Liberties

In the summer after the fall of Afghanistan, I received an invitation to speak at CIA headquarters. I used to work as a paramilitary officer at the Agency and a former colleague of mine attended the discussion. Afterward we went back to his office to catch up over a drink. The two of us had once advised the CIA-backed Counter Terrorist Pursuit Teams in Afghanistan. At their height, the CTPTs numbered in the tens of thousands. During the fall of Kabul, they played an outsized role in bringing any semblance of order to the evacuation after the government and national army dissolved.   As we discussed those dark days and the role that the CTPT had played, my friend reached behind his desk. He pulled out two overhead surveillance photographs blown up and mounted on cardstock. When Congressional leaders had asked about the CTPT’s performance versus that of the Afghan National Army, the CIA had shown them these photographs. Both were taken at Kandahar airfield in the final, chaotic days of the war. In the first image, a C-17 cargo plane sits on the runway, its ramp lowered with a gaggle of panicked soldiers clambering aboard. Their equipment is strewn on the airfield behind them.  “That’s a photo of the last Afghan Army flight out of Kandahar,” my friend explained. He then showed me the second image. It had been taken a few hours later, also at Kandahar airfield. In it, the C-17 is in the exact same position, its ramp lowered, except the soldiers loading into the back are ordered in neat, disciplined rows. There is no panic and they are carrying out all their equipment. “This is a photo of the last CTPT flight out of Kandahar.”    Having worked as an advisor to both the Afghan National