Or as I would like to call it… ANP IA, Afghan National Police Internal Affairs! The last week or so have been pretty uneventful, long days dealing with clients and the sort. Makes running the mean streets and roads of southern Afghanistan welcome. How I came to this new TV show, ANP IA, comes from these ANP checkpoints that at best are 1 kilometer apart and there are about 10 stretched from the entrance to Gersk towards FOB Bastion. At each one of these checkpoints the ANP take turns harassing the truck drivers for payment of “tax”, i.e., bribe! Even with signs posted at these checkpoints telling the drivers NOT TO PAY! The ANP personnel obviously have the guns and intimate the drivers, some have sticks and swing into the cabs if the drivers do not pay. They have the gonads to even stop our convoy drivers-(after we tell the drivers NOT TO STOP or PAY). These trucks are carrying sensitive military equipment and gear and no one has the authority to impede its progress other than us. So, after a couple of days of this I am getting really fed up with the corrupt/drugged out-(yes these guys are all high on hashish) cops. So me, Alex, and our driver rush to each checkpoint ahead of our convoy to intercept the cops before they attempt to get payment. Most we get to too late but we get out, yell at the cops whom most run away once they see us and try to hide. To the point it is comical! Example, assume you are armed with an assault rifle a car stops and a guy gets out with a rifle what would you do? 1. Run away? 2. draw down on them? 3. stand there dumbfounded? Most of the answers we got at the checkpoints were 1 and 3! Since most of these guys were high and knew they were wrong they ran away or stood there. The ones that stood there we emptied there pockets and took there ill-gotten gains! Of course we gave this to a local charity and some back to our drivers if we knew which one he took it from.
I got this saying from a guy in the intelligence field and a Chicago Cop, “you can tell how a society is-good or bad- by it’s police force”. Very telling! In the Kandahar region it is pathetic, not most but these guys on those checkpoints… Boy oh boy! A side note, one of the local nationals who rides in the car with me and Alex was an ANP Captain at the headquarters in Kabul and it hit him hard just as it did me.
Right now on hold because of security concerns in the Kandahar city and region. There were three suicide/homicide bombers targeting Karzai’s brother the Governor of Kandahar province.
Stay tuned more to come…
This new adventure started when my Country and now Regional Manager informed me that I will be moving to run the operations in Kandahar. Now note I was told about 8 pm and we left the next morning at 6 am! I was told that I would return to Kabul to finish packing my stuff for the move. When we arrived the guys here were on mission which pretty much killed the whole day. Then Dave, the Regional Manager told me that I would staying here and they would pack my stuff for me. Thus, we are off to a great start!
Tony is the guy currently in charge, great guy working under bad conditions from the prior administration who Dave and others have to fix. The only other guys here are a Ghurka and Alex, a prior British soldier from the Scottish Highlanders. Everyone in Kandahar is emotional and physically drained from the fighting with the home office and of course the high threat environment. My guess is that Alex will not come back from his leave and Tony is the same. Now I do believe that Tony a couple of days ago would have returned but the home office is screwing him around with his return ticket home. I do hope he returns since he has built up a great reputation here and relationships with the local nationals off base.
Now the fun stuff! Well I did not run the first mission because of no gear and having to get my personal stuff somewhat settled here, i.e., laundry for little bit of clothes I brought with me. But I did go out on a mission to Bastion taking some Marine Corps gear out. I was given the tour of the possible ambush areas and how they do things down here. Well, about half way there we had to stop for a broken truck and was told by a driver that he was shot at! After our initial shock, since we thought earlier we heard gun fire but no rounds impacting near us thought nothing of it. But when looking at the truck it the front windshield was blown out and rounds went through the cab MISSING the driver! Our guess is that 20-30 rounds hit the truck with no injuries and very little damage to the cargo. We continued on our way after documenting the damage and getting our notes in order for the reports later.
