In 2001 the Afghan Mongol warlord General Dostum led his horse mounted fighters into combat against Al Qaeda and the Taliban alongside US Green Berets in fulfillment of a blood vendetta. Against all odds, this small force of indigenous, pro-US horsemen and special operators overthrew the Taliban regime in three weeks. This presentation, based on declassified slides given to the author by the CIA, Green Berets, Dostum, and the author's own fieldwork in the plains and mountains of northern Afghanistan, for the first time brings this covert operation in the Hindu Kush Mountains to life. To be followed by a signing of the author's recent book, The Last Warlord.
Brian Glyn Williams is Professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. He has worked in Afghanistan for the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center and the US Army. He is author of Predators: The CIA's Drone War on Al Qaeda and has carried out fieldwork in Islamic Eurasia, from Kosovo to the tribal zones of Pakistan where Bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs. For more on Dr. Williams and his fieldwork see his website at: brianglynwilliams.com
Co-sponsored by the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies
Photo Credit: Brian Glyn Williams