How CIA officer was s h o t in the head during prison uprising as he questioned Al Qaeda fighters скачать в хорошем качестве

How CIA officer was s h o t in the head during prison uprising as he questioned Al Qaeda fighters

The mystery of how Mike Spann, the CIA officer who was America's first casualty on the battlefield after 9/11, was killed in Afghanistan has finally been solved nearly 20 years after his death.Spann, 32, a former Marine Corps officer and CIA paramilitary, died on November 25, 2001, during a prisoner uprising at Qala-i Jangi, a remote fort outside Mazar-i Sharif in northern Afghanistan.He and David Tyson, a CIA case officer, had gone into the fort to question the first Al Qaeda members to have been captured.More than 400 fighters had been detained in a cellar in the Pink House, a building inside the fort.At the time, it was reported that Spann had been beaten, kicked, and bitten to death.A Random House book, which was subsequently discredited, later claimed that Spann had been captured and tortured horrifically before being shot in both legs and then the neck.Some members of the Spann family feared that the CIA officer might have been killed by US airstrikes on the fort after the uprising.In his new book First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, however, author Toby Harnden reveals that a military pathologist concluded that Mike Spann was killed by two gunshot wounds to the head, almost certainly in the first seconds of the uprising.One was a 'contact wound', indicating a gun had been held to Spann's right temple and a bullet fired through his head, exiting on the left.The other was 'intermediate range,' meaning that the shot had been fired close enough to the head to leave powder marks; it had entered the right side of his forehead and exited from the back.The two gunshot wounds caused 'severe, rapidly fatal injury to the brain,' according to the autopsy report.There were no broken bones or marks to the knuckles to indicate Spann had been able to resist.His back had been peppered with shrapnel after death, probably from huge explosions from JDAM bombs or fire from AC-130 Spectres as a beleaguered team of American and British troops called in air support to put down the uprising.The book tells the story of the first U.S.moves against the Taliban after 9/11, with the insertion of a CIA team to coordinate with Afghan warlords of the Northern Alliance in ousting the country's brutal rulers.It focuses on Team Alpha, which included linguists and tribal experts along with elite warriors.They landed in Afghanistan on October 17, 2001, and were the first Americans behind enemy lines.Spann ends up at Qala-i Jangi fort after hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters apparently surrendered in November 2001.It turns out to be a trap.As Spann and his colleagues interrogate prisoners, they hear a commotion at the entrance to the Pink House - the building where a handful of remaining captives are being held before processing.Harnden tracked down two Tajik doctors in northern Afghanistan last year who were present.'The two doctors were at the aid station, 20 or so yards away when they heard the shouts and a muffled grenade explosion, then shots from inside the Pink House,' he wrote.'They hit the ground as all hell erupted around them.'Mike Spann, about five yards away from the pair, swung around to face the source of the noise, raising his AKMS rifle to his shoulder.'Some of the eighteen prisoners still inside the Pink House were rushing out, straight at him.' The rest of the prisoners has been loosely tied and lined up outside the Pink House.The doctors saw Spann shoot two or three of the prisoners with his rifle before a Qatari and others who had been sitting close to the Pink House stood up and jumped on him from behind, pushing him to the ground.Spann managed to pull out his Glock 17 pistol and fire one or two shots before he was overwhelmed, disappearing beneath a pile of prisoners desperately trying to seize his weapons.Tyson, about 40 yards away, rushed to help his comrade.Tyson got to the pile of writhing bodies and could see Spann at the bottom, recognizable by his fleece, jeans, and brown boots.Four prisoners were on top of him, including the Qatari.Tyson used his Browning Hi-Power pistol to shoot each of them once in the torso, finishing with the Qatari, shooting him twice and then each of the others a second time.Tyson, whom Harnden also interviewed, managed to grab Spann's rifle, which the prisoners seemed to have pulled from his comrade.He then kicked Spann's legs and feet hard two or three times.'Mike, Mike, Mike!' he shouted.There was no response or movement and there was blood.Mike Spann appeared to be dead, quite possibly killed by bullets from his own Glock after his assailants had wrested the pistol away.