The Afghan
Encyclopedia
The Afghan is a 2006 thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth
, and concerns a planned Al Qaeda terrorist attack to take place against an unspecified target. As with other Forsyth novels, the full details of the plot are not revealed until the end. The story takes place in Indonesia
, Pakistan
, Guantanamo Bay, Trinidad and Tobago
, Washington state and onboard various ships sailing the high seas.
/CIA
/ISI
raid against al Qaeda (AQ) operatives in Pakistan
uncovers documents concerning a planned, but largely cryptic, terrorist attack. This raises concerns and triggers further investigations authorised at the most senior level.
Mike Martin
, who previously appeared in the Forsyth novel The Fist of God
, is now a retired SAS
officer. Educated in Iraq
and physically able to pass for an Afghan
(his maternal grandmother was a Bengali-Indian
named Indira Bose, misspelled Bohse in the book) who contributed to his chestnut-brown complexion which allows him to look like an Arab (or later on, Afghan) Martin has a near-perfect command of Arabic
and is also familiar with Afghanistan
and the Pashtun
language, Pashto
. He is chosen (due entirely to an overheard gaffe by his brother who is a member of the expert "Koran committee" of academics specialising in ancient texts) to infiltrate the highest echelons of AQ, by impersonating an AQ prisoner, Izmat Khan, currently held at Guantanamo Bay. In the story it is revealed that prior to Martin's escapades in Iraq he had worked with the Mujahideen
in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation
where he met Osama Bin Laden
and rescued a young Afghan boy, Izmat Khan, who later became a resistance leader. Khan is portrayed as an heroic Afghan freedom fighter determined to have vengeance against America and careless of his life following the bombing of his village in the Tora Bora
mountains which killed his family.
In a highly covert operation Martin is successful in impersonating "The Afghan" (under the code word "crowbar"), a prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay for over five years. Following his re-infiltration to Afghanistan as a repatriated prisoner, and his subsequent stage-managed escape, he makes his way back to an al Qaeda safe house
in Pakistan, where he is accepted as a compatriot following his security clearance by "The Sheik
", Osama Bin Laden
due to the brief encounter years before.
He makes contact with AQ and volunteers to get involved in a suicidal terrorist attack which involves hijacking and re-berthing a tanker off Borneo
carrying liquid petroleum gas. Another group hijack a cargo ship in the Caribbean
, although this is intended to serve as a cynical decoy. Martin successfully alerts his handlers to the general nature of the threat, but is left incommunicado for several weeks as the ship steams to the US Eastern Seaboard. Izmat Khan escapes from US captivity after a US fighter jet accidentally crashes into the secret hiding place in Washington state where Izmat is incarcerated, destroying his guards and the compound wall whilst leaving him unscathed and free to walk out. He is finally shot dead trying to warn his allies using a public phone in Canada
, after a long chase across the Cascades
.
Eventually the tanker reaches the mid-Atlantic, where a G8 summit is being held on the Queen Mary 2 liner. Martin finally learns that the terrorists intend to release and then ignite the gas on board the tanker, which could incinerate the Queen Mary 2 as it passed within range. Martin's last minute heroism, quick reflexes and self-sacrifice prevent a tragedy.
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
, and concerns a planned Al Qaeda terrorist attack to take place against an unspecified target. As with other Forsyth novels, the full details of the plot are not revealed until the end. The story takes place in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Guantanamo Bay, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
, Washington state and onboard various ships sailing the high seas.
Plot summary
Sometime before the events of the story take place, a joint MI6Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
/CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
/ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
raid against al Qaeda (AQ) operatives in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
uncovers documents concerning a planned, but largely cryptic, terrorist attack. This raises concerns and triggers further investigations authorised at the most senior level.
Mike Martin
Mike Martin (SAS-officer)
Mike Martin is the protagonist in two novels The Fist of God and The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth.Martin is an Englishman who looks remarkably Arab because his maternal grandmother was Indian. He grew up in Baghdad, becoming fluent in Arabic and English...
, who previously appeared in the Forsyth novel The Fist of God
The Fist of God
The Fist of God is a 1994 novel by Frederick Forsyth, mixing known fact with fiction to tell a story of the coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War racing against time to discover the true nature of Saddam Hussein's secret weapon, 'The Fist of God.'...
, is now a retired SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
officer. Educated in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and physically able to pass for an Afghan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
(his maternal grandmother was a Bengali-Indian
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
named Indira Bose, misspelled Bohse in the book) who contributed to his chestnut-brown complexion which allows him to look like an Arab (or later on, Afghan) Martin has a near-perfect command of Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and is also familiar with Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and the Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
language, Pashto
Pashto language
Pashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...
. He is chosen (due entirely to an overheard gaffe by his brother who is a member of the expert "Koran committee" of academics specialising in ancient texts) to infiltrate the highest echelons of AQ, by impersonating an AQ prisoner, Izmat Khan, currently held at Guantanamo Bay. In the story it is revealed that prior to Martin's escapades in Iraq he had worked with the Mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
where he met Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and rescued a young Afghan boy, Izmat Khan, who later became a resistance leader. Khan is portrayed as an heroic Afghan freedom fighter determined to have vengeance against America and careless of his life following the bombing of his village in the Tora Bora
Tora Bora
Tora Bora , known locally as Spīn Ghar , is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately west of the Khyber Pass and north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan...
mountains which killed his family.
In a highly covert operation Martin is successful in impersonating "The Afghan" (under the code word "crowbar"), a prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay for over five years. Following his re-infiltration to Afghanistan as a repatriated prisoner, and his subsequent stage-managed escape, he makes his way back to an al Qaeda safe house
Safe house
In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger...
in Pakistan, where he is accepted as a compatriot following his security clearance by "The Sheik
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
", Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
due to the brief encounter years before.
He makes contact with AQ and volunteers to get involved in a suicidal terrorist attack which involves hijacking and re-berthing a tanker off Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
carrying liquid petroleum gas. Another group hijack a cargo ship in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, although this is intended to serve as a cynical decoy. Martin successfully alerts his handlers to the general nature of the threat, but is left incommunicado for several weeks as the ship steams to the US Eastern Seaboard. Izmat Khan escapes from US captivity after a US fighter jet accidentally crashes into the secret hiding place in Washington state where Izmat is incarcerated, destroying his guards and the compound wall whilst leaving him unscathed and free to walk out. He is finally shot dead trying to warn his allies using a public phone in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, after a long chase across the Cascades
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
.
Eventually the tanker reaches the mid-Atlantic, where a G8 summit is being held on the Queen Mary 2 liner. Martin finally learns that the terrorists intend to release and then ignite the gas on board the tanker, which could incinerate the Queen Mary 2 as it passed within range. Martin's last minute heroism, quick reflexes and self-sacrifice prevent a tragedy.