A look at Operation Commando Riot
Inside the US raiding its own security guards
Gul Rukh was carried into the cafe in Herat in a white plastic lawn chair, one brother on each side of her.
She is paralyzed from the waist down but does not have a wheelchair. She was placed gently on cushions on the floor. A tent blocked the sun overhead.
There to meet her was USA TODAY reporter Brett Murphy. He had come to Afghanistan to interview those who survived, responded to or investigated the deadly battle in 2008 in the village of Azizabad, about 90 minutes away.
Rukh lost her parents and all four children – Dawa, 10, Rahima, 9, Ghani, 6, and Nabi, 5 – in the battle. She still has shrapnel in her spine. She has spoken briefly about that night but never shared great detail. Such as how her kids had new clothes for a village gathering and had painted henna tattoos on each other’s hands. About how they played soccer with their cousins all day before settling down for the night outside under mosquito nets.
“Before I could introduce myself, it came pouring out of her,” Murphy says. “She clearly thinks about this a lot every day. This opportunity to discuss it was rare for her. It was 45 minutes into our first meeting before I even got a question in. As soon as I said, ‘We’re recording,’ she started.”
The U.S. raid had been reported, but not the full scale, aftermath
Murphy wanted to get the whole story out about Operation Commando Riot, aimed at a high-value Taliban target. The U.S. military called in an airstrike on its own security guards. Dozens of children were killed. U.S. military officials publicly claimed it was a success. But, as Murphy’s reporting found, “some troops were never warned of Azizabad’s civilian population, and the special operation commanders who did know unleashed devastating force from the air anyway.”
Murphy spent a year reporting this story. He traveled to Afghanistan to get government records and interview witnesses. USA TODAY sued the Department of Defense to obtain almost 1,000 pages of investigative files kept secret. These files included witness statements and testimony from U.S. forces involved in the operation. Murphy obtained reports from humanitarian groups, including the Red Cross, and a confidential United Nations investigation.
“Together, the records and interviews tell the story of a disaster that was months in the making as military and company officials ignored warnings about the men they had hired to provide intelligence and security,” Murphy reported. “The records also reveal that the Defense Department has for years downplayed or denied the fatal mistakes surrounding the tragedy.”
That is why we are telling this story now, a decade later.
“There was denial about what happened,” Murphy says. “Americans only saw above the rubble, through their scanners. They had developed a sense of distance from accounts. It was seen as a success.
“Pulling back that curtain is really rare. It’s important to show people the thinking behind all the decisions being made – and of course the aftermath.”
Original reporting such as this involves risk
Murphy spent about two weeks in Afghanistan, in Kabul and Herat. It was too dangerous to travel to Azizabad, which is controlled by the Taliban. He arranged to have the villagers meet him in Herat and hired a stringer to travel to the village. To get to those witnesses, he had to go through the village elder, who happened to be the brother of one of the warlords involved in the raid in 2008.
To verify the accounts, he asked for diaries and pictures. He cross-referenced facts with other interviews or records. He kept witnesses focused on what they actually saw or felt.
“Getting to what they actually experienced, versus what they heard from someone else, that’s what we spent time on,” Murphy says. “Each interview took one to three hours.”
When journalists report in dangerous areas, they often have “fixers,” local guides who provide information and access. Reporters also go through hostile environment training.
“If we didn’t feel great about something, or if we were in an area too long or getting some looks we didn’t like, we’d get in the car and leave,” Murphy says.
Matt Doig is Murphy’s editor. They talked at length about the risks, and the reason we took them.
“We saw this not just as a great story but a great microcosm of what was going on in Afghanistan and the role private security played in it,” Doig says. “It’s the most complete retelling of everything that happened.”
This was our latest story about private security company G4S, which sells itself as the world’s premier security company.
Reporting by USA TODAY and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that the company’s efforts to penetrate the U.S. market with low-cost protection have repeatedly come at the expense of its own standards. G4S has lost hundreds of guns over the past decade, many of them winding up at crime scenes across the country.
“We’ve highlighted some dangerous things going on,” Doig says. “Hopefully, things will change because of that.”
“The records also reveal that the Defense Department has for years downplayed or denied the fatal mistakes surrounding the tragedy.” Brett Murphy, USA TODAY reporter