Grenier Robert - 88 days to Kandahar a CIA diary

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All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the CIA or any other U.S. Government agency. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication of information or Agency endorsement of the authors views. This material has been reviewed by the CIA to prevent the disclosure of classified information. The Central Intelligence Agency has not approved, endorsed, or authorized this book or the use of the CIA seal, name, or initials.

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Copyright 2015 by Robert L. Grenier

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition January 2015

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Interior design by Paul J. Dippolito

Maps by Paul Pugliese

Jacket design by Tom McKeveny

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grenier, Robert (Robert L.)

88 days to Kandahar : a CIA diary / Robert L. Grenier

pages cm

Includes index.

1. Grenier, Robert (Robert L.) 2. Afghan War, 2001Campaigns. 3. Afghan War, 2001Personal narratives, American. 4. War on Terrorism, 20012009Personal narratives, American. 5. Intelligence officersUnited StatesBiography. 6. United States. Central Intelligence AgencyBiography. 7. Taliban. 8. AfghanistanPolitics and government21st century. 9. PakistanRelationsUnited States. 10. United StatesRelationsPakistan. I. Title. II. Title: Eighty eight days to Kandahar, a CIA diary.

DS371.413G76 2014

958.104'78dc23

2014036555

ISBN 978-1-4767-1207-9

ISBN 978-1-4767-1209-3 (ebook)

For Paula and Doug, who shared the adventure

On December 7, 2001, eighty-eight days after 9/11, Gul Agha Shirzai seized the Governors Palace in Kandahar from the fleeing Taliban, as Hamid Karzai, fresh from negotiating the Talibans surrender, prepared to travel to Kabul to assume his duties as head of Afghanistans interim government. Just weeks earlier, both events had seemed highly improbable, if not impossible. On that extraordinary day, I knew I would write this book, and what its title would be. I began making preparations.

After my return to Langley in 2002, I was able to review official cables I had sent and received from 1999 onward, and to make cryptic notations to aid my memory. These notes provided the backbone for much of the book. During my subsequent time in Washington, from 2002 to 2006, I was able to document events more easily. My calendar diaries, though very brief, included lists of participants in interagency meetings and the general topics discussed.

When at last I sat down in the middle of 2012 to write, over ten years had passed since 9/11. Many of my recollections from my time in Pakistan were still utterly clear, involving scenes I had mentally stored up and reviewed in the intervening years. I found that my earlier notations brought back a wealth of vividly detailed memories. My habit of saving almost everything I laid hands on while in Islamabad also proved a blessing: official visitor schedules, clippings from the Pakistani press, invitations to official events, even dinner menus, helped me, along with extensive open-source research, to tie the details of recalled events to specific dates.

The book contains reconstructed dialogue. Many of my recollections of key conversations in which I was directly engaged, or which were recounted to me soon after the fact by one of the participants, are available to me upon consulting my notes. My recognition at the time of how extraordinary some of them were served to imprint them in my mind. Conversations where I remember the burden of what was said, but not the specific words, I have related without quotation.

As one might expect in a book written by a former spy, the names of some characters appear as aliases, or as partial true names. In some cases, I have done this in deference to the wishes of the individual concerned; in others, I have done so on my own account; and in some cases I have acted in deference to requests from CIA. Any time I do not identify an individual by his or her full true name, I place quotations around the name in the initial instance of its use. The need to maintain anonymity leads me to withhold some identifying details from my accounts of certain individuals, but in no case do I falsify either their positions or their descriptions.

There were a number of books that greatly helped me to put my recollections into proper context. Particularly useful here was Prisoners of Hope , by Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, the two young American women who were among the eight Taliban captives from Shelter Now International. Eric Blehms The Only Thing Worth Dying For provided an account of Hamid Karzais campaign from Uruzgan to Kandahar, told from the perspective of the Special Forces A-Team accompanying Team Echo. It helped me to understand strictly military aspects of the operation. Company Man , former CIA acting general counsel John Rizzos account of his thirty-four years at CIA, served me with an optic different from my own on the tumultuous events affecting CIAs detention and interrogation program during my time as director of the Counter-Terrorism Center.

I also have benefited from a number of authors whose experience, research, or analysis have generally informed the thinking reflected here. In My Life in the Taliban , Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, one of the founding members of the Taliban and its former ambassador to Pakistan, has provided useful insights into the reasons for Taliban actions and attitudes. I have also had the opportunity to meet and speak with Zaeef at some length. These discussions between former adversaries have helped to shape my thoughts about possible future outcomes in Afghanistan and the potential post-conflict role of the Taliban. In War Comes to Garmser , Carter Malkasian, who impressively fills the roles of both scholar and practitioner, provides a very useful micro view of how Coalition missteps and local Afghan politics have led to the Talibans return in a representative part of Afghanistan. Peter Bergen and Katharine Tiedemann of the New America Foundation have edited Talibanistan , a collection of analytic research pieces that, among other things, provide useful insight into the reasons for the Talibans abdication of power and subsequent return, as well as the increased post-9/11 radicalization of the Tribal Areas in Pakistan. And Duty , Robert Gatess memoir of his time as defense secretary, offered helpful insights into the attitudes, assumptions, and reasoning behind the formulation of Obama administration policy on Afghanistan.