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[heavy breathing] -The only way you can defeat a network like al-Qaeda is you have to get inside the network. Which means you have to get a mole; you have to get someone that's willing to come out and basically turn against their ideology. -Recruiting assets in al-Qaeda is paramount. You, you desperately need to have someone next to the leadership. -But if a source is going to risk his or her life, commit espionage to benefit the United States government, in exchange for that, we owe them, and have a responsibility to protect them.
We try to do what's best for the source, but we also have to factor in what's best for our national security, and those two things don't always align. [♪ theme music playing] [Patrick] There's an emotional investment in every case, particularly ones that you recruit. There's a special bond and understanding the sacrifice that they're making is really part of everything you do. But in the counter terrorism environment,
the majority of these cases have a shelf life. In the early 2000s, there was a call to arms for case officers to serve in these war zones, that's where the mission was. 9/11 was fresh in everybody's minds so, there was no shortage of officers that were raising their hands to go. And it's, you know, it's a tremendous sacrifice 'cause you're away from your family, you're in a dangerous environment.
When something goes bad, it can often go really bad. There's real consequences. There's a chance that I won't come back. But you do that knowing that there's a need, protecting and saving US lives. My name's Pat Waninger, I'm a retired case officer from the Central Intelligence Agency. I had the opportunity to serve in the agency for almost 21 years. In 2006, I was assigned to go to a war zone. You know, it was one of those places where it was in the news, uh, there was a tremendous amount of strife. Any CIA officer serving, particularly in the Middle East, went into that assignment with the goal of one:
collecting intelligence that's gonna protect our homeland, and to disrupt and degrade the operations and the activities of al-Qaeda. And, two: to get information that would lead to the demise of al-Qaeda senior leadership, and ensure that another 9/11 doesn't happen. So, how do you do that? Spot, assess, develop, recruit agents that are gonna give us access to al-Qaeda leadership plans and intentions. At that time, al-Qaeda was very active. [speaking in foreign language] [translator] When we've conquered France, we'll come to the USA. We'll come to London and conquer the whole world.
The banner of Mohammed, peace be upon his head, will be raised from where the sun rises to where it sets. -And there was a lot coming at us at that time, on a daily basis. There were mortar attacks. [explosion].death squads, suicide bombings. [explosion].attacks against religious sites. Extremely normal to hear massive explosions several times a day. [explosion] Car bombs going off, I remember saying to myself, "Wow, somebody just died." -Everybody to them was a target; anything that's not them, their belief, their ideology, is a target.
My name is Marwan. I was the lead interpreter with Pat. The US Forces were targets to, to everybody and anybody. The people that worked with them were targets to everybody and, and anybody. It was a wild, wild west. -They called out for a global jihad, and they had foreign fighters who all wanted to fight under the al-Qaeda banner. We estimated there would be 300 kidnappings in a given month in Baghdad alone. So just do the math. Literally, the campaign was terror.
My name is Dan O'Shea; I'm a retired SEAL commander and a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda not only was targeting US soldiers and coalition partners, but what they did to the locals on the ground was even more catastrophic. [sirens, screaming] [reporter] This woman screams for her daughters, victims of one of at least four explosions. Three of the bombs blew up within minutes of each other. [Patrick] I was leading a team in the counter-terrorist branch; our job was to conduct surveillance operations against potential al-Qaeda targets.
There was a lot of confusion about who all the players were, who were the decision-makers in the group. Where are they operating? Where's their location? You're constantly trying to piece that together and follow the breadcrumbs, connect the dots. Not surprisingly, they're using their own level of tradecraft, and cover, and security to protect their operations, because they know we're looking for them. They definitely have the advantage; they speak the language, they understand the culture, they are made up of people of that country.
Whether it be in a traditional environment or against a CT target, you're always trying to get into that inner circle where the decision-makers are talking. Building inroads into those networks, through recruitment operations, was part of that. -To be able to have someone telling what they're saying, knowing their plans, knowing where they're gonna hit next, that intelligence is invaluable. I'm Erin O'Loughlin. I was employed by the CIA for ten years. I was a case officer for seven of the ten years that I was in the agency.
