A little about me, I was in Pakistan in 2001. I stayed mainly in Islamabad, that's where I was working. I was not working in anything related to what the lead character of the movie 'Zero Dark Thirty' was working in. I was in Islamabad in the Spring, got there at the end of January and left at the end of March.
It was bitterly cold in Ottawa when I left to fly, via London to the Pakistani Capital. Got to Islamabad Airport at night. We flew over Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province, the scenery when the helicopters were flying it was similar, even from a lot higher up.
Isbad Airport is a gong show. Get off the plane, go through Immigration and then wait for your luggage. That was on the air side. Soon as you got to the ground side....people, hundreds of them everywhere. I sort of knew, but going through the doors and being immediately immersed in hundreds of people who are all trying to touch you, is kind of a shock.
Anyway, we were picked up and whisked off to the Shangri La Guest House, near the Islamabad Marriott. The Marriott was featured in the movie, it was magnificent. We were working in the Embassy area, which was about 5 kilometres away. Every morning we got a ride in a Toyota Land Cruiser, one would rive us back at night.
It was safe to be a Westerner there in those days. Islamabad was an exception in Pakistan, it is almost like any city in the West. Lots of big houses, I mean lots. Each one had a gate and a guard, armed at the gate. It was safe to walk around the city. I didn't have a car, so I did do a lot of walking.
'Zero Dark Thirty' spends a lot of time in Pakistan in three cities: Rawalpindi, they went to the market there. One thing about Pakistani cities, there is no 'the market', there are lots of them, think of them as open air shopping malls - that you can drive through. Although who would want to? The scene in the movie is pretty accurate. The guys questioning them for being white is not. The markets are where you go for food, clothes, and other stuff - I was in Pindi once and it pretty much looked like what they showed in the movie. It is the opposite of Islamabad. The second city they show is Islamabad and the US Embassy. I didn't enter the way she went in, she seemed to get to the consular section immediately. We would go and play ball there on the weekends. The US Embassy compound in Islamabad is one of the largest embassies in the World.
The baseball field has a tarp up to prevent snipers shooting at the players during games. We played in a league, we had to play the USMC once, we got our asses kicked, but it is funny to watch them play. If a guy screws up at first base say...they circle him and chant, then he starts to say how much of a piece of shit he is. We would watch them play just to see these little interventions.
The last city in the movie is Peshawar. This city is about 5-7 million and is in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). We drove up to it on a weekend. The other guys wanted to shop and I just wanted to take pictures. Peshawar is the last town or city before heading into Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass Road starts in the city. I wanted to go to the Pass, but that was not allowed. We would need to arrange for armed guards. The road is safe, the sides of the road are dangerous. Afghanistan's poppy crop has to make it to market (Peshawar) somehow. The Russians had been beaten and the Taliban were establishing themselves at the time. The Taliban had/have a zero tolerance policy for heroin. They were actively burning poppy fields.
Back to Peshawar, I toured while they shopped. We did go to the Fort, which is the most memorable part of the city. They did not show this in the movie. The on September 12, 2011 I was watching CBC News and they had two reporters, one was reporting from the Marghala Hills, which over look Islamabad from the West side. The other reporter was standing in front of the Fort in Peshawar.
We were parked by a police station at Kabuli Gate, this is a market in the Northwest section of the city. I didn't want to park where we did. In Pakistan there were explosions which always occurred at police stations in markets. But that was the only place open. Peshawar is a little saner for traffic than Pindi. When we left Kabuli Gate we went to Afghani Gate, another market. This was a real eye opener. Over one million people living in tents and selling their wares in a tent city. I tried to shop but there were too many people, too many toothbrushes and towels being shoved in my face. I retreated to vehicle and listened to discman - Van Morrison.
Back to Zero Dark Thirty. I saw Ali Soufan interviewed on Jon Stewart last year, he was an FBI agent who became quite the expert on Al Qaeda. Jon was interviewing him about his experiences, Ali was there to give background on his book 'The Black Banners'. This book is more of a history of AQ and ObL's rise to power. The relevance to Zero Dark Thirty, this book goes into water boarding and the various tortures used to get information. Zero Dark Thirty makes the CIA look competent, this book takes that back down to reality. The only real problem with Ali's book is all the redacting. I hope he publishes a revised version soon. We know know from subsequent books that the torturing was done in Poland, even the movie tells us this. Ali's book has it blacked out. This book was like an appetizer for the next book I read.
