Team Alpha, Part 1/2: The Tip of the Spear | CIA

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History, Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

October 17, 2001. The dust of 9/11 has barely settled. America and the world are reeling. In Afghanistan, 8 CIA officers - a crack team of linguists, tribal experts and paramilitaries - are the first Americans to infiltrate Taliban territory after the attacks. Their mission is to ensure that Al Qaeda does not strike again. They are Team Alpha. In Part 1, Vanessa Kirby joins CIA linguist David Tyson and author Toby Harnden to tell the true story of Team Alpha's first foray in to a dangerous and unpredictable new theatre of war. Could YOU adapt to a new reality? From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Morgan Childs. Music by Nick Ryan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Incoming transmission.
0:05.2	Welcome. Welcome to True Spies.
0:09.6	Week by week, mission by mission.
0:12.4	You'll hear the true stories behind the world's greatest espionage operations.
0:19.2	You'll meet the people who navigate this secret world.
0:24.4	What do they know? What are their skills?
0:27.6	And what would you do in their position?
0:32.0	This is True Spies.
0:34.0	I was in Iraq in Baghdad in the journalist's hotel.
0:38.0	And somebody, another reporter said to me,
0:41.2	did you ever see the footage of that CIA officer running for his life in the fort in Maserish Sharif?
0:46.8	I'm Vanessa Kirby and this is True Spies team Alpha.
0:51.6	Part 1. The Tip of the Spear.
1:01.6	In 2004, journalist Toby Harmden became fascinated with the story of Team Alpha,
1:07.6	a group of eight CIA officers working in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.
1:13.6	Toby was working in Washington, DC when 9-11 happened.
1:19.6	He covered the US response as it unfolded.
1:22.8	But it wasn't until three years later that his curiosity about Team Alpha was peaked.
1:28.8	It all began with a video of one of the eight men running desperately for his life.
1:34.8	I went on to YouTube or wherever and watched it.
1:38.8	And it was footage of this CIA officer dressed in sort of an amalgam of Afghan and American gear
1:48.0	running across this fort, clutching a clash in his one hand and a pistol in the other.
	...

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