Recruiting assets in a war zone happens in multiple ways. They usually come to us for a lot of different motivations, such as ambition or just fear. -We were able to put together some lead information on a potential asset, and that led to an initial contact. We'll call him 'Ali.' We had indicators that he was looking to communicate with us. We weren't 100% sure why; we didn't know his motivations. At the time, he was serving as an advisor to senior al-Qaeda leadership. But there was a clear and present danger.
Al-Qaeda would like nothing more than to kidnap or kill a CIA officer. Was he setting us up? Was he trying to identify who we are so that we can be a target? Or, does he legitimately want to share information because he has another motivation? You try to do as much vetting as you can ahead of time, and we were able to assess that he did have direct access to the leadership of this al-Qaeda group that was operating in this area, and was reigning terror. So, it was a unique opportunity, and somebody worth the risk of doing a meeting. There's a tremendous amount of pre-planning that went into it. How do we ensure that it's secure before the meeting happens? If this is a provocation, then we don't know when it's too late,
when he's in proximity to us, where he could harm the team. -Or there's another, which was in the back of everybody's mind, mine included, that he's being followed. This guy is very, very well trusted, you have all this information, but the leader could say, "Hey, why don't you go follow him today, you know, see what he's up to?" [Patrick] Getting to the location site in a secure manner was the first step.
[Dan] There were two schools of thought moving around. That one, you either convoyed up and became a big target, and it would always be Ford Expedition SUVs, you'd take two or three, minimum two, and you would load up. You'd either go large or you'd go incognito. You would try and go in maybe a local vehicle, put a headscarf on, try and cover up. But if you get caught at a checkpoint and then they realize that you're not a local, you're, you're asking for a, a potential death sentence. [Marwan] The latter is more dangerous because you can't pack as much, you have to keep a low profile.
[Erin] Officers in war zones have to wear their Kevlar, their armor, body armor, and their weapons when they go out anywhere. There's a danger on a different, almost steroid-like level. If you left the base, one could be ending your life just by walking outside the gate. [Patrick] The day of the meeting, it's an early morning, we're looking at timing our movements so that we could be less obvious.
It's a very bustling, populated city. We're trying to blend in, not be obvious. [street noise] We pick the time and location, which allows us to have more control over the environment. There are gonna be security gates that this person would have to go through before being exposed to us. [Marwan] This is a bad guy so, we're gonna take all kinds of precautions. You try to make sure that the car that he's in is not a car bomb, you make sure that he's not wearing a vest.
[Patrick] So he enters the room, and he definitely looked the part, he was a large, burly man, beard, weathered face. He looked like what you think an al-Qaeda terrorist would look like at that time. -It was a little nerve-wracking. [Erin] It's not possible to be 100% on anything when it comes to doing the dangerous things, as far as war zones. [Patrick] Again, not knowing who we're dealing with 100% and what his intentions were, were they real, or was this a setup?
There's an old saying that, when you're trying to prevent attacks, we have to be right 100% of the time. Al-Qaeda, you only have to be right once. -I like a good handshake to get a feel for the person. Is he really what he says he is, is he going to blow up once we shake hands? When your life is threatened, you try to find answers within minutes. By the definition of terrorism, yes, Ali's a bad guy. But he came highly recommended, with lots of very valuable information.
Information that could save hundreds, if not thousands. [Patrick] Going into a meeting like that, the climate was very hot, temperatures were high, and of course, the stakes were higher, and the risks were higher, but that was just, you know, the cost of doing business. So, you know, we quickly get acquainted with this person. I asked him, "Why are you here today? What can I do for you?" His motivations were tied to the killing of other Muslims. He saw firsthand the car bombs, children being killed, so as part of this ongoing sectarian violence that his group was involved in, that started to have an impact on him.
