Debbie Roth’s Reviews > Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan—and the Path to Victory > Status Update
Debbie Roth
is 41% done
I moved toward the door of the…Black Hawk. As the door opened, out came Christiane Amanpour of CNN in a bright yellow nylon jacket, cameraman in tow. She stopped and stared at us, clearly surprised but intrigued. She seemed on the verge of speaking to us…we quickly moved past her…I gave her a thin smile and helped the crew chief slide the door closed behind me. Within two minutes we were back in the sky and rolling.
— Sep 26, 2024 09:50PM
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Debbie’s Previous Updates
Debbie Roth
is 86% done
You see, the way I figure it, there are soldiers and there are warriors in the military. Soldiers do everything by the book. They just follow orders. Warriors … well, warriors understand that their job is to win. Their primary objective is to adapt and achieve victory over the enemy by adjusting and changing their tactics and procedures as necessary to stay one step ahead of them.
— Oct 06, 2024 07:24PM
Debbie Roth
is 70% done
Medals are always pinned on the left over the heart. The Bronze Star—awarded to service members in combat—was a one-and-a-half-inch star suspended from a red, white, and blue ribbon. On the reverse, it read HEROIC OR MERITORIOUS ACHIEVEMENT along with a place to have my name engraved, although no one I knew got their medals engraved.
— Sep 27, 2024 08:12PM
Debbie Roth
is 61% done
I listed the bureaucratic roadblocks that had been thrown up in front of Able Danger, how LIWA had been pulled from the project, and how I’d tried to alert the FBI to this finding before the 9/ 11 attacks and how the SOCOM lawyers had shut me down. In the end…Able Danger was finally shut down and its work had been sucked into the gullet of the military bureaucracy. There was a stunned silence when I was finished.
— Sep 27, 2024 05:26PM
Debbie Roth
is 51% done
I thought about Willard’s journey up the river and into the “heart of darkness.” Maybe we were going to have to do something to get at these guys where they lived…Operation Dark Heart. That’s what this would be. Over the next twenty-four hours, I mapped it out: a long-term operation to destabilize the Taliban and al Qaeda and reduce their ability to reconstitute and train.
— Sep 27, 2024 01:57PM
Debbie Roth
is 30% done
We went through demonstrations of force…with more troop convoys coming into the city. Moreover, to deliver the message in a distinctly more intimate fashion, we sent a B-1 bomber at full afterburner buzzing over his house—and I mean over his house—just about 50 feet above. Message delivered. It was two days later that we knew, through intelligence and diplomatic channels, that Fahim had backed down.
— Sep 26, 2024 09:42PM
Debbie Roth
is 22% done
Their tactic was comprehensive attack. They had started by getting control of the police stations, as we had seen on the video, as a way to disrupt the central order of the country. If that strategy was successful, it wouldn’t take long before they were aiming for Kandahar. We believed that Mullah Omar was making trips inside Pakistan to recruit fresh Taliban troops.
— Sep 26, 2024 04:46PM
Debbie Roth
is 15% done
No matter what, you kept going. That was the guidance given…on the sidewalk, on the median…If you got in an accident, you kept driving, faster than before because it might have been a setup for an assault. Even if you hit a pedestrian, you kept moving and notified the American Embassy later. We rode without seatbelts in the city. That way, if a bomb or hand grenade were thrown into our vehicle, we could bail out.
— Sep 25, 2024 06:41PM
Debbie Roth
is 10% done
After a mountain pass on Russian Road, where we slowed down slightly and passed a lumbering 10th Mountain convoy, we really hit the gas as we headed downhill into Kabul. We then decelerated as we entered the traffic bedlam of a city with about two million residents—and only one working traffic light.
— Sep 25, 2024 06:38PM
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Fiza
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Sep 26, 2024 11:49PM
Wow - amazing status update cum highlight Debbie! It sounds so much like an adventure thriller, but it is indeed one of the many death-defying operations that took place in Afghanistan. I like such real spy & real war/battle stories, helps me in my investigative Catholic journalism & in my social issue fiction writing. The latter is the only genre in fiction that I write it & I'm addicted to it. You should read Indian Battle & War stories too, especially written by our courageous army & police force. They will be available at extremely affordable prices & you can buy the physical copies in bulk. Our police forces always manage to solve even the most complicated criminal & Mafia cases! Happy Reading to you this Friday! The weekend is coming - but I'm busier than ever! Love your book choices & looking forward to your review or rating of 'Operation Dark Heart'. Kudos! :)
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Fiza wrote: "Wow - amazing status update cum highlight Debbie! It sounds so much like an adventure thriller, but it is indeed one of the many death-defying operations that took place in Afghanistan. I like such..."When you have time >> I can’t seem to find the book(s) you recommended: Indian Battle & War Stories. I read only ebooks/Kindles/audiobooks at this point. If you have a link to share, I’d be grateful.
Debbie wrote: "Fiza wrote: "Wow - amazing status update cum highlight Debbie! It sounds so much like an adventure thriller, but it is indeed one of the many death-defying operations that took place in Afghanistan..."Definitely, will get back to you here with a lovely list. For now, 'Crime, Grime and Gumption: Case Files of an IPS Officer' by O.P. Singh is on Kindle & do get 'A Bullet for a Bullet' by Julio Rebeiro our Roman Catholic Indian Police Hero of the 1970s & 1980s. That too is on Kindle.
You would have got plenty if you could have read hardback or paperback, but will check out for more.
Don't forget to check out our unsolved & creepiest case - 'Aarushi' by Avirook Sen, it took India by storm & still remains a mystery till date. It is available on Kindle. Will get back to you Debbie! Thanks for asking for recs, I love giving book recs by the by! Have an amazing weekend! :)
