"The bottom line," Wildes says, "was to get him the hell out. The four of us are going to eat at an Afghan restaurant on the other side of town. I had to go back to Afghanistan. After dinner, we head back to my hotel. Afghan villager who saved Navy Seal gets life line from U.S. after … As the weeks passed, Gulab started to feel that he'd been used. Now he appeared to indicate Murphy alone decided to let the goat herders go. And his newfound fame proved to be lucrative. In 2008, in a rare display of bipartisanship, Congress created a system to bring over Iraqi and Afghan translators, office workers and other American allies. They tried with a grenade outside his daughter's bedroom, the blast hurling shrapnel into her leg. As he looked at the tears in her eyes, he felt a deep sadness. He'd landed a job as a U.N. translator, but that took him months. When Gulab began to miss home or worry about his family, he claims Luttrell comforted him, offering to buy him a house in Dubai or get him a green card and build him a home in Houston. I've was just reading up on it again for some reason or another and came across this fairly popular claim that there was only around 8-10 Taliban fighters, this number seems to be coming from the book "Victory Point" by Ed Darack, who simply out maneuvered the 4 Seals before ambushing and killing them, except of course Marcus Luttrell who survived. At the urging of several Marine commanders, Gulab received some cash and a job at the base in Asadabad. Wildes showed the Daily News a letter written in Pashtu, addressed to Gulab and posted publicly in Afghanistan recently as a threat. "I [had] sacrificed a lot. Later, Muhammad Gulab, the Afghan villager who saved Marcus Luttrell, gave six days of hospitality after the battle to him until the American forces came to rescue from Gulab’s signal. But the Afghan claims the villagers and American military personnel who combed the mountain for the bodies of the dead SEALs never found any enemy corpses. He was attracting the Taliban…like flypaper.". Unable to make rent, he and his sons spent weeks living in the apartment or a tent, depending on what he could afford. In his statement from Buzbee, the former SEAL disputes this, saying he encouraged Gulab to stay but that he left on his own accord. "I was a stranger in this country," Gulab says. (After the publication of the book, Gulab and Luttrell reconnect and go on to have a rather fraught relationship, best described in the 2016 Newsweek article “Marcus Luttrell’s Savior, Mohammad Gulab, Claims ‘Lone Survivor’ Got It Wrong”.) Once Gulab escaped, he assumed the worst was behind him. Gulab gave refuge to Luttrell and took him into his home because of a tribal code of honor which mandates giving help to anyone who needs it. [But] there weren't 35 enemy fighters in all of the Korengal Valley [that day]. That's the night he and his wife ran up to the roof with assault rifles. "It's not that I'd pay you," the Afghan villager recalls him saying. "If he had waited…to save a Navy SEAL, Marcus Luttrell never would have survived.". Navy SEALs Michael Murphy left, and Matthew Axelson were killed during Operation Red Wings; Luttrell was the only man in his team who survived. Around noon, as the Americans hid among rocks and fallen trees, a goat herder stumbled across Luttrell as two other herders, one of them a teenage boy, trailed behind with roughly 100 goats. On April 9, 2014, while I was working at a website called Vocativ, I received an email from Sami Yousafzai, a Pashto-speaking colleague in Islamabad, Pakistan. When Gulab landed at the Houston airport in September 2010, Luttrell was waiting for him, a watch in his hand—a reminder of their emotional parting five years before. None, however, seem to explain the differences between what Robinson wrote and what the Afghan claims happened. We pile into Fazilhaq 's silver Honda Odyssey and snake over the highways—a concrete labyrinth of pickup trucks and SUVs. Gulab still wasn't sure, explaining, "I didn't save Marcus for money." ", The more Gulab and I speak, the more I see he's struggling, that he's riven with resentment. A short while later, all of Luttrell's teammates were dead, and then a Taliban grenade blew him sideways and over a ravine. "If you like the kebab here, I will buy a sheep and slaughter it myself. But Gulab did it to himself.". In 2005, Mohammad Gulab found Marcus Luttrell badly wounded and alone in the woods in Afghanistan after the Seal survived an