He also saw that there was holes in what he described as, um, al-Qaeda's narrative. For example, when people agreed to join al-Qaeda, perhaps to be a fighter or maybe a suicide bomber, promises were made that, financially, their family would be taken care of, and he saw that wasn't happening. He recognized that the longer he stayed in al-Qaeda, the greater risk of him dying. And, he had a young family and children that he was worried about. So, a combination of those factors led him to, you know, wanna talk to us, but he viewed us through the lens of al-Qaeda, you know, we were bad. And one of the things that, at the time, President Bush had said is that we're not at war with Islam.
-The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends, our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. -There was a difference, and he saw that. And he saw, over time, that the intentions of the United States government, to try to bring stability to that environment, was an honorable one. We spent several hours together during that first meeting and, you know, definitely got a sense that he was who he said he was, but we were at the front end of the vetting process.
[Erin] You should always be vetting. To vet a source, you're always having to kinda test them. You've gotta be able to make sure that they're an appropriate person to work with so that they stay safe, and then you also need to make sure that what they're giving you is solid intelligence. [Patrick] So I asked him, "Tell me who's in the network." And he was able to validate what we already knew, again, a good vetting strategy, but also providing new information that we didn't know. So, you know, he made an impression on me that this guy could be the real deal. And to his credit, he was willing to assume the risk that came along with choosing this path.
[Marwan] This was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of an opportunity. He didn't hide anything, of course, he did say, a couple weeks ago, if he'd seen me, he would have shot me. [laughing] -I told him that if we ever learned of him being compromised, that we would do everything that we could to protect him, and that meant a lot to him. We definitely walked away from that meeting feeling better about the relationship. [♪ suspenseful music playing]
[Patrick] We started him with smaller operations. He was probably expecting that we would put him at the maximum risk immediately, and we just weren't willing to do that. We have a, a responsibility to help protect them. [Erin] There's a lot of pressure when you're trying to protect an asset, and you're working with them; you hold their lives in your hands. You're constantly talking to them about staying safe, you're doing what you can to make sure that the person you're working with stays alive, their family stays alive. That can be hard on your psyche, because they're killed immediately if they're
even suspected of working with you. -He would always say, don't push me, just be patient. I'll get you what you want, please be patient. -You're convincing someone to trust you, and that takes a long time. -It's like building a new relationship; it's just this guy happens to be a terrorist. One of the areas where we were able to build trust with him was the fact that we were not haphazardly putting him at risk.
We were looking out for his interests, not just ours, and that resonated with him. Over time, we asked him to do bigger and potentially riskier things; we wanna, you know, crawl, walk, run. And we're teaching him levels of tradecraft along the way, also, like not being too aggressive in how he collected the information. Don't ask to be part of a meeting; let them ask you. Don't be so curious about details, you know, simple things like that, and it worked. After a couple of months, we started putting out intelligence reporting, based on his information.
[Marwan] He got plans on attacks, car bombs, and IEDs, names of leaders. [Patrick] As he starts becoming more vetted, he starts providing locational data. You know, where they were doing meetings, where they slept at night, what we call their bed-down locations. -Locations are the most important thing; it's very, very rarely revealed to anybody. So when you have a source with that kind of information, it's very significant.
[Patrick] Over time, the military started acting on it. I was working very closely with an elite US Special Operations Force. They knew that I had a source, and I was giving them context to the reporting. They were acting on this information and had a series of very successful operations. -Intelligence is key to everything. Intelligence drives operations; they drive each other, good operations will bring in more intelligence 'cause they collect intelligence off every target.
They go hand in hand. [Patrick] Obviously, working with our partners in the military had a tremendous positive impact on the War on Terror. I was tremendously proud. I have this loyalty to the military because I grew up in a military family. My parents were both immigrants. My dad was from Peru. He joined the military when he was 18 and got his citizenship through that, and worked in the Special Operations community, was a Green Beret, and posted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. So my brother and I were born and raised there
and grew up in this community of service before self. My dad had served in Vietnam, several tours, had been wounded, received Purple Hearts. You know, he was that guy. He was a native Spanish speaker serving in the 7th Special Forces group. So, if you go back to the '80s, these shadow wars that were happening in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and then later Panama. [gunfire] I mean, he was involved in all of those. He spent a lot of time away from us. But he was working in these far away locations doing secretive work. Which we fully didn't understand at the time, and I got to appreciate as I got older in life.
