your men.

  BAUER: Not as sorry as I am, Mr. Chairman.

  FULBRIGHT: I understand. Would you like a short recess, Agent Bauer?

  BAUER: No, sir, I am prepared to answer more questions.

  FULBRIGHT: Good. Now, Special Agent Bauer, you began your description of Operation Nightfall by saying that you were reactivated. Who exact
ly reactivated you? Who authorized this mission?

  BAUER: I was approached by NSA floating agent Robert Ellis—

  FULBRIGHT: Ellis? Ellis? I don’t recognize that name. Excuse me, Agent Bauer. (Muffled voices) Sam, why is he not on our witness list?

  BAUER: Excuse me, Mr. Chairman—

  FULBRIGHT: A moment, Agent Bauer, while I consult with my staff—

  BAUER: Mr. Chairman, he’s deceased.

  FULBRIGHT: Who’s deceased?

  BAUER: Ellis, sir. Robert Ellis was murdered in New Orleans on the day of the California primary.

  FULBRIGHT: That’s why he’s not on our witness list. (Pause) I’ll want to hear more about that, but right now let’s address the question. Who authorized Ellis to authorize you to conduct Operation Nightfall?

  BAUER: The Special Defense Appropriations Committee of the United States Senate.

  FULBRIGHT: Excuse me again, Special Agent Bauer. (Muffled voices) Sam, call Senator Card’s office and get a copy of the paperwork for the final report. All right, let’s resume. Connect the dots for me, Agent Bauer. Operation Nightfall failed. Correct?

  BAUER: Correct.

  FULBRIGHT: But Victor Drazen’s body is in a U.S. government morgue, correct?

  BAUER: Correct.

  FULBRIGHT: And he wasn’t killed in Kosovo but at a dock at the Port of Los Angeles—

  BAUER: I put the bullets in him myself, Mr. Chairman.

  FULBRIGHT: I see, but—

  BAUER: And I was glad to do it.

  FULBRIGHT: Agent Bauer, I did not ask how you felt about shooting Victor Drazen. What I asked, and what I still do not understand, is how the man ended up at a Los Angeles dock!

  BAUER: With all due respect, Mr. Chairman, I can connect some of the dots for you, but not others. Some trail off into oblivion.

  FULBRIGHT: Don’t answer me with riddles, Agent Bauer, I haven’t the patience—

  BAUER: I don’t know how Drazen was captured and brought to the United States, sir, but he was. When this was done is fairly obvious. It had to have happened the same week, if not the same day, my team and I eliminated his decoy. Otherwise, intelligence reports would have confirmed that he was still walking around in good health.