12 strong cia guy

For movie producers, as for most Americans, the world was, and is simplistic and, binary. We are your friends. During these scenes, we get a ton of action and some great character moments from our two leads. Etched on many of their faces was the memory of having lived through the collapse of the monarchy, a genocidal Soviet invasion, bloody civil war, Taliban slaughter and brutality, and now savage insurgency. From Hollywood to the Hindu Kush. | It was this sort of bridging of languages, religions, and continents that gave me hope, not just for Afghanistan, but for Islam’s relations with the West. Having been to Gitmo’s notorious prison to serve in the Military Tribunals, I suspect the fanatical Pashtun Mullah would have preferred death to life in the “Pearl of the Antilles. EcranLarge.com . Navid, who speaks the Afghan trans-ethnic language of Farsi-Persian-Dari, also introduced me to dozens of Afghans he had discovered and recruited in Albuquerque. For many Americans, this will be the first time they have seen “good Muslims” fighting the terrorists. In its quest for authenticity, 12 Strong is the most accurate portrayal of America’s warfare in the Islamic world since the dark day of 9/11 propelled its fighting men and women across the world to fight in distant lands. In the case of … He has worked in Afghanistan for the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center and the US Army’s Information Operations in Kabul. For my critique of them see here, scroll down four pages http://www.brianglynwilliams.com/pdfs/CESR_06_12.pdf?q=cache:WgsH6uZz7sYJ:www.cesr-cess.org/pdf/CESR_06_12.pdf+Writing+the+Dostumname&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=l&gl=us&client=safari. Loading... 12 Strong. These 12 solders were outnumbered by the Taliban as they worked with Afghan rebels. # man # strong … In an eerie way, his hunger for Afghan intel and total humility seemed to be channeling the same qualities as I had seen in Mark. As we hiked further up the windswept mountainside, I was shocked to see Soviet T-72 main battle tanks and BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers. At the premiere of the movie in Manhattan on January 16, I had the honor of having my friend, Dostum’s son Batur and a group of American Uzbeks led by Ambassador Ayoob Erfani by my side. Vice President Dostum will be satisfied with the way the 12 Jasurs (the ‘braves’ or ‘strong ones’ as he always referred to them to me) were portrayed. When I received a phone call from a representative for famed producer Jerry Bruckheimer to visit the remote mountains of New Mexico to see the filming set for the forthcoming Afghan war movie, 12 Strong: The True Declassified Story of the Horse Soldiers, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. I hope it helps improve relations between the Afghan people and Americans and shows them who is fighting in their interests against the enemy we have in common. (For the one CIA death, the first very first American to die in combat in the war on terror, see my article here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-glyn-williams/cia-agent-mike-spann-amer_b_4459290.html ). JOIN SIMKL. ANIME. I could be forgiven for thinking that the approaching rider was Dostum himself, so closely did he resemble that great warrior. The optics on this movie, that is made about the lives of real fighting men and their families, would be fantastic if Jerry Bruckheimer and Warner Brothers were to establish a 12 Strong trust fund to assist the real heroes that made this movie possible. But I had grown tired of the ultra-patriotic “black” and “white” War on Terror genre of films that simplistically divided the world between good Americans and bad Muslims. But I am different, I have only Allah above me” or “tomorrow America will become just another tribe in Afghanistan, and we may become enemies. 12 Strong is a fantastic movie when we are trudging through the trenches and dodging bullets with Nelson and Dostum. It was only after several days that I could weigh in on a movie that had taken a few over-the-top Hollywood turns and plot twists that I had not anticipated. When I asked where on earth this Soviet hardware had come from, Bruckheimer’s rep explained that they were captured equipment lent to Warner Brothers from nearby White Sands Army Base. Vidéos à découvrir. It was Bruckheimer who had bought the rights to the magical book by writer Doug Stanton titled The Horse Soldiers which provided a retrospective overview of the exploits of all fourteen Green Berets teams operating in the Afghan theatre. The costly war to deny sanctuary to the terrorists who are plotting new 9/11s that began with ODA 595’s 2001 insertion into the Hindu Kush goes on in the “Graveyard of Empires.” On November 5, 2017 Green Beret Sergeant 1st. Many thanks also to legendary “Afghan hand” Robert Young Pelton. Dostum, the Uzbeks, and all Afghans were treated with honor.” There was a slight pause on the phone, then Ayoob asked a question that was of paramount concern to Vice President Dostum “And how were the vice president’s American brothers portrayed in the movie?”