Internet Anthropologist Think Tank: EXCLUSIVE: Malawa valley Intel.

Malawa Valley

Malawa Valley, pin marks place of Binnys caves.

Past:
The frustrations of the snake eaters are well illustrated by the recollections of Adam Rice, the operations sergeant of a Special Forces A-Team working out of a safe house near Kandahar in 2002. With his close-cropped orange hair and beard, wearing a yellow Hawaiian shirt around the safe house, Rice was not the sort to shine at inspections at boot camp. But he had lived in Kabul as a child (his father had been a USAID worker) and he had been a Special Forces operator for more than two decades. In July 2002, a CIA case officer told Rice that a figure believed to be Mullah Omar, the one-eyed chief of the Taliban, had been tracked by aerial drone to a location in the Shahikot Valley, a short flight to the north. The Taliban chief and his entourage would be vulnerable to a helicopter assault, but the Americans had to move quickly.Rice

was not optimistic about getting timely permission. Whenever he and his men moved within five kilometers of the safe house, he says, they had to file a request form known as a 5-W, spelling out the who, what, when, where and why of the mission. Permission from headquarters took hours, and if shooting might be involved, it was often denied. To go beyond five kilometers required a CONOP (for "concept of operations") that was much more elaborate and required approval from two layers in the field, and finally the Joint Special Operations Task Force at Baghram air base near Kabul. To get into a fire fight, the permission of a three-star general was necessary. "That process could take days," Rice recalled to NEWSWEEK. He often typed forms while sitting on a 55-gallon drum his men had cut in half to make a toilet seat. "We'd be typing in 130-degree heat while we're crapping away with bacillary dysentery and sometimes the brass at Kandahar or Baghram would kick back and tell you the spelling was incorrect, that you weren't using the tab to delimit the form correctly."

But Rice made his request anyway. Days passed with no word. The window closed; the target—whether Mullah Omar or not—moved on. Rice blames risk aversion in career officers, whose promotions require spotless ("zero defect") records—no mistakes, no bad luck, no "flaps." The cautious mind-set changed for a time after 9/11, but quickly settled back in. High-tech communication serves to clog, rather than speed the process. With worldwide satellite communications, high-level commanders back at the base or in Washington can second-guess even minor decisions.

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Special Operations Forces planned an airborne commando raid that could have been produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Some 30 U.S. Navy SEALs were to be flown by C-130 transport planes, under cover of darkness, to a spot high above the Afghan side of the Pakistan border, about 30 to 40 miles away from the target. The SEALs would jump from the plane and use parasails—motorized hang gliders—to fly through the night sky, across the mountains, to a secret staging point close to the compound.

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EXCLUSIVE: Malawa valley Intel.

Things are much different now, major operation is under way in Malawa valley, below the Tora Bora Caves ole Biny used.

The Fight is going well, smoothed chain of command has relieved many of the problems listed above, tremendos resources have been alocated for this operation, the sudden discovery energized the Pentagon to provide extensive resources and apply lessons learned from the past.

Hammer and anvil are in place, the terrorist are mostly hiding, moving only when needed at night, and trying to disguise themselves in day light.

Most operations are Intel collections and search and destroy with over whelming force.

A villager forced from his home in the area, Allah Dad, tells Wafa that the coalition ground and air operations have been incessant.

"Planes are flying over during the night," Allah Dad says. "We can see the U.S. troops coming and going during the daylight hours."

82nd Airborne is the main thrust and Texas National Guard involved, Illinois Army National Guard also doing their share. Canadians involved also.

In January 2007, the Division Headquarters, 4th BCT (includes 1-508th and 2-508th) and the Aviation Brigade deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom VIII. The 3rd BCT, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) was extended for 120 days to increase the troop strength against the Taliban Spring Offensive. Supporting the Division are the 36th Engineer Brigade, and the 43rd Area Support Group.

As the largest parachute force in the free world, the 82d Airborne Division is trained to deploy anywhere, at any time, to fight upon arrival and to win. From cook to computer operator, from infantryman or engineer, every soldier in the 82d is airborne qualified. Almost every piece of divisional combat equipment can be dropped by parachute onto the field of battle.

Today, no other military unit can respond more rapidly and effectively to conflict anywhere in the world than the 82nd Airborne Division. Known as "America's Guard of Honor," the 82nd is widely recognized as one of the most powerful forces in America's military arsenal.

The role of the airborne division is to plan, coordinate, and execute a rapid, combined arms, and forced entry operation employed alone or as part of a joint task force across the depth and width of the battlefield. The airborne division is unique in its ability to be deployed by parachute to achieve objectives.

The high value targets they are looking for mean this will be a detailed, extensive search operation. Targets include al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

U.S. Special Operations Forces have had considerable practice by now chasing jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The JSOC headquarters at Baghram is so full of high-tech listening and tracking equipment that it resembles "something out of 'Star Wars',"

The terrorist feel safe here, but they have walked into a trap, this time USA is watching the back door, and has everything in place for this mop up operation.

"The operation has been going on at Tora Bora since [August 14]," Mir Dad tells Radio Free Afghanistan. "The [foreign] troops are coming and going, and the bombing has been severe.

Expect other vicious attacks in Afghan in an attempt to draw off forces from Malawa valley operation.

This will prove very interesting when the news black out is raised, only news embeds are with special forces, and they can't report till completion.

Very well run operation.

Gerald

My father was in 82nd, WWII

Background on this.

Tora Bora Action: