Robert Young Pelton's, The World's Most Dangerous Places:Lion of the Panjshir

[Music] Robert Young Pelton looks like anyone else a married man with a wife two daughters a dog and a home in a suburb of Los Angeles but pelton's not like the rest of us today he's telling his wife and daughters that he's decided to take yet another hazardous Journey his mission to find this man akmed sha masud the legendary Lion of panir who helped Drive the Soviets from Afghanistan now the leader of the resistance against the feared Taliban regime to update his definitive Guide to the world's War zones Pelton Fields compelled to understand what makes this living legend tick and to explore his War ravaged world to make it there alive he'll have to dodge rocket fire cross borders without a passport and trespass into war zones his wife and daughters understand it's what he lives for because Robert Young Pelton has devoted his life to traveling to the world's most dangerous places [Music] I [Music] got [Music] Afghanistan an unforgiving land controlled by the faired Taliban regime of Refuge for international terrorists including Osama bin Laden under Taliban rule women have lost their jobs and their right to be educated the crime of theft is punishable by amputation movies dancing book reading magazines and videos are strictly forbidden this country has more guns per person than anywhere else on Earth it's a nation with its finger on the trigger Afghanistan is a very dangerous place Robert Young pelton's kind of place so here we are in land Cod right across the border into Afghanistan M and then we'll see how far we get before the Taliban Frank us and send us home having talked his way across the border without a Visa something he's done dozens of times before Pelton arrives in kabell capital of Afghanistan here he will begin his quest to reach the resistance leader Ahmed sha masud in 1979 the Soviets invaded Afghanistan to support a puppet communist dictator masud helped lead the Islamic guerillas who fought back so fiercely they turned it into the so iets Vietnam a brilliant strategist he helped assure the Afghan Victory after Chasing out the Soviets massud battled his Rivals for control of Kabul reducing the city to Rubble now masud has withdrawn to the north leaving the city under strict Taliban control deadly reminders of the struggle with masud lurk everywhere over 12 million explosive mines planted over the last two decades of warfare in fact Afghanistan has more Minds than [Music] people after learning about the un's Dem mining efforts Pelton hopes they will help him cross the Taliban front lines to meet the Taliban mortal enemy masud leading the resistance in the north first if he is to survive in the most heavily mined Nation on Earth he will have to learn the Grim Facts of Life about lethal explosives especially this area in classes like this girls as well as boys are compelled to take a crucial lesson in survival a lot of surprisingly the biggest danger of Minds to Children isn't that they'll step on them it's that they'll pick them up to sell for scrap students perform a skit to show the deadly consequences lacking sophisticated equipment to locate mines the Afghans rely on one of Nature's most sensitive detection devices Pinefield just east of jalad and we're out here with MDC seeing how they de clear minefields with the dogs this is a Malinois this is a young one and he's learning how to sniff for mines and help clear Fields but he's kind of excited because he has a lot of visitors here and he's a young dog but the older dogs are doing a much better job and looking so we'll see how they do things each dog is bonded for life to a single Handler when it sniffs a mine the dog is trained to stop sit then return directly to his Handler a technique designed to protect the dogs from harm once a mine is located the deadly explosive can be blown up in place or taken to a disposal site Pelton gets a rear look at the restricted area where unexploded mines are taken for disposal at the current rate of disposal it will take 20,000 years to destroy them all the explosion Sparks A desperate race for these children the few pennies earned from selling scraps of copper or brass can spell the difference between between starvation and survival these folks are now digging for scrap you can see they're fighting over bits and pieces and one guy was whacking somebody else with a shovel that's not the prettiest the economic condition aan surveying KB's ruins Pelton learns the situation is considered too precarious for the demining agency to take him to the front lines he wangles a presspass from the Taliban government his goal to cross the Taliban lines and reach mud's forces so we're heading off to meet the commander now it's a short walk to the Taliban front line the Taliban fighters believe they will go straight to heaven if they die in a holy war one asks Pelon if you did not come here to die then why are you here I'm not trying to be theatrical here because I'm hunched down because they just loosed off a few artillery shells at us but uh we'd be prime f for a sniper if they had somebody up on the hills around here but we can see the the enemy positions through this captured Russian pair of binoculars and as you can see there's a plane in front of us and then the mountains behind us with Meer equipment the Taliban are forced to improvise a heap of stones serves as a makeshift