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The Bell landed well away from prying eyes and the group of three ran across to the CIA Grumman V. A Scottish snow squall caused them all to shelter under waterproofs held over their heads, so no one saw that one of the men was not in western dress.
The crew of the Grumman had tended to some strange-looking passengers and knew better than to raise even an eyebrow at the heavily-bearded Afghan whom the Deputy Director (Operations) was escorting across the Atlantic with a British guest.
They did not fly to Washington but to a remote peninsula on the south-east coast of Cuba. Just after dawn on 14 February they touched down at Guantanamo and taxied straight into a hangar whose doors closed at once.
‘I’m afraid you have to remain in the plane, Mike,’ said Marek Gumienny. ‘We’ll get you out of here under cover of dark.’
Night comes fast in the tropics and it was pitch black by seven p.m. That was when four CIA men from ‘special tasks’ entered the cell of Izmat Khan. He rose, sensing something wrong. The regular guards had quit the corridor outside his cell half an hour earlier. That had never happened before.
The four men were not brutal but they were not taking no for an answer either. Two grabbed the Afghan, one round the torso pinioning his arms, the other round the thighs. The chloroform pad took only twenty seconds to work. The writhing stopped and the prisoner went limp.
He was put on a stretcher and thence on to a wheeled trolley. A cotton sheet went over the body and the prisoner was wheeled outside. The crate was waiting. The entire cell block was devoid of guard staff. No one saw a thing. A few seconds after the abduction the Afghan was inside the crate.
It was not badly equipped as crates go. From the outside it was just a large timber box such as are used for general freight purposes. Even the markings were totally authentic.
Inside it was insulated against any sound being able to emerge. In the roof there was a small removable panel to replenish fresh air, but that would not be taken down until the crate was safely airborne. There were two comfortable armchairs welded to the floor and a low-wattage amber light.
The recumbent Izmat Khan was placed in the chair that already had restrainer straps fitted. Without cutting off circulation to the limbs, the prisoner was secured so that he could relax but not leave the chair. He was still asleep.
Finally satisfied, the fifth CIA man, the one who would travel in the crate, nodded to his colleagues and the end of it was closed off. A forklift hoisted the crate a foot off the ground and ran it out to the airfield where the Hercules was waiting. It was an AC-130 Talon from Special Forces fitted with extra-range tanks and could make its destination easily.
Unexplained flights into and out of Gitmo are regular as clockwork; the tower gave a quick ‘clear take-off’ in response to the staccato request and the Hercules was airborne for McChord Base, Washington State.
An hour later a closed car drove up to the Camp Echo block and another small group got out. Inside the empty cell a man was garbed in orange jumpsuit and soft slippers. The unconscious Afghan had been photographed before being covered and removed. With the use of the Polaroid print a few minor snips were made to the beard and hair of the replacement. Every fallen tuft was collected and removed.
When it was over there were a few gruff farewells and the party left, locking the cell door behind them. Twenty minutes later the soldiers were back, mystified but incurious. The poet Tennyson had got it right: ‘theirs not to reason why’.
They checked the familiar figure of their prize prisoner and waited for the dawn.
The morning sun was tipping the pinnacles of the Cascades when the AC-130 drifted down to its home base at McChord. The base commander had been told this was a CIA shipment, a last consignment for their new research facility up in the forests of the Wilderness. Even with his rank, he needed to know no more, so he asked no more. The paperwork was in order and the Chinook stood by.
In flight the Afghan had come round. The roof panel was open and the air inside the hull of the Hercules fully pressurized and fresh. The escort smiled encouragingly and offered food and drink. The prisoner settled for a soda through a straw.
To the escort’s surprise the prisoner had a few phrases in English, clearly gleaned over five years listening in Guantanamo. He asked the time only twice in the journey, and once bowed his face as far as it would go and murmured his prayers. Otherwise he said nothing.
Just before touchdown the roof panel was replaced and the waiting forklift driver had not the slightest suspicion he was not lifting an ordinary load of freight from the rear ramp of the Hercules across to the Chinook.
Again the ramp doors closed. The small battery-powered pilot light inside the crate remained on, but invisible from outside, as all sounds were inaudible. But the prisoner was, as his escort would later report to Marek Gumienny, like a pussy-cat. No trouble at all, sir.
Given that it was mid-February, they were lucky with the weather. The skies were clear but freezing cold. At the helipad outside the Cabin the great twin-rotored Chinook landed and opened its rear doors. But the crate stayed inside. It was easier to disembark the two passengers straight from the crate to the snow.
Both men shivered as the rear wall of the crate came off. The snatch team from Guantanamo had flown with the Hercules and up front in the Chinook. They were waiting for the last formality.
The prisoner’s hands and feet were shackled before the restraining straps were removed. Then he was bidden to rise and shuffled down the ramp into the snow. The resident staff, all ten of them, stood around in a semi-circle, guns pointing.
With an escort so heavy they could hardly get through the doors, the Taliban commander was walked across the helipad, through the cabin and into his own quarters. As the door closed, shutting out the bitter air, he stopped shivering.
Six guards stood round him in his large cell as the manacles were finally removed. Shuffling backwards, they left the cell and the steel door slammed shut. He looked around. It was a better cell, but it was still a cell. He recalled the courtroom. The colonel had told him he would return to Afghanistan. They had lied again.
It was mid-morning and the sun was blazing down on the Cuban landscape when another Hercules rolled in to land. This also was equipped for long-distance flying, but unlike the Talon it was not armed to the teeth and did not belong to Special Forces. It came from MATS, the Air Force transport division. It was to carry one single passenger across the globe.
The cell door swung open.
‘Prisoner Khan, stand up. Face the wall. Adopt the position.’
The belt went round the midriff; chains fell from it to the ankle cuffs and another set to the wrists, held together and in front of the waist. The position permitted a shuffling walk, no more.
There was a short walk to the end of the block with six armed guards. The high-security truck had steps at the back, a mesh screen between the prisoners and the driver, and black windows.
