Book Reviews
An Inside Look at Covert Ops
by Christopher Deliso - BALKANALYSIS.COM
January 13, 2005
Shadow Wars: Special Forces in the New Battle Against Terrorism
David Pugliese
Esprit de Corps Books (2003)
207 pp., two maps and 97 photos (26 color)
Billed as "a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about the world of covert warfare," Shadow Wars is a fairly objective and clearly written account of the role special forces units are playing in today's "war on terror." Throughout the text, detailed exploits of American, British, Canadian, Australian, and even Russian special units are recounted. The story is told with an emphasis on military tactics and a minimum of political commentary.
The author, a journalist at the Ottawa Citizen with over 20 years' experience in writing on military affairs, clearly knows his subject something that results in a tendency to talk shop at points. Yet while Pugliese's plethora of military acronyms and detailed discussions of weaponry may be lost on the casual reader, armchair generals will love it.
Action in Afghanistan
The book opens with a detailed account of how American and British special forces helped put down the "prison riot" at Qala-i-Jangi, which, in the author's estimation, was actually a full-fledged battle against 400-500 Taliban prisoners who seized the arsenal of the fort where they were being held. The battle saw the death of CIA operative Johnny Span, as well as a catastrophic friendly fire incident that left five Northern Alliance troops dead and five Green Berets wounded. The mishap occurred when a fighter pilot punched in the wrong coordinates on his satellite-guided "smart bomb."
U.S. Army planners would put a lot of time into analyzing what went wrong here and in other cases during the war. Pugliese makes good use of the lengthy report prepared by Stephen Biddle of the U.S. Army War College ("Afghanistan and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy"), which draws on scores of interviews with U.S. special forces personnel who had participated in specific controversial operations, as well as input from the generals. Supplementing such inside accounts with media accounts and specialist publications on the various special forces units involved, the author is able to shed new light on events that were already known, but incompletely. And Pugliese's detailed coverage of the role played by Canada's mysterious secret unit (Joint Task Force 2) is preceded only by another work of his Canada's Secret Commandos: JTF2, the first-ever work on the subject.
The best part of the book is arguably the first half, devoted to the war in Afghanistan. It is certainly the most exciting part. This mysterious war took place in inaccessible mountains, and the outside world was far less saturated with images and accounts than has been the case with Iraq. In many ways, Afghanistan remains only hazily known to the general public. Pugliese attempts to remedy this situation by focusing on major events in Afghanistan (the battle of Tora Bora, Operation Anaconda, and the Qala-i-Jangi Prison uprising, etc.) that were widely reported in the press when they occurred. In his detailed recounting, we get an inside view of what went on from the perspective of the allied special forces soldiers involved in the fighting. This more intimate and certainly more exhilarating view takes up the bulk of the book's first five chapters.
Operations Gone Wrong
Despite his generally uncritical attitude toward the American war on terror on the political level, Pugliese does take an unflinching look at military failures when and where they occur. Primarily, the author would like to draw our attention to these issues because they illustrate both the challenges military strategists face and the hardships soldiers endure.
Chief among these is the battle of Tora Bora, a heavy-handed bomb-a-thon with scant ground support that allowed important al-Qaeda and Taliban (and perhaps even Osama bin Laden himself) time to flee across the mountains to Pakistan (pp. 31-34). We are also treated to a comprehensive discussion of the botched Operation Anaconda (pp. 48-58), which took place 150 km (93 mi.) south of Kabul in the Shah-e-Kot Valley, and which saw the participation of elite units from the U.S. Army, Navy SEALs, and coalition special forces from Canada, Australia, Germany, Norway, and Denmark. (The Canadian experience of this battle is recounted in Chapter 5).