'The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden' - Mark Bowden. This guy wrote Black Hawk Down and he was granted access to various major players in the mission, including the President (more later). The book covers some of the same material that Black Banners covered. It goes into detail about the creation of JSOC - Joint Services Operations Command. they were created after the failed mission to rescue the Iranian Hostages under President Carter.
Some may suspect that Mark Bowden is a President Obama fan. After the mission to kill Bin Laden there was a lot of squawking about the President talking claim for the killing and leaving the SEALS to fend for themselves. The third book I read touches on this. I suggest anyone who has that theory read this book, it explains how President Obama made it so. Some people complain about this book as there are no maps etc. Come one do you really need a map of Jalalabad to Abbotabad?
The third book i read was Mark 'Owens' 'No Easy Day' - this is the report by a SEAL that was on the mission. This person was not interviewed by Mark Bowden, but the two accounts do line up nicely. Mark Owen obviously did not have the access to the President and other important characters in his book. But he does let us into his world. The only fault I find with his book is his two opinions, the book could have worked without them. The first one is the President taking all the glory for the killing of OBL. Politely, he is the Commander in Chief and the buck stops at his desk, whether the operation worked or didn't work (Iran-President Carter) he was responsible. The second opinion is more troubling. He didn't respect Osama bin Laden; I didn't think a soldier would have to, but because ObL didn't grab his AK47 or some handguns and fight the SEALS off made him a lesser man. As it turns out it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
Now the movie, armed with all this reading I enjoyed it. I knew what was going on. Kathryn Bigelow was mirroring the events and presenting them as factually as she could. My big complaints are: she didn't identify anyone. The President's resolve was reduced to a quiet conversation in a hallway as in BTW.
Th movie spent way too much time on the torturing, especially since it wasn't where the information which subsequently lead to bin Laden came from. In a way it appears to be there for political reasons more than for the story - waterboarding is hard to watch.
When they first go to Pakistan, they would have you believe that it was Islamabad, it wasn't. I question the living arrangements for the main character. I believe someone of that importance would have been staying in the Embassy compound. It was a movie and they had to build up suspense - especially since the ending was a foregone conclusion.
One BIG question I have, was Osama bin Laden bored? Was he sick of being trapped in that compound and only pacing for several hours a day. Was his wife driving him nuts? The reason I ask this, two helicopters landing in your back yard and one of them crashing would alert him to something going on. The explanation in Mark Bowden's book is the residents were used to helicopters due to the Military Academy. But still, a helicopter flying by is one thing, one trying to land on your roof is another (the movie messed this part up - there were only two helicopters until egress). I don't think ObL had a contingency plan for getting the hell out of there if the place was compromised.
A couple of social things, the Doctor part in the movie & Mark Bowden's book, they did send a doctor to try and get DNA so they could be 100% sure it was ObL. Doctor's do go out inoculating, one of the pictures is of a house with chalk marks all over door. That is how they know the place has been surveyed.
You could buy whatever you wanted to in Peshawar, vendors in the markets had AK's rolled up in blankets. You barter for them like you did for a chicken, which they kill in front of you. You can get all kinds of knives, most illegal in Canada.
They had wine in the Marriott? Geez, we would either go to a compound, an Embassy or the United Nations club to drink. Pakistan has no bars. The Marriott was a 10 minute walk from where I was staying. I went there once for a haircut, when in Pakistan, get a haircut, the scalp massage afterwards is great!
Pakistan is a mixture of people Urdu and Pashto - they don't tend to segregate themselves, they go where they want. Peshawar would be Afghani influenced, but it would also have a large Urdu population. I did not go to Southern Pakistan, so I do not know if there is the same mixture there.
Taxila is located outside of Islamabad on the way to Peshawar. It was Alexander the Great's Capital in Asia and it was also a major Buddhist Centre.
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