rocket launcher even here a devout Muslim chants the call of prayer it was kind of interesting though when we heard the man up here calling for prayer and he waited till he was finished calling for prayer before he fired the tank shell it's time to head back on a trail where death lies hidden underfoot this is an active mindfield with all sorts of unexplored ordinance so we're sticking to the path here like they teach the kids in school no no no no okay this man is showing us a mine no no no no okay he's got the fuse off it okay he's defused it okay that's why God invented telephoto lenses I'll tell you after making it across the Minefield Pelton is grateful for a cup of tea with Talib commanders they're still concerned about Hospitality so they want us to share some Hospitality some tea with them the tea is good eh but when he tells them of his plan to cross over to Mud side they have bad news they explained it would mean crossing a thousand meters through an active fire zone not just risky suicidal so close to my goal of reaching mud I was forced to turn back Robert Young pelton's goal seems unattainable to everyone but Pelton himself it will be a year before Pelton can organize his second attempt to reach masud driven by his determination to meet the charismatic leader this time he makes a bold decision with mud's hardpressed forces retreating to the north Pelton will enter Afghanistan through the dangerous back door across the rugged palir mountains a risky shortcut to his goal and he will do it alone from usbekistan with a combination of and hutzpah he Bluffs his way into neighboring Tajikistan there he meets up with his guide Hamra a tour group leader Hamra invites him to spend the night at his home so that's the first time you've seen a foreigner H so now he'll be scared forever while Ham's children stare at him in awe Pelton tries to persuade their father to take him to duchan Bay his entry point to Afghanistan the trip is so dangerous hamul hasn't made it in six years but he misses his brother there Pelton convinces him to go they must drive over 100 miles across the rugged pomier mountains to the city of duchan bay there Pelton hopes to catch a train to teriz on The Afghan border [Music] crossing a rickety Bridge Pelton makes an unnerving Discovery this is where the locals come to scavenge [Music] [Music] firewood the weather in the high mountain M passes is notoriously treacherous storm clouds descend and the temperature plummets Pelton finds himself trapped in a blizzard as the sun sets at 12,000 ft in the palir mountains on the coldest night of pelton's life he'll Focus Less on reaching mud than on Surviving until dawn somewhere high in the forbidding pomier mountains of Tajikistan altitude 12,000 ft temperature 10 below [Music] zero just spent the night on the side of mountain in Tajikistan it's my good friend hmer Co you can see out there most beautiful place in the world to get stranded for a nightless of course you're freezing to death it's about 6:30 in the morning these are other folks that have been stuck although they made it up to the top delton's guide hammerle decides to turn back but Pelton presses on [Music] after hiking 10 miles he hitches a ride on a potato truck at Duan Bay a train has arrived packed with refugees from the Taliban war against [Music] masud without a ticket or VISA Pelton stows a board for its trip back to Afghanistan he's an alien territory but without knowing a word of Russian somehow Pelton speaks their [Music] language [Laughter] when the train arrives at the Border Town of term he finds he's too late the Taliban have sealed off the border to Afghanistan no one can cross Helton has a grim Choice leave now or wind up in prison within a mile of the Afghan border closer than I had ever come to reaching masud I had to turn back twice I tried to reach the man and failed but I didn't give [Music] up 6 months later Robert Young Pelton sets out on a secret route to reach akmed sha masud his two failures have only wetted his appetite for a third Gopher Broke attempt this time he has an ambitious new [Music] plan again he will attempt to enter Afghanistan the back way through the former Soviet republics but he has learned he can't do it alone he needs the right connections so along with filmmaker David Keane he has enlisted Peter juvenal Peter is a veteran War cameram man who has known mud since 1985 covering the Afghan Soviet War Peter secretly entered Afghanistan on foot 72 times at the Tashkent airport as arranged their driver is waiting he is to take them from usbekistan across the border to Tajikistan can we cross the border without a vis you have problem the two most dangerous words in travel no problem for Pelton no problem turns into a big problem because suddenly when he tries to cross the border into Tajikistan the officials refuse entry so what's the what's the $1 for it's for Bak bakish why bakish International slang for bribe quickly the $10 escalates into a 100 so what about this one what we as part of the deal they must leave their own driver behind and take a driver designated by the corrupt official they cross a No Man's Land of a 100 yards where desperate refugees wait to enter usbekistan so this is Tajikistan here yeah at the checkpoint on the Tajikistan side they also want bribes Peter is the only one who knows enough Russian to negotiate at first it's touch and go I got with a hidden camera they