After a tragic shooting in Washington, D.C., Thomas and Aimen trace the story back to Afghanistan and to the CIA-backed Zero Units that carried out some of the coalition’s most clandestine kill-or-capture missions.
They discuss:
- The November 2025 D.C. shooting and the alleged link to a former Zero Unit operative
- What the Zero Units were designed to do and why they were so controversial
- Afghanistan's geography of terrorism and counterterrorism
- The lifelong psychological damage caused by black ops
- How the Doha Agreement sidelined the US’s Afghan partners
- The halfway house vetting pipeline through German
- The problem of PTSD, monitoring, and support for both Afghan allies and U.S. veterans
- Whether America can fight future wars if local allies believe they’ll be left behind
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
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