Al Qaeda's Training Ground "Tarnak Farms"

This past week, I had the opportunity to visit one of Al Qaeda's Old Training Facilities, called "Tarnak Farms". This place is located just outside Kandahar Airfield. To me, it was an eerie occasion to be there... Tarnak Farms is now a deserted al Qaeda training outpost. This site was featured in released Al Qaeda training videos, showing Taliban soldiers training there. It was the third largest Al Qaeda training center in Afghanistan, next to Tora Bora in Nangrahar Province and Zaewara in Paktia Province. Tarnak Farms was the Headquarters for al Qaeda, which is now converted into a firing range, where many Afghan and Coalition soldiers train.

The above picture is of the Afghan National Police's Outpost atop one of the destroyed buildings on Tarnak Farms. Notice the RPGs laying atop the bunker. This site has about 4-6 police guarding the facility. They live there in very austere living conditions, they also have a few dogs that look as though they are starved. Tarnak Farms got its name many years ago from a canal that flows nearby the facility from Tarnak River, which brought water and farming to the surrounding areas. These buildings housed living quarters and offices of Al Qaeda's leadership including the notorious Osama Bin Laden. Below is what happens when we drop 500lb bombs....

In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and turned the site into a housing and training station for the 3rd Afghan Division and a base for the communist regime. In 1989, some ten years later, after fighting the Afghan resistance, or mujahiddin, the Soviets withdrew and the fate of the country fell into the hands of the malitiamen. By 1994, the mujahiddin had come into great power through civil war. Afghanistan was carved up among various factions with many mujahidding commanders establishing themselves as virtual warlords. Many of which still exist today.

Navy Warrant Officer Vincent Avera and Petty Officer James Kuehn accompanied me on this trip. They work for me in the J-6 section, Avera is my Information Management Officer and Kuehn is my Information Technician. We all were amazed at being in such a historic place, you could actually envision Al Qaeda being there.... A dozen former mujahiddin soldiers and refugees in Pakistan took up arms to liberate Kandahar from anarchy. Most of them were religious students who earned the title of "Talib" These liberators of Kandahar became known as the Taliban meaning "students" or seekers of knowledge. The Taliban was later supported by Osama Bin Laden as a part of the Al Qaeda Terror Network. Below I am standing on one of the training obstacles built by Al Qaeda. We were standing in the same place that Bin Laden and his terrorist trained.....

Al Qaeda built this facility with a bomb shelter within arms distance from the facility, but that place too was destroyed... They literally had no place to hide...... Our bombs penetrated the bomb shelter like a knife slicing through hot butter....

In 1994, al Qaeda moved into the Soviet barracks and Tarnak Farms and used the compound as a training area for their soldiers. The neighboring airfield became a Taliban operations base. Which is the compound that I am assigned... Kandahar Airfield... After the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, then President Clinton ordered the attack by cruise missiles against suspected terrorist training camps. Many believe that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were planned and rehearsed at Tarnak Farms. Unfortunately, Bin Laden survived the attacks and continued to hide out in Afghanistan, until bombing raids and ground troops drove the Taliban out of the area by Dec 7, 2001. Tarnak Farms was deserted, and the building known as "Taliban Last Stand" is now the place where US and Coalition soldiers utilize as an airport.







I personally can see how someone can hide in Afghanistan for years and not be found. In a land where tribes and warlords continue to rule, and little to no rule of law exist to flush crime out. Savage crimes happen here everyday and noone enforces the travesties of injustice here. Once such injustice is the story of Nazia Hookum Darr, a 16 year old girl brutally attacked by her husband whom is 40 years of age, in December 2007. Nazia was beaten and disfigured by her husband of three months on Christmas Day. The man whom is still on the loose, broke 16 of her teeth, shaved her head, cut off her nose and ears and poured scalding water on her hands and feet.



Nazia's mother had died and her stepmother arrainged the marriage, partly due to their need for money, their need to survive. Nazia was still only a child.. Nazia stated that she had no choice but to go with him, she was afraid of him because he was Talib, (Taliban), strangely, his first wife died a mysterious death a year prior and Nazia was his second wife. This event though tragic, has received an enormous outpouring of media attention and support and concern throughout Afghanistan. Nazia is scheduled to receive the plastic surgery she requires to regain her dignity and have an opportunity for a normal life. Despite advances in women's rights since the fall in 2001 of the Taliban regime that barred education and employment for females, reports suggest that at least one out of three Afghan women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused. The abuser is usually a family member or someone she knows. Rarely is anyone prosecuted or even reprimanded.Reports from Herat, in western Afghanistan, show about 90 women set fire to themselves last year there and more than 70 percent died. Afghanistan' s poor health system can do little for the badly burnt.



The US and Afghan government is supporting Nazia in this case. I just pray for the other Nazia's that exist that noone knows about.