film the age-old ritual of bribery the tajic guards are not as forgiving as the USCS if Pelton and his friends are caught filming they will be thrown in jail or shot as [Music] spies they put $116 in my passport and then gave it with the another passport to one of the Customs officials took me into a little side room and uh put the $100 bill in his pocket and then kept the 16 I guess for his mates and said that would do nicely thanks and then shook my hand so everybody could see I guess that was a signal and we went at last entering Tajikistan they reached the town of Duan Bay there they meet up with their key contact a mysterious figure known by the Alias of General Muslim Muslim is mud's contact man in duchon Bay a formidable Warrior whom Peter covered fighting the Soviets he says he'll try to get them visas into Afghanistan okay so I'll give you 400 for everybody and then get the most visa for the money so if you can get the same price you can get double entry General Muslim pulls the right strings they get their visas at the hotel they meet up with their interpreter hanif a master of five languages suddenly they get word they are to leave on a secret flight that officially does not exist in the shadowy world these clandestine flights are the lifeline of mud's beleaguered forces bringing desperately needed arms and ammunition the day of departure they see a colorful graduation festival for Pelton it holds a deeper [Applause] meaning [Music] the women smiling in public the music the dancing are all reminders of what he will be leaving behind when he enters Afghanistan about to board a Russian helicoptered for a fairly air raising flight into Talon and the reason people are taking pictures is probably the last remembrance they'll have of their friends you oh excuse me thank you very much the passengers are tense for good reason a few days ago on the same flight Taliban migs tried to shoot this chopper [Music] down [Music] at last they land at tacon just 9 miles from the front lines with the Taliban we're in ton right now which is the main Supply base for the Northern Alliance we're a little deaf from flying in a old Russian helicopter telicon mud's headquarters an isolated Enclave where masud has come to make his last stand few Outsiders have ever set foot here it seems as if pelton's goal of meeting masud is at last within his grasp Talon in the war torn north of Afghan [Music] an at first glance this remote Market Town hasn't changed in a thousand years beneath its picturesque surface tacon is one of the world's most dangerous places a last stronghold for resistance against the Taliban command post of the legendary Warrior akmed sha masud the man Robert Young Pelton has risked his life to meet signs of War appear in unexpected places in the Market along with the fruits and vegetables are bomb fragments for sale this is from a cluster bomb holds the cluster bombs into the bom and then the little boms drop out this is breaks up tail of a rocket RPG yeah stabilizer that looks like a landing the scrap aluminum from bombs might be hammered into something as harmless as a teapot nearby mud's men kill time watching traditional Afghan wrestling they bet on the fighters amateurs from among their ranks [Applause] still more young men pour down from the farm country in the Hills to join mud's forces they have experienced the taliban's harsh scorched Earth Rule and want to fight back this is a training camp for new recruits for the Northern Alliance they're going through some of the basic military drills they need when they're out when they go out to the front line many are Barefoot and without guns they will earn only $25 a month and endure meager rations but they have come to follow mud into battle to defend their homes from the Taliban onslaught seeing the devotion of mud's men only increases pelton's resolve to meet him it's hard to imagine war in in a place like this he confers with mud's commanders to try to arrange it the commanders say mud wants Pelton to visit his men on the front lines before he will meet with him a test perhaps of pelton's commitment okay his escort will be Commander dud himself a legendary fighter against the Taliban heavy fighting broke out took place in this area we call this the graveyard of the Taliban Commander daoud accompanies Pelton to visit mud's men on the front lines to avoid the threat of Taliban tank fire they leave the main road even here on the front lines the brutal business of War stops at the time for prayer Islam dictates that they pray five times a day facing towards Mecca after a short drive fearing the dust plume from their Jeep will attract tank fire they set out on foot just let's uh no Pelton discovers life on the front lines is an austere routine of waiting no smoking and in keeping with strict Muslim belief no alcohol all pictures of women are also forbidden here at any moment the monotony of waiting can explode into violence as recorded in this reare combat footage of Mass's men [Music] [Music] fore [Music] BL [Music] almost sunset time for Pelton to leave the front lines but a Taliban tank has zeroed in on their position they'll have to run the gauntlet unfortunately their driver goes so slowly they suspect he's under the influence of hashish a widely used local drug so is it wise to slow down and look over your shoulder in case I really wish you'd let it rip Pelton takes over and lets it rip Peter thinks