Mark Mitchell, Former Special Forces Leader, on the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi in Mazār-i-Sharīf in 2001

Interview of Tuesday, 29 June 2021 of Mark E. Mitchell, Former Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council and Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict; Host: James Hughes, AFIO President and a former CIA Operations Officer.
TOPIC: Mark Mitchell discusses the first ground battle after 9/11 which occurred in Mazār-i-Sharīf, also called Mazār-e Sharīf, or just Mazar, the fourth largest city in Afghanistan. An uprising during the battle of Qala-i-Jangi -- to overthrow the Taliban's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which had been harboring al-Qaeda operatives -- resulted in the death of Johnny Micheal Spann, an American paramilitary operations officer in the CIA's Special Activities Division. Spann was the first American killed in combat during this late 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. As Mitchell explains, Spann died at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress during a Taliban prisoner uprising. Mitchell describes what these early days involved as US Special Forces were brought in to treacherous terrain -- human and geographic -- in Afghanistan. Mitchell met up with CIA Alpha Team already in country, and later captured US-born traitor, John Walker Lindh, who admitted he was aiding the Taliban (and later sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2002).
The presentation runs 40 minutes.
BIOS:
MARK MITCHELL is a highly decorated U.S. Army combat veteran in the Special Operations community with extensive experience in the Middle East and South Asia. He brings 28 years of national level defense and counterterrorism policy experience to the Policy team.
Mitchell was among the first U.S. soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11 and advised the Northern Alliance prior to the fall of the Taliban regime. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in the November 2001 Battle of Qala-I Jangi in Mazar-e Sharif.
In 2014, Mitchell served as a Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council where he was intimately involved in significant hostage cases and recovery efforts in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia. He was instrumental in establishing the framework for the landmark Presidential Policy Review of Hostage Policy, which resulted in significant changes in organization and policy. He previously served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the Senior Military Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. As a colonel, he commanded 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and simultaneously commanded a nationwide, Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq in 2010-2011. Mitchell has planned and conducted counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare, and other sensitive special operations. In addition to commanding multiple Special Forces organizations, he has served in principal staff positions up to and including the Theater Special Operations Command. He most recently worked as a business executive in the private sector and served on the board of a non-profit organization.
Mitchell earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University and a M.S. in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School. He also served as a National Security Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
JAMES R. HUGHES currently serves as the 17th President of AFIO. His service began January 2015. He had a career of US Government service spanning 37 years in numerous foreign countries with a particular focus in the Middle East. He started in U.S. Military Intelligence in the late 1960s and then joined the CIA’s Clandestine Service. He served overseas as a Chief of Station several times, and at CIA Headquarters in a number of senior management positions, including as Chief of the Near East and South Asia Division, in the Directorate of Operations [today’s National Clandestine Service]. He was also named the Associate Deputy Director of Operations (ADDO) at the National Security Agency, 1998-99. Following his retirement from the government in 2005, he joined EDS in Herndon, Virginia, as the Client Industry Executive for the U.S. Intelligence Community. After the HP acquisition of EDS, he continued to serve in a similar capacity until his retirement in 2012. His parents were missionaries in Turkey in the 1950s, where Jim spent his formative years. He is fluent in Arabic.
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[@GATOR_MCLUSKY]

remember this well almost like its been forgotten but gettin there in 02 it was still fresh