In his blow-by-blow account of the latter battle, Pugliese shows how a reliance on duplicitous Afghan troops and the failure to begin the engagement with a "massive aerial bombardment" brought about a situation that would tax the special units to their utmost. The riveting description of battles in steep mountain passes against an unseen enemy, and courageous rescues of stranded soldiers is slightly bombastic, and smacks somewhat of the Hollywood "leave no man behind" syndrome; nevertheless, it does make for gripping reading. A good example is the following excerpt, from an account of a helicopter downing and rescue mission carried out in waist-deep snow during the operation:
"[T]he Chinook had put down on a flat area along the ridge on Takur Ghar. On the other side was a cliff face dropping off about 300 meters. Communications problems meant that Razor 1's pilots didn't know in advance that al-Qaeda were swarming all over the landing zone. Bullets tore into the cockpit, slamming into the legs of one of Razor 1's pilots. Other men were gunned down as they exited the MH-47.
"Moving quickly from the disabled Chinook, Air Force Staff Sergeant Kevin Vance saw the carnage al-Qaeda forces had inflicted. The helicopter's door gunner was laying on the aircraft's back ramp, an AK-47 bullet in his head. A second person was at the end of the ramp face down in the snow. He had been shot in the chest. A third dead man was sprawled on the ramp lying on his back. Another Ranger had been hit while still inside the aircraft and killed instantly....
"From his position on top of Takur Ghar, Sergeant Vance could see the Razor 2 rescue force climbing toward him as al-Qaeda started lobbing mortar bombs down on them. It would take two hours but the exhausted Rangers from Razor 2 were eventually able to reach the top of the mountain and link up with their comrades. There, for the next twelve hours, the two groups of Rangers and their Air Force special operations comrades fought off the al-Qaeda attacks." (pp. 56-57).
An Unusual Addition
Considering that Shadow Wars is largely devoted to Western forces fighting in George Bush's conventional imperial campaigns, Chapter 6 on the October 2002 hostage crisis in a Moscow theater may seem somewhat unusual. However, since the author does indeed try to frame his book in the context of terrorism in general (he mentions, in addition to 9/11, the Bali bombing, the Marriott Jakarta bombing, and Abu Sayyaf attacks in the Philippines), including this account of the daring Chechen seizure of a theater packed with over 800 people makes sense.
Further, Pugliese is able to find an interesting angle in recounting the story of this event and the controversial Russian response to it. Relying primarily on Russian accounts, the author discusses the immediate reaction of the premier Russian counterterrorism units, Alpha and Vympel, and the various plans they considered for removing the terrorists. During this story, we learn of several remarkable exploits, such as how the Russians were able to, unbeknownst to the terrorists, commandeer the basement of the facility, drill a hole in the wall, and insert a camera to monitor their movements. We also learn that other special teams started immediately practicing how they might storm the building on an empty theater on the other side of Moscow.
However, the conclusion of the hostage crisis engendered much controversy, as well over 100 people died from the tranquilizing gas (Fentanyl) that was used to overcome the hostage-takers. Pugliese points out the inherent difficulty involved here, as "the Russians were breaking new ground" in using the narcotic. Since it had not been used before in such a case, it would be impossible to know how much would be too much; for children, the elderly, and those with health problems, ingestion could be fatal. On the other hand, 800 people had been trapped for 58 hours inside a theater guarded by increasingly edgy Chechens who had rigged the theater with explosives and were openly declaring their desire to detonate the place and go happily to Allah.
Considering this and that the terrorists were widely scattered throughout the theater, with some completely incognito and hidden within the crowd, Russian options were limited. Any attempt to storm the building would probably allow the suicide bombers enough time to detonate at least some of their explosives, leading to an unknown number of deaths. In the end, the Russians had little choice but to use the gas if they were to retain any tactical advantage.
The controversial deaths aside, Pugliese's narrative of what happened after the gas started to take effect shows that the Russian special forces teams were anything but incompetent; they were able to eliminate all of the heavily armed Chechens before any had a chance to detonate their explosives. His account of the raid makes for exciting reading (and an even better movie). In general, Pugliese's treatment of the Moscow hostage crisis is evenhanded and illustrates the intractable dilemmas all countries face today in dealing with terrorist acts.
Softball
While commenting on political logic and decision-making is not within the purview of Shadow Wars, the author inevitably must confront these issues in the course of the narrative. The failure to be more critical of the American rationale for war and explanations of reality is, arguably, problematic because in some cases it does impinge upon military matters.
