They were rock stars, though none of them joined the CIA or volunteered for this mission seeking fame or recognition. It is impossible to tabulate how many lives these intelligence officers saved by disrupting the planning of potentially catastrophic attacks and dismantling terrorist networks over the years. They even brought a small measure of justice for the families of those colleagues lost in the Khost attack with the killing of one of the attack’s principal co-conspirators. They hunted and found Osama bin Laden, developed some of the most sophisticated intelligence operations in an inhospitable and challenging environment as they degraded al Qaeda and its allies, and trained Afghan partners to take the lead in defending their fledgling government from terrorism. What critics of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan get wrong
(Photo by David Swanson-Pool/Getty Images) David Swanson/Pool/Getty Images "Operation Viper", an operation to search from village to village for weapons and signs of Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers, is expected to last three weeks. soldiers guard the Baghran Valley where Taliban and possibly al Qaeda have been sighted during "Operation Viper" Februin the Baghran Valley, Afghanistan. Those who focused on counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan were among the most elite and dedicated intelligence officers our nation has ever assembled.īAGHRAN VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN - FEBRUARY 19: U.S. The Khost officers were representative of the 9/11 generation of CIA – women and men of varied ethnicities, ages, backgrounds and political persuasions who united together in shared American values to take part in the great war of our time. Their deaths became personal and drove me and many of my colleagues to redouble our counterterrorism campaign and take the fight to the enemy more directly. Their bodies were flown back to Dover Air Force Base and seven stars were etched into the marble Memorial Wall at CIA headquarters. On December 30, 2009, at another base in Khost, Afghanistan, a double agent detonated a suicide vest, killing seven CIA officers and seriously wounding a number of others in one of the most devastating attacks in CIA history. At that moment, I thought about the stars that led me there in the first place. From this outpost, far from the light pollution and haze of Afghan cities, an ocean of stars stretched before me across the endless mountainous landscape.
It was there that I looked up and first saw the grandeur of the Afghan night sky.
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