ambush from the Taliban. A State Department official in Afghanistan told Wildes that Gulab safely fled Saturday afternoon, but the attorney would not name the country where Gulab is now because he could still be at risk. But as the aircraft flew over the mountains and the team prepared to rope down, an insurgent fired a rocket-propelled grenade. He had little money and no way to travel on his own. I know it's something more. "Maybe Marcus called them?" Before they parted once again, this time in Houston, Gulab says Luttrell promised to hold a fundraiser for him and the other villagers who had saved him. The timing was more than bad—in a few hours, the two were supposed to sit down with TV anchor Anderson Cooper for a 60 Minutes interview. I broke right there, I quit right there.". Later, he claims the interpreter took him outside to chat: "Whatever Marcus says in the interview," the Afghan recalls being told, "say yes." For months, Wildes had been working with Gulab, and he'd made several useful contacts in Kabul and Asadabad. The next day, Gulab met one of his contacts, who handed him his plane tickets and several hundred dollars. It had been nearly 10 years since he had saved Luttrell. With Sami Yousafzai in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Ed Darack in Fort Collins, Colorado. They treated him well, he says, but the interpreter was rarely around. The next morning, Gulab learned he was being sent back to Afghanistan. Wahlberg, with Ali Suliman, who played Gulab in the movie version of 'Lone Survivor.'. ", That conversation was one of the last Gulab says he had with Luttrell in the U.S. Not long after the 60 Minutes interview, Gulab returned to the home of the translator's parents in California. When he came to, he saw Mohammad Gulab Khan standing on the bank offering his help. The threats kept coming. Not long after he moved to Fort Worth, he tried contacting Luttrell, but he never heard back. "Our paths, which had crossed so suddenly and so powerfully in a life-changing encounter for both of us, were about to diverge.". ", As the buzz around Lone Survivor increased, Luttrell advised him to seek asylum, since it was proving difficult for him to get a green card. Since writing his memoir, Luttrell began a foundation and has become an entrepreneur, starting his own lines of clothing and ammunition. "My head was spinning," he says, "and everything turned to black and white.". Luttrell emptied his clips, determined to go down fighting despite his injuries, till he fell into a river and lost consciousness. It was the Taliban—again—but instead of threatening his life, this caller was mocking him. They had no rope to tie up the men, but letting them go might be a fatal mistake; the Afghans could alert the Taliban. Gulab fears a similar fate. I need help, Marcus!' Gulab with two of his children in their apartment complex; his son Irshad, right, is now the family’s primary breadwinner, in part because his English is far better than that of his parents. Static filled the line, and then Spies heard a man speaking in a foreign language as the second individual translated. I hope the suicide bombers or the Taliban brothers will fulfill my order. He wanted to write about Gulab's return to Afghanistan, and he met the timber worker a short time later at a secret location. They didn't die because they spared civilians, he says; they died because they were easily tracked, quickly outmaneuvered and thoroughly outgunned. In his book, To Be a Friend Is Fatal, Kirk Johnson, a former U.S. Agency for International Development worker in Fallujah, describes the wishful thinking and twisted logic that left so many U.S. allies stranded in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says he wanted to stay in the United States, to look for a house in Texas and try and bring his family over. But in two little corners of this world, in the Hindu Kush and eight thousand miles away in Southeast Texas, love, respect, and friendship will forever hold Marcus and me together.". All I wanted him to do was stop screaming my name…. When the two had a moment to chat at the movie's New York premiere, the actor told Gulab, "You were the true hero. Gulab says he never received a copy of The Lion of Sabray from Robinson or the publisher, so as we sit in his drab four-bedroom apartment, I read him parts of his story. He was like, 'Marcus, man, you gotta help me! Luttrell emptied his clips, determined to go down fighting despite his injuries, till