The Inside Story of Hamid Karzai’s Rise to Power | Don Parnell (Part 1)

On 14 November 2001, a small CIA team and U.S. Special Forces secretly inserted Hamid Karzai into southern Afghanistan. Less than a month later, Karzai would become Afghanistan’s interim leader.

In Part 1 of this exclusive interview, Don Parnell, former CIA Chief of Ground Branch, who was by Karzai’s side throughout the mission, tells the inside story of one of the most consequential operations of the war in Afghanistan.

Parnell recounts how the CIA assembled the mission in the aftermath of 9/11, the dangerous helicopter insertion into Uruzgan, working with Pashtun tribal elders, and the race to build a southern uprising against the Taliban. He also describes surviving behind Taliban lines with little food or water, the devastating U.S. friendly-fire strike that nearly killed Hamid Karzai, and witnessing the moment Karzai learned he had been chosen to lead Afghanistan’s new post-Taliban government.

A rare first-hand account from one of the CIA officers at the centre of the campaign that toppled the Taliban.

Coming in Parts 2 and 3: the secret negotiations with the Taliban, the fall of Kandahar, entering Mullah Omar’s residence, the removal of the Taliban flag, Mullah Omar’s escape, and the extraordinary final days of Taliban rule, and its aftermath.

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Producer | Host: Roh Yakobi

Assistant Producer/Researcher: Sa-aadat Yakobi

Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh

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