. I recalled Dostum pointing up to them and retelling a story similar to Makaela’s of the remarkable campaign with his loyal right and left commanders Lal and Fakir by his side. It was an epic example of what Lieutenant General John Mulholland, former Associate Director of the Central Intelligence Agency for Military Affairs, described to me as a “mission of by, with and through native forces, to maximize their fighting potential and put a local face on the campaign.”, The Green Beret Unconventional Warriors and Air Force combat controller-ground spotters (missing from the movie) worked with the local militias to channel the remarkably precision might of the US air forces onto their enemies in order to the seize a thousand year old Sufi shrine that was the crucible of Afghanistan. Throughout the story, Stanton uses a descriptive and heartfelt use of words when portraying the … 12 Strong is a film directed by Nicolai Fuglsig with Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Navid Negahban, Michael Peña, Trevante Rhodes .... Year: 2018. In an age where the political rhetoric from the Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda etc. Perhaps next time Ayoob throws one of his legendary parties in Queens the director, producers, and whole cast can attend in this celebration of Muslim-American friendships forged in battle and enjoy a feast fit for a king…or at least a warlord. Another thumbs up for Fuglsig who also flew real MH 60 Black Hawks in his movie, instead of the outdated Vietnam Hueys that appear in so many other war movies. While at the ceremony, I had heard that the Green Berets had not been tapped into as advisors on the movie set and this troubled both me and this elite fighting community. PROFILE. The CIA Museum contains an ... 12 Strong and Preserving Accurate History. Just as Dostum was.” I could hear a palpable sigh of relief on the other end of the phone as Ayoob responded. But you will always be my friend” were pure Dostum. One of them, Sergeant First Class Bill Bennet, was subsequently killed … As Batur, a humble version of his Taliban-slaughtering warlord father, posed for pictures with Michael Shannon, I felt this was the heart of the story. Michael Peña. It is us versus them,…the Muslim “Others.” The nuanced fact that across the globe brave Muslim Kurdish Peshmerga warriors whom I have embedded with, Iraqi Special Forces, Pakistani/Afghan troops etc. The brown, stark vista was eerily reminiscent of the Shomali Plain north of Kabul and I felt as if I had been transported to that heavily mined war zone. My journey of growing trust began as we crossed a windswept plain with barren brown mountains surrounding us on both sides. When the fictional Dostum, who has lost his family to a notorious Taliban commander (in reality his wife was killed on accident) shot his nemesis, the audience filling the hall broke into their only applause during the movie. The perspective of the story is in third person omniscient. My journey to uncover the hidden story of this special operations campaign—that united Green Berets with fierce Uzbek Mongols as a proxy fighting force to overthrow the entrenched Taliban regime—had consumed me and, on a couple of occasions, almost led to my death. Release Dates And speaking of special operators, it was at this time that the top billed star of the movie, Chris Hemsworth, made his debut. The Afghans, led by the Sharifi family, were honored to assist the actor playing the Uzbek warlord who had for years terrorized their Taliban enemies. Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion, By Brian Glyn Williams (with Julie Romei) | (Informed Comment) | – –. What is unique about 12 Strong is that Bruckheimer and Fuglsig in many ways broke with the simplistic “us” versus “them” Hollywood convention and brought to life this American soldier’s remarkable friendship with Dostum, who just happens to be a Muslim. Producer Molly Smith later told me that he had travelled far and wide, reportedly as far as the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, studying terrain that matched footage and pictures from the Afghan mountaintop battlefields to find the perfect spot for his movie. Only these smiling Taliban extras posed for