Free Licensed to Kill by Robert Young Pelton Page B

the hilltop fort to the landing pad on the next hill. In between these hills, I see Afghan “campaigns” filling sandbags and building yet another fortification farther into Pakistan. As expected, the main Hesco barriers were being built facing the Pakistani side. It appears painfully obvious that the enemy, like Ahmed Shah Massoud told me many times, is Pakistan.
    As we make it to the landing area, the two Hueys depart, leaving behind a group of silver-haired officers, each wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a pistol. Their fresh haircuts, spotless armor and helmets, and neatly pressed uniforms are a little too crisp and clean in contrast to the dirty, unshaven look of their Special Forces bodyguards. They load into the convoy, which turns around and heads back over to the hilltop firebase.
    Those left guarding the landing pad look like a task force—one of several elite groups composed of U.S. Army Special Forces, Delta Force, Navy SEALs, CIA paramilitaries, and military contractors who hunt for high-value targets (HVTs). This group appears to be comprised of a sergeant from the U.S. Army’s 20th Special Forces Group, a unit of army reservists shipped in from Alabama, a young air force close air support controller, and an unshaven American in civilian clothes—khakis, photographer’s vest, hiking boots. He wears Oakley shades and keeps a finger-forward grip on a battered AK-47—an unusual weapon for an American, even in this neck of the woods, and the mark of a contractor. In later conversations, the Contractor will confirm my suspicion—that I have encountered the elusive Task Force 11—but for the moment, he turns and walks away as I approach the group.
    According to the U.S. government, what I am looking at doesn’t exist. There are not only no operations inside Pakistan, Task Force 11 has been dissolved, as have Task Force 5 and Task Force 20. In July of 2003, U.S. Central Command said they had disbanded Task Force 11, described as “an elite group of Delta Force and Navy SEAL commandos who hunted high-value Taliban and al-Qaeda operators in and around Afghanistan” and created Task Force 20, which was moved to the Iraq theater to hunt down Saddam Hussein and former high-ranking Baathists. In November of 2003, General John P. Abizaid disbanded Task Force 5 and Task Force 20, operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively, and created Task Force 121. As the U.S. military describes it, the new global task force was designed to react with greater speed on tips on HVTs (high value targets) and was not to be “contained within the borders where American conventional forces are operating.” It is now one of the Pentagon’s most highly classified and urgent operations. An air force brigadier general commands Task Force 121. All operations and information remain classified, and the Pentagon refuses to discuss any activities related to the task force—specifically the rules of engagement and whether this force needs permission of a foreign government to operate within its territory.
    According to official descriptions, these task forces are made up “primarily” of Delta Force operators and Navy SEALs, supported by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and are tasked with finding and destroying high-value Taliban and al-Qaeda elements “in and around” Afghanistan. The word “primarily” masks the other task force members who go by the acronym “OGA” or “other government agencies,” and “around” Afghanistan implies they could be operating across the border with official approval under “hot pursuit” or “Amcit under fire” rules. When asked in a press conference who now hunts for Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, a military officer answered, “Other folks are doing that.” The real truth lies somewhere deep in the belly of the American security