For example, Pugliese does not question the American government's 2002 claim about al-Qaeda fighters in Georgia (p. 130), a claim that was shortly thereafter denied even by Georgia's minister of defense and which always seemed like just a convenient way for the U.S. to gain a military foothold in the south Caucasus state, which it quite effortlessly did. Instead of pointing this out, the author attempts to argue that the Bush administration's new "awareness" of the Chechen-al-Qaeda link in the Caucasus was leading it toward a closer alliance with Russia. As if! The U.S. action in Georgia was actually driven by hostility to Russia, not a new desire to tackle the Chechen problem together.
We encounter this kind of a softball attitude again when the narrative moves to Iraq in Chapter 7 ("Turning Point: Operation Iraqi Freedom"). Rather than point out that the Bush administration had brazenly lied about the existence of WMD and the great danger of Saddam Hussein, the author merely says that it "would be a highly controversial issue long after the war ended" (p. 133). The failure to be more critical about the U.S. line in light of basic truths, here and elsewhere, is a clear deficiency.
Enter Iraq
Yet whatever the reader may think about the political issues clouding the whole issue of Iraq, some pleasure can be derived from following the little-known exploits of allied special forces units as they lay fiber optic cable in the sewers of Baghdad and commandeer air-dropped supplies in the western desert. One of the most interesting accounts found here, because it did not receive good coverage at the time, is the description of the U.S.-Kurdish joint operation against Ansar-al-Islam in late March 2003 (pp. 142-143). While "American officials played down suggestions that many Ansar guerrillas escaped," some did indeed live to fight another day (as Pugliese's publisher unfortunately found out).
Nevertheless, in Shadow Warswe get an incomplete picture of the war in Iraq and perhaps are missing the juiciest bits about special forces there, because the book (published in 2003) by necessity could not include operations that have taken place in 2004, when the resistance became much more formidable and well organized. While the hard-pressed American forces in Iraq have had to be bolstered by too many overweight, under-trained weekend warriors from the National Guard, the shadow warriors are still out there, fighting in the most dangerous and challenging theater of war America has seen since Vietnam.
Some Drawbacks
Perhaps the relative lack of political criticism throughout Shadow Wars was what allowed the author to gain access to scores of official photos, 26 of them in color, from the American, Canadian, British, and Australian defense departments. Although a fair amount of the pictures were taken at training locations, there are others from the battlefield. These photos, which show the various special forces units all decked out in their distinctive uniforms (Canadian abominable snowmen in their white winter garb, the Aussies in their colorful desert camouflage, bearded Green Berets disguised as Afghans on horseback, etc.) make a welcome addition to the text narration. These photos provide a helpful visual accompaniment to the sometimes puzzling descriptions of abstruse weaponry.
Aside from some mention of the Polish GROM special forces units in Iraq, we don't hear much about the other allied forces. Particularly in Afghanistan, where we're told of contributions from allegedly "pacifistic" Scandinavian and German countries, it would be interesting to know more about these forces, their capabilities, and the role that they played in the fighting. Similarly, there is scant coverage of training methods used by the U.S. and its allies. Sure, we all know that the U.S. special forces must be tough as the stated high dropout rate among recruits attests and for precisely this reason we would like to know more about how and what the U.S. and its allies train, and whether these methods have changed since 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
What the Future Holds
Indeed, the reader might also like to know about how U.S. special forces have been used at home since 9/11 and the new obsession with homeland security. Since there have been no attacks, we have not had a chance to see them in action; but from plans drawn up for the future, Pugliese relates one example of how the special forces are being trained for a more lively role:
"[U].S. Air Force tactical units whose job is to respond to an intrusion or takeover at America's nuclear missile silos have a new set of orders in the aftermath of September 11. Past tactics, which called for containing the situation and establishing communications with individuals who had gained access to a missile silo, are a thing of the past. Now, the first team on the ground is to immediately engage and eliminate intruders with maximum violence" (p. 184).
