logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2024
42m 33s

5. CIA vs the Taliban: Bin Laden's Troja...

Goalhanger
About this episode

Mazar i-Sharif has fallen without much of a fight. The Taliban's grip on Afghanistan is looking all the more shaky. It seems as if the American policy to work with the warlords is paying dividends. Enemy fighters are surrendering to them. But is it all too rosy? In the centre of Mazar i-Sharif, the Americans take 400 Al-Qaeda captives to Qala-i-Jangi, the Fort of War. They believe they have surrendered. But all is not as it seems...


Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera discuss the first CIA teams in Afghanistan in the days after 9/11.


Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.nordvpn.com/restisclassified


It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee!


Email: classified@goalhanger.com

Twitter: @triclassified


Editor: Vasco Andrade

Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Callum Hill

Senior Producer: Dom Johnson

Exec Producer: Tony Pastor

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Jul 8
63. Terror Strikes London: What did MI5 know? (Ep 2)
Fifteen months before the London bombings, MI5 had seen them. They had names, photographs, and addresses. Two of the men who would carry out the 7/7 attacks had already appeared in surveillance. And then… they vanished back into the noise. In this second episode of our 7/7 series ... Show More
36m 4s
Jul 6
62. Terror Strikes London: 7/7 (Ep 1)
London woke up to joy and celebration on 7 July 2005. The city had just won the 2012 Olympics. It was a glorious summer. There were parties in the streets. But, by 9am, everything had changed. Three explosions tore through the London Underground. Minutes later, a double-decker bu ... Show More
41m 6s
Jul 1
61. The Truth About UFOs: Whistleblowers, Warplanes, and Worlds Unknown (Ep 4)
For years, the term UFO conjured images of tin foil hats and elaborate cover-ups. But with recent official reports from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing hundreds of UAP sightings, including objects that remain stationary in high winds or manoeuvre in ... Show More
42m 12s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2023
Ep. 351 - Ian Fritz (U.S. Air Force / 'What The Taliban Told Me')
At eighteen, Ian Fritz joined the Air Force out of necessity and was soon selected to become an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist in the war in Afghanistan. Over the course of two tours, Fritz listened to the Taliban for hundreds of hours, all over the country night and day, in momen ... Show More
1h 38m
Jun 10
Foxtrot in Kandahar, Part 2: Showdown in Takhteh-Pol | CIA
In late 2001, veteran CIA Officer Duane Evans deployed to Afghanistan as part of the US response to 9/11. This is his story. In Part 2, Duane and Team Foxtrot make the perilous journey to Kandahar. But the Afghan city proves to be no safe haven. From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets ... Show More
53m 49s
Feb 2025
The Fifth Floor: What the US left behind in Afghanistan
When the American troops withdrew from Afghanistan, they left behind $7bn of military supplies. Where are they now? Hafizullah Maroof from BBC Afghan will take us inside the Kabul flea market that sells second-hand military equipment to the Taliban. Plus: the origin story of capo ... Show More
26m 31s
Dec 2024
Downstream: The Journalist Who Spent A Year With The Taliban w/ Ibrahim Nash’at
When the Taliban retook all of Afghanistan in 2021, it came as a shock to much of the West. The day after the last American soldier left, journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at flew into Kabul to spend a year filming with the Taliban’s senior military leadership. What he found ... Show More
53m 3s
Jun 3
Foxtrot in Kandahar, Part 1: Snakes and Lightning | CIA
In late 2001, veteran CIA Officer Duane Evans deployed to Afghanistan as part of the US response to 9/11. This is his story. In Part 1, we find Duane as he swears vengeance against Al Qaeda - and moves mountains to get himself to the heart of the action. From SPYSCAPE, the home o ... Show More
51m 26s
Aug 2011
Rodric Braithwaite, “Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89” (Oxford UP, 2011)
I was still in high school the year the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, 1979. I remember reading about it in Time magazine and watching President Carter denounce it on TV. The Soviets, everyone said, were bent on ruling the world. Detente had been a ploy to lull us to sleep. In ... Show More
1h 6m
Apr 2024
An Untold Story in Afghanistan
They were scenes of utter desperation and chaos: thousands of Afghans crowded outside Kabul’s airport, as American troops withdrew and the Taliban swept the country in August 2021. In a congressional hearing last month, former Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley blamed the ... Show More
59m 2s
Oct 2024
An Engaging Dilemma: The Taliban’s Afghanistan, women’s rights and international diplomacy
Women in Afghanistan continue to be suppressed and marginalised by the Taliban government, with a steady stream of new laws and edicts, dictating what they can and can't do.This has alarmed and shocked human rights defenders in Afghanistan, and across the world. Also expressing t ... Show More
33m 53s
May 8
#198 Blerim Skoro - CIA & FBI Asset / Al-Qaeda Infiltrator
Blerim Skoro is a Kosovo-born former CIA operative whose life took a dramatic turn after deserting the Yugoslav army in the 1990s. Arriving in New York as an asylum seeker, Skoro’s journey led him from a drug trafficking conviction to becoming a key informant for the FBI and CIA ... Show More
4 h
Aug 2021
Disaster in Afghanistan: The First Afghan War of 1839
Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell of the First Afghan War of 1839, where the British invaded Afghanistan and were forced into a disastrous retreat from Kabul. ----more----In 1839 the British controlled India. They had built a mighty Empire. However, the Russians were also bui ... Show More
10m 8s