I got commissioned in the military. I was an intelligence officer for eight years in the US Air Force. And, eventually, I had the opportunity to visit Langley, and it really piqued my interest. On a whim, decided to apply, thinking I'd never have a chance to get in and, uh, lo and behold, got in. But to make the decision to leave the Air Force wasn't an easy one, just because the military had been really good to me. So, I spoke to a, a senior officer, a general, and his remark was, "Well, what are you waiting for? You don't have to wear your uniform to serve your country." And that was very powerful for me.
We had just gotten ourselves into a very good position with Ali to penetrate these al-Qaeda networks. [soldier] Go, go, go, go. -And it worked. Ali's information led to the removal of many targets off the battlefield. -Coalition forces raided two locations. One terrorist was killed and four suspects detained in the operation.
-He saw the successes firsthand. Like he would see that his reporting led to, two nights later, somebody being captured, and the whole network's talking about it, and he, inside, knows that it was him that was directly responsible for that. [Marwan] Ali was a treasure trove. It made him the source of that era. [Patrick] He starts to be empowered by this. You know that's a good thing, but it's also, it can be a very dangerous thing; it's a double-edged sword, where, if he becomes too aggressive then, he's potentially exposing himself and taking unnecessary risks, and that's when things, you know, become dangerous for him.
[Patrick] As the case progressed, Ali came to me and said, "Hey, there's a concern that somebody in the group is talking. And they're looking." [Marwan] Operation-wise, that was a huge deal. You're concerned if his cover is blown. -The fact that the, the intel that was coming in was allowing the, the military to strike more and more targets. [explosion].al-Qaeda realized, okay, we, we have a mole, someone is obviously leaking. -As time went by, it got more and more dangerous and, the, uh, terrorist groups, they got very sophisticated with how they identified those that were working
for the US forces. -From my perspective, we wanna be really careful about how we're operating. But, in this case, he was not concerned. He was like, "I'm fine. You have to trust me on this. I know these people better than you." And he wasn't wrong. And I'm like, "Well, it's my job to worry about these things." You know, he didn't necessarily know tradecraft, and security. He was, maybe he wasn't thinking about some of the things that we were thinking about.
[Dan] But that's just the reality that, you know, sources can bring in a lot of good information, but the more successful they are at that target, the more risk and more of a target you put on the head of that source. -So, we took measures to protect him, we were able to do some things, uh, to mitigate the threat, and he was super appreciative of that. -He just downplayed any scrutiny that could have been associated with him. And he, he was able to maintain his credibility through that time, and he was very appreciative of the steps that we took.
It seemed to settle down for a couple of weeks. And then, three weeks later, we were in contact, and he indicated that he had been asked to meet with a senior al-Qaeda leader, someone he had not met before. But he was being asked to meet with them the following day, and that he viewed this as a very positive step, that his role as an advisor, he was making an impact, he was trusted. He said, "This is a good thing." My first reaction was, this seems really out of pattern; he had just been under scrutiny a few weeks earlier. So, suddenly being chosen to go meet a senior al-Qaeda guy, are, are you sure this isn't a setup?
And he's like, "No, this is good for us. I'm gonna have more access to more senior people, we're gonna be able to do more damage against this network." And again, I, I, I was very concerned about this; it just seemed to pop up out of nowhere. [Marwan] Everybody had alarm bells. But when the high command say to anybody, "You're doing this, you're doing this," it put everything in, in jeopardy. If anything happens, you're a goner. -After receiving this information, I advised the Special Operations Unit that I was working with, and obviously the, the station, and asked for more resources so that we could be better positioned to monitor what was happening with Ali the following day.