It's clear that the author wants to play up the threat of terrorism at home, as a gung-ho book deserves a similar ending. "Time is irrelevant to them," says a Navy SEAL commander, speaking of al-Qaeda. "Targets are everywhere." However, despite the claim that the terrorist group is a "patient organization that carefully selects its targets and painstakingly prepares its missions" (p. 186), real disagreement now exists about the size, cohesion, and ability of al-Qaeda, and to what that famous name may actually refer anymore. Still, whatever we want to call it, there is certainly more than enough danger and intrigue around today to make Pugliese's subject an interesting and important one.
On balance, Shadow Wars is a stimulating and timely read. It offers expert insight and analysis of the enigmatic military men who are, along with covert intelligence agents, the most intriguing, inaccessible, and storied characters in any government's security apparatus.
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Military matters: An inside look at elite fighting units shrouded in secrecy
Victoria Times Colonist
Sunday, April 4, 2004
By Sidney Allinson
Secret elite military units originated with the British Special Air Service Regiment, which pioneered new combat techniques during the Second World War and later evolved into a famed counter-terrorist organization. Since then, numerous small brush-fire wars and the rise in international terrorism have required several other countries to form specially trained forces.
A fascinating inside look at several of these sub-rosa outfits is provided in Shadow Wars by David Pugliese, a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen. His reporting on defence issues earned him a National Newspaper Award in 2002.
His previous book, Canada's Secret Commandos, published last year, already has established him as an expert observer of irregular warfare.
Speaking of his latest, Shadow Wars, Pugliese says, "It was a challenge in that I was writing it along while events were actually happening during two wars in the Gulf area.
"What helped me gain additional information, though, was all the increased media scrutiny that brought special operations right out in the open."
His new book reveals little-known details about covert military units of several different coalition nations serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They include small groups of commandos from Norway, Denmark and Germany, Poland's GROM Mobile Response Group, sizable forces of American army Green Berets and U.S. Navy SEALs, plus contingents of Australian and British SAS troops, and -- hurrah! -- Canada's highly secretive Joint Task Force 2.
Written seriously enough to suit historians, Shadow Wars includes some vivid accounts of close-combat and body counts likely to please action buffs.
He presents a mixture of political strategy and military tactics, and describes numerous triumphs, but also tells about the times when things went wrong "up on the sharp end."
Although Pugliese has no personal military experience, he presents a well-researched and fascinating account of modern small-scale operations.
He takes us on fighting patrols with the special forces of various countries, mainly the U.S., Australia, Britain and Canada. For instance, he clearly explains the complicated story of Operation Anaconda, a massive American-led allied assault on the last holdouts of Taliban resisters. It took place high in the Afghan mountains in freezing conditions, which the winter-hardened Canucks took in stride.
Although their presence in the no-quarter war zone was not even publicly admitted back home, they faced the certain knowledge they would be tortured and killed if captured.
There are many other tales told of dangerous derring-do by special forces of a half-dozen nations on land and sea, in bitter cold and searing heat. We learn about grim sniper warfare and hand-to-hand fighting in cave-clearing operations, one of which led to the recommendation that an SAS trooper be awarded a Victoria Cross for his bravery.
But Pugliese is especially interesting when he describes the outstanding combat role of Canada's small but highly effective JTF2. He devotes two chapters to it, having done remarkably deep research to probe behind Ottawa's wall of silence. The author has clearly gained the trust of some military insiders, which allows him to reveal close knowledge of the composition and missions of our country's special operations unit.
As its non-regimental name suggests, Joint Task Force 2 was originally formed in 1993 to deal mainly with domestic incidents of terrorism such as the rescuing of hostages or freeing hijacked planes. Its members are recruited from the bravest and best in the Canadian Forces, but it accepts only 10 per cent of applicants.
JTF2 currently numbers about 297 superbly trained "assaulters," but military brass recently announced intentions to double the unit's size when suitable new recruits have been found.
"There's a strong JTF2 connection to Victoria, because they often train in the region," Pugliese points out. "For instance, their first practice operation with submarines, in October 1997, took place in the city harbour and along the Island's west coast. Everything is done so discreetly, the average Canadian doesn't have the slightest idea this stuff is going on.
"Canadians are generally proud of our military, it's just they are kept out of sight, out of mind. But Americans and Australians have a confidence in themselves by knowing what they can or cannot reveal about their military activities, and are as open as possible.