he's pulled over too soon that they're still In Harm's Way Robert stopped in the W Place St you stopped in the first place not yet this where they just those two rounds landed in this area okay now we're with the wst driver okay all right that's [Music] good even out of tank range driving here is its own test of bra bravado as Pelton returns to Talon he is about to learn that in one of the world's most dangerous places nowhere is [Music] safe 7:30 a.m. at the guest house in the remote Afghan town of tacon Pelton wakes up to a peaceful morning a few blocks away for one family it will be their last so what happened honey yeah yeah you see they just dropped two 500 lb bombs in the area where the hospital and the high school was that we visited yesterday at the hospital the Grim wait for victims begins they do not have to wait long [Music] a distraught father brings in his daughter one of the survivors at A Moment Like This I couldn't help thinking of my own daughters seeing children in warts it's something you never get used to you can see the impact of a 500 lb bomb landed in this Courtyard in this compound it snapped all the trees off killed the birds in the trees and all the livestock in the yard here but that's not the important thing the important thing is the people that get killed sitting having breakfast this is what a 500 pound bomb does when it's dropped in the center of a home it's not usually the bomb that kills it's the blast and the shrapnel in this case it would probably the blast I'm standing in a hole that's at least 12T deep 10 people were living in this house is this the house here or is that the so were people injured here while Pelton is interviewing blast victims he receives word from mud's commanders they want Pelton to Journey South to the panser valley are they moving him there to meet with masud or to prove himself Once More by plunging him deep into mud's [Music] world this is an unexpected pleasure to be uh getting on board a helicopter for the panu because we plan to spend two days the back of a truck hopefully crossing a river that was flooded right now and this isn't the safest with the most in Dr have travel but it's probably better than spending two days traveling along the front lines to get to the South Pelton has an ominous traveling companion the coffin of a fighter recently killed in action and under the coffin there's a heavy load of ammunition the chopper is dangerously overloaded for precarious seconds it hurdles down the runway struggling to lift [Music] off in search of mud Pelton will ride over an hour south into the pansier valley where bitter fighter has raged for decades we finally made it to the paner this is Ras and uh this is their headquarters in the pansare in a place where few Outsiders have ever set foot Peter is welcomed by his old buddies from the war against the Soviets hoping to find mud they hurry to his compound the mountain stronghold where he grew up so this is mood's house and it's being fixed up now it's quite nice yeah his house through the doors it's locked at the moment and then so you have a meeting one one room and you go to the next room to have another meeting and you clear out so most people come here by helicopter uh people come here by Road or land on the pad down there um when did he last live here it was it comes in quite regularly they make a startling Discovery probably the only hum V in all of Afghanistan a gift to masud from a wealthy Sou those actually in good condition a serious vehicle needs a wash huh too wide to drive on narrow Afghan roads it just sits here like mud's favorite toy this is a a totally impractical vehicle got a nice stereo you even got a tack in case you want to go racing with your diesel engine p discovers that masud is not there once again his hosts have him playing a frustrating game but the sudden chance to visit the front lines nearby offers a rare opportunity I wanted to meet the guys who were shooting at me a year before when I was with the Taliban to reach the front lines they must Drive South for a day deep into the panser valley an ancient Battlefield that Invaders from Alexander the Great to the Soviets failed to conquer here massud won his greatest victories against the [Music] Soviets the landscape is littered with Rusty relics of those Fierce battles where over 14,000 Soviets died Rusty tanks aren't the only things abandoned by the Soviets Pelton meets up with a mind detecting dog Left Behind from the80s adopted by mud's men yeah I could be a little TR there we go oh look at that there he shakes hands there we go good dog good dog good dog after a day of driving Pelton reaches mud's front lines at Cherry car not far from Cobble Peter worries that they'll make an easy target you shouldn't go to the front line with a bright l i mean this is what you shouldn't do oh thank you Peter okay so far we've broken every rule in the book so we're driving a bright red pickup truck and we're the only vehicle on the road and we're probably the first vehicle and we've just gone past where the tanks are but we're with the commander so he's got a few years on him so maybe maybe there's some luck there in the combat zone Pelton and Peter take a rear look inside a combat ready russian-made tank you know I'm stuck you sit there you put your foot down here yeah okay here we go I got my binoculars here baby and then I've got my main Gunner up down it's in Russian