If he was indeed, um, having a meeting with a more senior al-Qaeda leader, we wanna be positioned to understand what that looked like. [street noise] The day of the meeting, he was told to be at a certain place at a certain time, through his network. Emissaries picked him up at a certain place, and started to employ what we know as, you know, al-Qaeda tradecraft. Surveillance detection to make sure nobody's following them, they're doing car swaps, things like that, which we had seen before.
[Erin] Al-Qaeda does employ tradecraft, and they're very good at it. When it comes to hiding Osama bin Laden, that was pretty top-notch. The Art of War, Sun Tzu said it himself, never underestimate your enemy. Learn about them, where they're coming from, uh, understand they're not dumb at all, they're very strategic, they're very smart, they know how to stay alive. -So, as the day went on, this started to look like he might actually meet someone more senior. And suddenly. [tires screech]
.he was, at gunpoint, asked to leave his vehicle. And blindfolded and put into the trunk of a second vehicle. And at that point, I realized, they're gonna kill him. [engine starts] -That's not something they normally do with trusted al-Qaeda members. [Dan] Every time you saw someone being put in the trunk of a car, they were being kidnapped, that, that was virtually the calling card. They would generally move them car to car, and then ultimately put 'em in a place where they were gonna be held. [Patrick] Soon after, he was taken to this house, in this residential area that we were not familiar with.
I had this feeling like; this is not al-Qaeda tradecraft. This is not part of the plan. I thought there's something wrong. Marwan and I left the station, jumped in a vehicle, and went down to the Special Operations Unit that we were working with and highlighted that, "Hey, I'm, I'm concerned about this." And there was a discussion, and I met with the commander, and we talked through this. -They thought this was a protocol. Pat disagreed; he highly disagreed. [Patrick] So there was that debate.
Is he actually going to a meeting with a senior al-Qaeda guy, and let's just let it play out, or are they going to kill him? And it was a valid debate to say, maybe this is just all al-Qaeda tradecraft, to protect the senior leader. My gut was that they were gonna kill him. I didn't know that conclusively, but I felt that way, and the Special Operations Unit Commander agreed with me. To his credit, he suggested, "We're gonna go save this guy. We'll go get him." This unit specifically had benefited from his reporting tremendously in the amount of successful operations they had, that the detail of his reporting actually provided some level of force protection for the unit acting on that.
And the fact that this unit was willing to take the risk to try to save him, that was a game-changer. [Dan] Very few people have the, the cojones to, to, to say, "Okay, let's go launch the boys." But we memorize things like the Ranger Creed. We all have a stanza in our mottos, "That others might live: leave no man behind." And we don't just mean that for our brothers to our left and right. [Patrick] With this information in hand, they were able to pull out a map, pinpoint the location, and very quickly, in a matter of minutes, put together an operational plan, right away, and start kitting up to go do it.
I can't speak to the specific TTPs, the tactics, techniques, and procedures of how this unit does their business, but they're in a very impressive, elite unit. They were getting into the right mindset, getting their game face on, to go do this really high-risk, dangerous operation in broad daylight against al-Qaeda, where there's a lot of unknown variables, in just a matter of minutes. [Dan] You're ready to get on a helicopter at a moment's notice 'cause your gear's always ready, you're already prepped, you have established standard operating procedures. So, a normal military mission planning cycle
of 96 hours can be down to nine minutes to certain units that are at that capability, it's a very few units around the world are at that level. -It's a very, very elite unit. One of these guys is, is worth 20, if not more. [Patrick] The plan was basically a ground element and a rotary element, one helicopter simultaneously hitting the objective at the same time. Now it was all done under the auspices of a raid. There was legitimate targets at this house, potentially. We weren't sure who was inside, we just know that there was two to three al-Qaeda guys outside providing security around the house.
Prior to their departure, I showed them a picture of Ali, which was the first time they got to know who the source was, so that if they did enter the house, they'd be mindful of who he is and hopefully not accidentally shoot him. [Dan] But again, most kidnapping cases, they ended in tragedy. Hostage rescue missions are inherently dangerous and, and, and they're not always successful. [Patrick] This is in middle of the afternoon, in a bustling environment, in a location that previously had not been known to us. So a lot of unknowns, and doing it in broad daylight, you know the stakes are higher.