photos with me and welcomed me to the movie set with New Mexico drawls, instead of ranting about how America was “the Great Satan” and Dostum a “traitor to true Islam.” As the black turbaned American Talibs walked away, I nodded approvingly when I noticed they were armed with real Russian manufactured AK 47 assault rifles and RPG-7s (Rocket Propelled Grenades). The US Green Berets and Air Force combat controllers like Bart Decker (who I interviewed extensively for their untold story) called in the airstrikes for the Uzbek charges from the safety of dugout positions and “overwatches.” When I discussed the heroic Green Beret-led scenes with Mark Nutsch, he wryly chuckled and said “the movie was overall a worthy depiction of the spirit of the Green Berets.” Other than these understandable divergences, 12 Strong is a story that I know well and hews to much of the reality of the journey the two real warriors took to become friends and surprise the world by exceeding all expectations (and the Green Berets’ rather basic orders to go behind enemy lines in the mountains and essentially leverage local allies to wreak havoc). This never happened. I would also like to dedidicate it and say tashakor to my choban (shepherd) Carol Hansen who is indispensible in my writing and all my “missions.” And third, I would like to dedicate it to Amy Nutsch, Khadija Dostum, and all the wives who sent their men to fight the terrorists. Their visit mollified me, somewhat, and I was also honored to meet a Navy SEAL who was providing advice on the set. VIP. From the historical perspective, it is a magnificent re-telling of a pivotal mountain campaign that changed the course of history. 12 Strong is in Amerikaanske histoaryske oarlochsfilm út 2018 ûnder rezjy fan Nicolai Fuglsig, mei yn 'e haadrollen Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon en Michael Peña.De titel betsjut "12 [Man] Sterk". To put it mildly, after all I had been through to shed light on this covert campaign from the Uzbek perspective in articles, books, talks to the NSA, Army’s Information Operations and CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center etc, I was skeptical that Hollywood could capture the essence of this story of men from different worlds uniting to capture an ancient shrine. Navid had also dyed his hair gray like Dostum’s, grown a mustache of the sort favored by the tough Uzbeks, and donned a green camouflage US army jacket like the ones US Central Command airlifted into the anti-Taliban rebels’ isolated mountain base when they deputized Dostum’s band of 2,000 warriors in 2001. Hemsworth responded simply by saying “take me to the frontlines…and I will kill Taliban.” I was beyond impressed and, on this occasion, and subsequently in Hollywood, I probed Nicolai on his own journey into breathing life into this mountain campaign fought at 7,000 feet in the unforgiving Hindu Kush Mountains. Nothing irks me more than seeing fake military equipment in movies. The red carpet world premier for 12 Strong was held in Manhattan on January 16th. The movie, which retells the remarkable story of a brotherhood forged between Afghan Uzbek horse warriors and an elite Special Forces A-Team in the mountains of Afghanistan, is a story I have professionally immersed myself in exploring and bringing to life for a decade and a half. (There are many myths, legends, distortions and half-truths swirling about the semi-mythical warlord who has been depicted by his enemies as a neo-Genghis Khan. What this point of view does is allow the reader to become attached to each character involved in the story. I would like to dedicate this article to Julie Romei who has been a fereshta (guardian angel) to me and became my “hands” for writing this piece up after my own were injured in Iraq. After our discussion, I was eager to meet the young director who had so inspired the great Bruckheimer. While he had never been to that epic Central Asian nation, I sensed it had enraptured him just as it had me. Colonel Lawrence Ferguson, commander of 10th Special Forces Group, said in a statement. Naturally, Chris Hemsworth and Navid Negahban are 12 Strong's true leads, and thankfully they deliver the best turns of the group. I let Jerry know that JR, who had recently retired after a remarkable career in Afghanistan going back to the Soviet invasion, lived in a remote canyon south of the set. Batur Dostum was thrilled to say the least. They did so in a series of Uzbek cavalry charges, bolstered by close air support, that broke the spine of the Aryan Pashtun Taliban occupation army of the north by November 9th 2001. But not all the warfare in the movie involved hi-tech machinery like Alan Mack’s MH 