too way the turret's turning all right that's the that's in case electron get knocked out and the noise you know you got a lot of noise in here your vision is very limited seeing through those oh and you imagine there's no air conditioning there's no bre no windows this little site right here if it hits that ammunition the top pops off just like that just like that how what a measurable way to fight a war Pelton arrives at the last desolate outpost on the extreme front lines in this Bleak No Man's Land mud's forces are locked in a stalemate with the Taliban a feudal struggle yielding neither Victory nor defeat these were the very men who had been shooting at me when I was with the Taliban I I couldn't help thinking I had friended men on both sides men fighting for mud and men fighting for the TBS but if I tried to walk across the ground separating them they would have shot me dead back at Mass's compound Pelton waits in vain for a chopper to bring them to telecon they have heard horror stories of people being stranded here for months it will be five long days until a chopper shows up with orders prop to return to telon at once Pelton is confident that his time has come to meet masud at [Music] last telicon a remote base in Northern Afghanistan with his Visa running out Robert Young Pelton still awaits his chance to meet Ahmed sha masud then there's an unexpected turn of events Helton is taken to a car and driven out of the city for 4 hours his Destination [Music] Unknown massud wanted me to visit a prison maybe this was the last part of his test in a strange way it made sense Thomas Jefferson once said if you want to really understand the country see its prisons so why is this gentleman reciting poetry is this gentleman exting poetry this man yeah here we are in leg prison just a few miles from Talan it's about a three or four hour bumpy ride and uh we've been talking to the prisoners we don't have any restrictions on us so we can talk to whoever we want to and the prisoners seem very forthcoming they're a little but um nobody's refused to talk to us mud's commanders want Pelton to see Pakistani prisoners captured fighting for the Taliban supposed proof of Pakistani interference in the conflict but Pelton finds no Pakistani officers only Unfortunate Souls who wound up here in a pathetic Twist of Fai I'm a school teacher professionally I'm a school teacher how long have you been in this Pres prison 2 years so actually I was not involved in war myself oh you didn't have a rifle or a gun no did he receive any military training no he didn't receive any any training oh he says that when he came there he they told him that there's no need to go for a training so we'll teach you just opening and closing the gun they just I mean so does does he feel he has made a mistake yeah he says that he's made a [Music] mistake behind the Prison Walls some battle loneliness and despair to cling to their sanity others have already lost that battle of all the dangerous places on Earth perhaps the most dangerous is the human Mind At Last the news comes that Pelton has been waiting for after a 4-day wait sitting in the guest house we're being taken to an undisclosed location for an interview with M and everything here is kind of up in the air or not thein mostly for security reasons after an arduous three-year Quest Pelton meets masud At Last In the Flesh this bigger than life figure is grayer and more battle weary than Pelton had expected does he have the same enthusiasm the same uh confidence that he had when he was younger as he does now he of nobody likes war and fighting especially not in his own country if he was incapacitated who would take over his role against the Taliban our resistance doesn't belong to one person it belongs to the nation and the people of Afghanistan if one day I'm not here someone will take over the command and resist even if only one of us is left we will fight after the interview Pelton feels he has met a kindred spirit a man who doesn't give up you can't get him to say a single thing about himself he's always talking about what he's doing or the country or the fight and every time you try to steer him towards who he is or what he's about he just brushes those questions off so it's definitely the refreshing when you talk to people who are fighting Wars because they tend to be self [Applause] aggrandizing for Pelton even after meeting him akmed sha masud remains an elusive figure trapped in his role in history a warrior worn down by Decades of conflict dead locked in a struggle no one can win and yet in his independence and courage he stands as a symbol of Afghanistan's Spirit of resistance Robert Young pelton's three-year-long Quest has ended was it worth the ordeal meeting masur I felt I was a witness to history when I travel to the world's most dangerous places I see the best and the worst in people and I see it with my own eyes there's a purity in that seeing life for yourself unfiltered by other people's judgments and the Journey's End I'm never really the same person I was at the beginning but maybe that's the biggest discovery of [Music] all how are you doing nice yeah I'm beinged [Music] by [Music] he

Channel: DPx Gear, Inc.

Views: 888,944

Keywords: Afghanistan, Massoud, 9/11, Taliban, War Reporter, Robert Young Pelton, Documentary

Id: 6_3sL28MQc0

Length: 51min 18sec (3078 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2016