Day: July 1, 2024

When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the tip of the spear was a band of gung-ho CIA officers assigned to an operation dubbed Jawbreaker. Riding horseback alongside tribesmen from the Northern Alliance, the Jawbreaker cowboys chased the Taliban from power and drove Al Qaeda terrorists to the mountains of Tora Bora (where they lost the trail of their prime target, Osama bin Laden.) Still, the agency’s role was widely celebrated at the time and matched the national mood. At the White House, Cofer Black, the CIA’s chief of counter-terrorism, assured President George W. Bush that, thanks to his CIA men on the ground, the terrorists would soon have “flies walking across their eyeballs.” 

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