Our next escapade was to run to FOB Ramrod to pick up some trucks to return to Kandahar. We moved out late in the afternoon after the usual issues with trucks entering the base for loading and the Local National security team arriving late. Tony showed me a little by-pass route which misses the usual ambush points but is not a route to take with a large convoy. Since there is no way we can turn it around if attacked. But at a ANP-(Afghan National Police) checkpoint which as usual has a speed bump, we slowed to go over. And out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of our Local National security trucks flying through the air and flipping over. A body hanging most of the way out of the vehicle. I told Tony to stop and as I watched the truck flipped 360 degrees landing on the guy that was thrown out of the truck. We rushed to the truck along with the ANP and others to get the truck off the guy. He was hurt bad and the LN team put him into a truck and moved out to the Canadian base that was about 10 kilometers up the road. We treated the two others who were injured. One we later learned had a broken collar bone and one had a nasty cut on the top of his head. After treating them on the scene we moved out to the base where they were treated and release back to us. The other guy that was rolled over was put on a medivac for treatment in Kandahar. The mission at this point was cancelled and we proceeded to move out and return to Kandahar.
On the movement back I had a bad feeling that we would get hit but dismissed that and concentrated on the mission at hand. Tony told the LN security commander that we should take the same route back missing the highest threat area on our route. But since our truck and his had to stop because the commander’s truck had engine issues, the one with the wounded and another proceeded on to Kandahar. So the commander wanted to get the hospital in Kandahar as quickly as possible to check on his men. But low and behold we were attacked! And a pretty good one at that. These guys had to waiting for us, since other cars and trucks were let go and they fired upon us. It was a reverse L ambush meaning that they had guys shooting at our rear and side. Now I only saw the guys that were firing from our right and I returned fire while Tony hit the gas and got us out of the kill zone. The front truck holding the commander was hit numerous times but without injuries! They were hit from the guys on a roof top firing up the road as we drove away. The only damage we received was a cracked windshield from a round impacting it. How they missed us at that range and with I think was two or more PKMs-(heavy machine guns) and other small arms I do not know! But Tony and I chalk it up to it being Easter and someone was looking out for us. When we stopped in front of a ANA-(Afghan National Army) base about 2 kilometers up the road to see if anyone was hurt. The commander there, whom we met on the earlier mission asked us if we wanted to go back and get which we said YES. So he moved out with a couple of trucks but when he returned he stated that it would not be a good idea with it getting dark and not sure how many bad guys were there. He told us to move out to Kandahar and he would take care of the problem.
We got to hospital to check on the guys there and they were fine and released to us. Tony though got the hospital on base to check on the severely wounded guy but found out he died en-route to Kandahar from his injuries. The next day we recovered the body from the military and returned it to the family. And this was my welcome to Kandahar!
Now the administrative issues and what the heck I am doing here is the real hard part! More to follow…
Here is an update on the NDS rip off that occurred last Thursady. Well, after one week we finally got back our weapons and vehicles. But as usual these guys stole our ammunition and most of the magazines. Funny, the magazines they did return had maybe 5-6 rounds in them. Stolen also was my vest, (i.e., Body armor), and the vests of others on our mission. This is aggravating since I had that vest set for the most comfort and ease of use. Oh well, have to start over with another… Also, which I relate later in this update, they can use this body armor and I am sure they will use it this summer!
Some interesting information on the NDS, (National Defense Security), no one at the Ministry of Interior for Afghanistan and any of the US Government agencies know who these guys work for. Not one US government agency, (FBI, Army, etc…) admits to training these guys! They are a paramilitary organization that from what I see never leaves the Capital. They just set up road blocks at all the entrances to the city to harass and steal weapons and other items from legal and documented security companies working here. Also these guys are mostly Tajik, where as President Karzai is Pashtun. Now that might not seem important but this is huge! For example, when Karzai was first elected his protection detail was made up of US personnel. Now they are all Afghan and all Tajik! Why is this important? My country manager related that powers that be at certain US agencies noticed a difference in the tone and what Karzai was saying when that change over happened. In my opinion he, Karzai knows that if he says the wrong thing his “protection” will not protect him! With this presidential election coming up on August 20, I am of the opinion that the NDS will attempt a coup if the “right” candidate does not get elected. Ok, I am going out on a limb here but the NDS is stockpiling weapons, securing the capital-(road blocks to extort money and weapons from security contractors), and are unaccountable to any Afghan governmental authority.
I will post updates and more personal opinion items soon…