"They each readily provided me with photos and certain military information about Afghanistan and Iraq, which I don't think compromised security, but it gives the public an idea what their forces are doing."
In contrast, Canadian officials seem almost ashamed our special troops are involved over there. "Obviously there is a place for secrecy, but sometimes they go overboard with it," the author says. "That attitude is really unfortunate, because many Canadians would like the opportunity to support what our troops are doing in the Gulf zone."
Among the book's 80 colour and black-and-white photographs, a rare six are of Canadian secret soldiers, their faces obscured forsecurity reasons. Pugliese is proud to get those pictures into print, saying, "They are the only pictures of JTF2 troops in action ever published. It took me over a year to obtain them through the Access To Information Act. Ottawa did not want to release them at all, but I kept on persisting 'til I got them."
Yet on seeing the photos, one frankly wonders what all the official fuss was about.
They are unremarkable in themselves, simple snapshots of young soldiers in desert and mountain locations who could be troops of any nationality anywhere.
Only political paranoia in Ottawa would ascribe much significance to releasing them, perhaps twittering at the very idea of actually showing Canadians deployed in Persian Gulf combat zones.
A noticeable detail one photo does reveal is that JTF2 is now equipped with U.S. Armoured "Hummer" military vehicles, the only Canadian unit to have them.
Thus we learn that after last year's widespread criticism of flimsy army trucks, Defence Minister Art Eggleton hastily arranged to buy some rugged HumV's for our unheralded special ops troops.
Pugliese's book puts across how well elite soldiers of various nationalities co-operate to fight against fierce enemies in distant lands with harsh terrain and extreme weather.
Shadow Wars is available on Amazon, where international sales already indicate its appeal to anyone interested in modern-day special forces.
Shadow Wars: Special Forces in the new battle against terrorism by David Pugliese; Esprit de Corps Books; 208 pages, photographs, maps, bibliography, index.
Victoria writer Sidney Allinson is a past director of the Royal Canadian Military Institute.
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REVIEWS OF SHADOW WARS AND CANADA'S SECRET COMMANDOS ON THE CDAC (COMBAT DIVER ASSOCIATION OF CANADA) WEB SITE:
Canada's Secret Commandos by David Pugliese, 2002, 231 pages, 59 photos, ISBN 1895896185.
The unauthorized story of Joint Task Force Two, Canada¹s national counter-terrorist special operations unit. JTF2 took up when it was decided DND should take over as the lead government agency from the RCMP Special Emergency Response Team, handed over in April of 1993. While not a "complete story" due to secrecy, this book is highly recommended reading for the serious student of counter-terrorist elite units. (This book is only known publication of JTF2 to date)
Shadow Wars: Special Forces in the New Battle Against Terrorism By David Pugliese, 2003, 207 pages, 100 photos and illustrations, ISBN 189589624X.
The author's second book on special forces which includes rare coverage of the Canadian military special operations unit, Joint Task Force Two (JTF2). Contains photos never previously published as well as criticism of Canadian foreign operations against terrorists. Recommended to serious student of Canadian special operations.
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SHADOW WARS IN THE NEWS DOWN UNDER
Force just one SAS tool in a battle of wits
By John Kerin
March 20, 2004
The Australian Newspaper
AUSTRALIA'S special forces considered aborting a 600km secret air mission into Iraq after a mechanical problem on one of the US Army Chinook helicopters forced it down.
In what was one of the first incursions of the Iraq war, the Chinook was forced to set down after a dangerous air-to-air refuelling manoeuvre when a dust storm damaged the helicopter's refuelling probe.
The chopper, flying into the duststorm at dangerously low levels to avoid detection, set down while soldiers inspected the probe.
It was left to a young Australian SAS captain to make the call on whether to brave the weather and continue. The incursion, under cover of darkness, came in the early hours of March 20 after Saddam Hussein rejected a US ultimatum to leave the country to avoid war.
"In hindsight, getting the soldiers in there was probably one of the most challenging parts of the mission," Deputy Special Operations Commander Brigadier Mike Hindmarsh told The Weekend Australian yesterday.