Time was of the essence. I'm also concerned too, like, hey, we're risking American lives. That's the last thing that I'd wanna see. This is a risky operation, for sure. [Patrick] The helicopter launches, and a ground element launch at the same time.
[agent] Ah, roger, 10-4. [Patrick] Listening on the radio, they arrive at the house as planned. As the helicopter lands on the roof, the operators take out the security element while the ground element is arriving, and the combination of that was instantaneous. So, even though it was broad daylight, they had an element of surprise. [Dan] And you can't have hesitancy. A hostage rescue mission is a no-fail mission because the stakes are so high, you either get the hostage back out alive or you don't. And if you fail in bringing the hostage home alive, you've failed the mission.
[Patrick] The ground element entered the house, there was a firefight. And, you know, hearing things on the radio, at this moment, we still didn't know what was happening with Ali. I mean, we could have showed up, and he was already executed. -You never have 100% intelligence, there's never 100% accuracy that the bad guy is in the room that you're going after, or the hostage is there. That can mean the difference between life or death for the hostage itself. [Patrick] As the raid is ongoing and unfolding, we still didn't know what was happening.
It took a few minutes. [gunfire] And they neutralized the threat inside, and they called "jackpot," which, uh, which meant they had secured Ali, and that he was alive. [agent] It was 10:46 at last transmit. [Patrick] The fact that no Americans were injured or harmed was a relief, and then the fact they got Ali obviously was also a big relief. [Dan] His story was a miracle. The commanders made that time-sensitive decision, launched the unit, and they, they pulled off an epic hostage rescue.
[Patrick] Four individuals were taken off the objective, but again, this was all under the ruse of a raid, not a rescue operation. -They asked everybody their name, he stated his, so they knew it was him. [Patrick] Ali was treated as if he was an al-Qaeda member. So, the same measures that they used against the other three, they used against him in order to continue to protect him. We didn't want anyone to know what the nature of his true relationship was. -I was surprised he made it alive, and that was the ultimate reward.
[Patrick] The four were brought back to a facility for the legal debriefings. And they, the four, were standing in a hallway, with blindfolds on, and I approached Ali and forcefully moved him so the others could hear that, to continue that ruse that he was now gonna be debriefed. And brought him into a, a private room separated from the other three al-Qaeda members and sat him down. I had the blindfold removed from Ali, and at that moment, he looked at me, and he started crying. -He saw us, and, and he broke down.
-It was a pretty emotional moment. It took a few minutes for him to gather himself to tell us the story. It turns out that al-Qaeda had suspected him of being the mole, and therefore, they had set up this entire day to get him to a location and execute him. So when he arrived at the location, he said there was two members that he didn't know that were waiting for him, both armed with pistols, and they basically started to interrogate him and accuse him of working with the Americans. There was no senior al-Qaeda meeting; they were there to kill him. They were being extremely hostile with him. They didn't have any specific information to point to that compromised him, other than, you know,
to threaten him, I think, hoping that he would admit to it, and he wouldn't. But, either way, the group was intent on eliminating a group of people that they suspected of potentially working for the Americans, and unfortunately, this was his day. Eventually, it got to the moment where they were done talking and pointed both their pistols to his face. They asked him if there was anything he wanted to say before they executed him, and he said, "I'd like to pray." And they granted him that wish. As Ali describes it, there was a prayer rug. He knelt and began praying, and as he was praying, he said that he was praying for his family. And he had remembered what we had talked about, that if he had ever gotten in trouble,
that we would do whatever it took to try to forewarn him, protect him, and save him. [helicopter rotars] And as he was praying for that, he heard the helicopter land on the roof. The ground element was coming through the door and, in that moment, it was enough of a distraction where they didn't pull the trigger. And to see it turn the other way like that, he felt really, really lucky and fortunate. And that's why, when we removed the blindfold, he just burst out with emotions. -It was a very, uh, significant moment. It was a very, a very strong moment.