47 Chinook helicopter. At the end of the movie, Dostum also executes his Taliban nemesis with a shot to the head, a fact not lost on the Uzbeks. There is more tension in the movie version of their relationship than the story conveyed to me by Dostum and Mark Nutsch, but Hollywood is allowed some script freedom to build a compelling plot. The burden of their fight to defend America has weighed heavily on their families as well as I have learned from talking with the wonderfully strong Amy Nutsch. But what of the other half of this epic tale, the Green Berets? On the contrary, Dostum was so driven by the surprisingly successful campaign that he was personally leading that he agreed to Green Beret leader Colonel Mulholland’s decision to deploy an A Team to his Tajik rival. At the end, the movie does sensationalize the final horse charges and put Americans at the forefront of what was actually a charge led by Dostum’s number two, Commander Lal, but this inverse of the Green Beret’s policy of “putting a local face on campaigns” makes for good entertainment, and is forgivable. A case regarding Putin's alleged corruption in metal exports from 1992 was brought back by Marina Salye, but she was silenced and forced to leave Saint Petersburg. Like in the 12 Strong movie, Nutsch helped teach the other team members how to ride. 6511 GIFs. In reality, Dostum captured Mullah Faisal, who was then transported to Guantanamo Bay by his American allies. Their wives were also honored as the ‘real heroes’ to even greater applause. I will always remember my first words to Ayoob. Nicolai explained to me that he had spent considerable time filming in Kosovo during that war and, as someone who had also been in Kosovo, I began to gain respect for the Dane and his understanding of the horrors of warfare. Navid, (whose grandmother was an Afghan) had grown up near Iran’s Afghan border getting to know Afghan refugees from the 1980s Soviet invasion and was the perfect bridge to these noble Afghans whose story and rich culture he knew so well. I had sent him copies of my book The Last Warlord. I discussed his choice of Nicolai with Jerry on the set and later in Hollywood and was surprised by his loyalty to his unproven movie director. There, in his 500 plus page “Bible,” was the photographic heart and soul of a majestic country that I had long defined as “the land time had forgot.” Nicolai had captured a realm defined by migrating Kuchi nomads, splendid hand-woven carpets (of the sort that appeared as a rolled sleeping mats on the back of his steeds), unimaginable Taliban brutality, Games of Thronesesque struggles for power between Uzbeks, Tajiks, Pashtuns, and Hazaras, caravans, ancient shrines, castles, and terraced houses that climb up the impossibly steep slopes of the misty Hindu Kush Mountains. A predictable telling of an extraordinary tale. “As some of you know, my father was the first American killed in Afghanistan following the September 11th, 2001 attacks. whom I have had the pleasure of seeing in action are our greatest allies in the war on terrorists was lost in such movies as Act of Valor, American Sniper or Zero Dark Thirty. Hemsworth (famous for his rendition of Thor in the Avengers movies) intimately portrays Captain “Mitch Nelson” (based on the real Captain Mark Nutsch) head of the 12 man A-Team tasked with leveraging Dostum’s Uzbek warriors against the common Taliban foe. 12 Strong (also known as 12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers) is a 2018 American action-war film directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and written by Ted Tally and Peter Craig. Never were truer words spoken when referring to the campaign depicted in 12 Strong. # chicken # strong # flex # macho # chicken bro. The Surge - Stronger, Faster, Tougher Trailer PS4 - Trailer Bande-annonce … I had gotten to know both of Dostum’s trusted lieutenants well during my summers spent with the Uzbek tribal leader and I showed the actors photos of the men they were playing to perfect their costumes. Having being so invested in the real story, it was with an almost visceral sense of trepidation that I entered the small screening studio at Warner Brothers to watch the cinema version of the very story of a warlord’s unlikely friendship with a Kansan Green Beret rodeo rider. As the impossibly large mounds of rice pilaf, lovingly prepared by Ayoob’s wife Jamila and daughters, Nilad, Nilufar and Susan were consumed by friends from places as diverse as Nutsch’s hometown of Alma, Kansas and Batur’s hometown of Sheberghan in the windswept plains of northern Afghanistan, I enjoyed the moment of friendship. 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