The Program

68The FET Is a Target

AS SOON AS the sun came up that morning, people began arriving at the FET’s checkpoint. All vehicles entering the area near the polling station were searched. Women and children were removed from the vehicles and directed over to Stacey’s team, where they could be searched for weapons or explosives behind a privacy barrier.

After Stacey and her team had been on their feet and engaged in this incredibly physically and mentally tough and tense environment for more than ten hours, a dingy and rusted vehicle drove up. An Afghan woman and man got out. When directed over to Stacey and her team, the man grabbed the woman by the elbow and with one arm around her waist, began to push her in Stacey’s direction. She was covered from head to toe in a blue burka. All the other women up until that moment had come over to the FET’s location without being accompanied by any men.

Stacey could tell immediately that something was “not right.” The woman was fidgeting, dragging her feet, and had to be forcibly moved forward by her male companion. Stacey recalls her heart beating so hard that she felt like it was lifting and lowering the entire vest of body armor she was wearing. As a sign of cultural respect, she and her teammates wore headscarves under their Kevlar helmets to hide their necks and hair. Stacey was so scared, she felt like the head scarf was strangling her. Her tongue felt like a giant wad of dry cotton stuck to the roof of her mouth. She thought this was ...