"Basically, it was left to a young SAS captain who was the tactical commander to make a decision to go on or come back the next night.
"If they had turned around, it would have left a significant gap in the coalition's campaign in western Iraq," he says. "We were pretty relieved to hear they'd arrived at their destination and the words, 'We are in location'," he says.
The Australian SAS taskforce, totalling about 80 men, would encounter up to 2000 Iraqis during their six-week campaign, relying largely on guile and superior firepower to outwit the enemy.
Its job was to knock out communications and missile stations to prevent Iraq launching Scud missiles against Israel (although searches for the weapons in the Australians' area of operation would prove fruitless).
Conditions were challenging, with night temperatures of -5C soaring to 43C during the day. Dust storms in Iraq's western desert often turned to mudstorms when it rained, clogging weapons and hindering the progress of operations.
While one group of SAS soldiers was inserted by helicopter deep into Iraq to conduct long-range reconnaissance, another entered by road and ran straight into trouble some 30km inside Iraq's border with Jordan.
The column of heavily armed four-wheel-drive vehicles was intercepted by Iraqi forces in utilities with heavy machine guns and mortars. A brief firefight ensued that would set the pattern for the first few days.
"They (the Iraqis) were from the very start attempting to take us on, hunt us down and kill us," Hindmarsh says. "There were 16 firefights in the first 24 hours and it was pretty tough."
The Javelin shoulder-fired missile proved remarkably effective in ensuring the SAS escaped casualties.
One of the most infamous battles, in which the Javelin proved its worth, came some four days into the war, on March 24, when an SAS patrol was attacked by some 50 Iraqis in SUVs. In an account of the firefight in his book Shadow Wars: Special Forces in the New Battle Against Terrorism, Canadian author David Pugliese says "as the Iraqis got closer they opened fire with rocket-propelled grenandes and machine guns".
"Standing in the turret of his long-range patrol vehicle the SAS soldier looked into the Javelin's sighting system and manipulated its computer cursor until it was on top of the image of the approaching SUV.
"He then pressed the firing button sending a missile downrange at more than 90 metres per second.
"As it cleared the launch tube the missile's infrared seeker took over, homing in on the truck's engine heat.
"When the 8kg explosive warhead slammed in to the SUV, it lifted the truck momentarily into the air before the vehicle burst into flames.
"Bullets whizzed by as enemy commandos directed their fire at him."
Trooper X (SAS identities are not revealed) fired another Javelin, turning a second SUV into a "twisted hulk of smoking metal".
He then took out a mortar tube with a sniper rifle, sending the Iraqis diving for cover and forcing their surrender.
Trooper X's quick-thinking use of every weapons system available to him earned him a medal for gallantry.
According to Hindmarsh, "within seven to 10 days I think our blokes had been so successful in engaging the enemy that it became untenable for the Iraqis to confront them".
But it was not always the use of brute force that got the best result.
In April, when the SAS and commandos took control of the Al-Asad airbase closer to Baghdad, it was a case of applying minimal force to get the job done. "The (SAS) soldiers were in a position of dominance and could have opened up with heavy machine guns and killed a lot of people.
"Instead the strategy was to use a sniper rifle to place some well-aimed shots in vehicle tyres, or the boot of a vehicle.
"They very rapidly cleared the place without having to take a life," he said.
© The Australian
Canada's Secret Commandos
Book review by Andy Anderson,
1st Canadian Parachute Battalion Association newsletter, April 2002 issue
On Oct. 8, 2001, the Canadian public first learned that the Canadian Military had established an elite Counter Terrorism Force of soldiers who were at the time engaged in secret work in Afghanistan. The Minister of National Defence, in making the announcement, made it clear that he would not respond to any questions for reasons of security.
It naturally followed that the news media tried very hard to track this unit, only identified as JTF2, but with little success for many many months, as this unit was clouded in absolute secrecy. But now, David Pugliese, a journalist with the Ottawa Citizen, has provided us with the background and role of this special unit in his book, Canada's Secret Commandos.
David Pugliese's superb book is very timely and is highly recommended to anyone interested in the composition and role of Canada's "Joint Task Force 2" unit.