Yeah, I, I got a little bit emotional, and I'm sure Pat did too. -Very powerful moment. It's hard to believe. Um, and he was, you know, very thankful. And I kept assuring him, "Like it's okay. Just, it's alright. You're gonna be alright." But, you know, it was an extremely emotional day. You know from beginning to end, the highs and lows, the unknowns, the bravery of our American colleagues in the Special Operations Unit to go do this operation in broad daylight, pretty harrowing.
[Patrick] I remember I was serving in a war zone, and the commander of the 7th Special Forces group came to my location. He was there 'cause he has teams deployed in that area. I started telling him like, "Well, you know, I'm from Fayetteville." And he said, "Really?" And I was like, "Yeah, in fact, my dad worked in the 7th group." And he was like, "Who's your dad?" And I told him, and he was like, "Oh my God, that's your dad? Wow, that guys a legend. He trained me," you know, "when I was a young captain, your dad, he was the real deal in those shadow wars in Central America."
Truth be told, my, my dad wasn't there for many of the milestones when I was younger. Like, he didn't come to my high school graduation, uh, when I graduated college, was commissioned in the military, he wasn't there for that 'cause he was deployed. I remember early on I regretted that, but as I got older and entered into the military, and got into the Special Operations community myself, and then later the CIA, you learn to understand it and appreciate it. So here I was, far away in the War on Terror, and this guy's telling me about my dad. And, uh, I had a chance to share that with my dad. And uh, he was pretty proud about that, as was I. And I think it's through the work that I did at the agency, and I think that definitely brought us closer together.
So it helped put things in perspective about the sacrifices that officers make, that our military makes, and the sacrifices that our agents make, to benefit our country. Sacrifice is always gonna be part of the mission. Within the CIA, we try to do what's best for the source, but we also have to factor in what's best for our national security, and those two things don't always align. In Ali's case, he was lucky that they did, and, you know, this Special Operations Unit was willing to go rescue him. And fortunately, this one ended in a way where everybody was still alive.
[Dan] It rarely is a Hollywood ending. It is a miracle he wasn't executed, to be honest. There's a lot of amazing stories of resilience, of bravery, of heroics; it's just a testament to, uh, you know, that case officer. It takes a special breed, but, uh, thank God we still, you know, raise men and, and women that are willing to go do those things. [Patrick] I was very thankful, he was successfully rescued, and three others were taken off the battlefield, but the majority of these cases have a shelf life.
I thanked him, you know, for all that he had done, but also recognized that this was kinda the end of the line for this operation. The interesting thing about all of it was, Ali didn't think so. He still felt like he had utility, but we recognized that he did not. From my perspective, he had really paid the rent, and he was a courageous, brave agent that did a lot to protect lives, prevent attacks. We were able to provide him with the necessary resources so that he could relocate himself to another place that was much safer and, and better for him and his family. So it's never easy saying goodbye, but in this case,
we knew that he was moving on to a better situation than the one he had been in. So there's solace in that. [Erin] These people who do work with us are desperate for a return to normalcy in their country, to peace, stability, and that's why they're doing what they're doing. That's something you just can't duplicate. -I have a mentor who says, "We don't leave agents on the corner." That means, when it gets difficult for them, there's a problem, we go help them, right? That's our, part of our credo, and that's instilled in our DNA from day one. -The CIA is dedicated to their assets, their well-being, their safety. They'll do everything and anything that can be done.
[Patrick] Because the alternative was, you know, losing an agent, but he felt it was worth the risk. [Marwan] Every step taken is a risk, but you are part of that risk, knowing that the reward is some guy in his 30s with, with a couple of children, just coming home from work, providing for his family, is saved. Some US soldiers from, from the Dakotas, a private, is saved. Some, uh, diplomat is saved. Only God knows how many lives we have saved; that's a very, very big deal. -It's a challenge on all fronts but, that's what we do.
We value what our agents are doing for us and, you know, I'm forever grateful to them, and that's never lost on us.