he fell into a river and lost consciousness. Weeks earlier, after a period of silence from Luttrell, he had received the book contract from the interpreter. It was one of his contacts. Some of the other patrons stare. The Afghan hadn't worked for the U.S. military long enough to qualify for the Special Immigrant Visa program. One district commander, Mullah Nasrullah, was livid that his fighters had yet to kill the famous villager from Sabray. "[The translator] was like my eyes and mouth." I was trying with everything I had to get to him, and he started screaming my name. As he stood near the doorway, two men on motorcycles pulled up and fired at him with pistols. Now Shah was not a threat to the home front. India had approved his travel visa. We had photos from their interview, which Yousafzai recorded, and copies of Gulab's visas. "I'm very glad to be in America," Gulab says. In April, however, an Afghan friend loaned him thousands of dollars to buy his wife and three daughters plane tickets. As Gulab guarded Luttrell, the SEAL wrote, another villager went to a nearby U.S. military base with a note from the American. The two hugged. He was the head of a small Taliban-linked militia. Perhaps something was lost in translation between the two men. He was eager to see Luttrell again, and he was proud that the movie would show the world how he and his village had defied the Taliban and saved the American. "If it wasn't for the movie, Marcus would never have asked me to come here.". When Luttrell offered to help Gulab acquire a green card, the Afghan said he was appreciative but wasn't ready to leave his country, despite the threats against his life. Anyone who has seen “Lone Survivor” can’t help but be captivated by the honor displayed by (His lawyer, Tony Buzbee, said in a statement: "Marcus Luttrell stands by his account in Lone Survivor. Soon after Gulab returned to Asadabad, his life was again thrown into turmoil. "I agonized over my decision," the Afghan says in the book. The next morning, on January 9, 2015, Gulab held his wife's hands in his and said goodbye. "In the book, they say Gulab thought [Luttrell] looked like Fidel Castro. Afghan villager who saved Navy SEAL in hiding, seeking US asylum … Finally, in August, Gulab's contacts told him to bring his wife and daughters back to New Delhi. This time, he traveled roughly 50 miles to a U.S. military base in Jalalabad, where he met a muscular man with a beard named Joe Fairchild, who Gulab says worked as a military adviser. ", About a month later, another call came. Gulab says he appreciates the freedom he has in the U.S., the safety and security. But it wasn't Luttrell who saved him from the Taliban; the two had a falling out over money, respect and what really happened to the SEALs on that tragic day. I've slaughtered a lot of animals.". He still hadn't heard from Luttrell and wanted to fly to Houston to hash things out. He had a point, Gulab thought. For days, Mohammad Gulab and his fellow villagers protected him from a Taliban-linked militia in northeastern Afghanistan. Gulab is trying to make his way in his new home, but with a language barrier and the feeling of isolation it brings, he spends most of his time at home playing with his kids. As the three huddled, Gulab claims they hashed out a verbal agreement: Luttrell promised to link him up with Robinson, his co-author, so he could tell his version of how they met, and the Afghan could keep the profits from the book. With his family in danger, and no way to make a living, he contacted Fairchild and others at the base. I would have asked [to go to]...Canada or Germany. Michael Wildes, an attorney who specializes in immigration cases, has taken on Gulab's case pro bono. Fazilhaq found Gulab and his sons an apartment—a small room and bathroom with no kitchen—and helped them register with the U.N. refugee agency. It got so intense that I actually put my weapon down and covered my ears. "I ordered my commanders and the Taliban Mujahedeens to kill or arrest you alive and bring you to me. The Afghan's friends advised him not to sign, but he didn't listen; he needed the money. What he didn't know at the time was that Murphy's call sprang the U.S. military into action. For more than a decade, the Taliban's threats kept him awake at night. 'Cause I couldn't stand to hear him die. Less than a year later, the U.S. military arrested him, fearing he was collaborating with the Taliban, among other things. "The main problem," Luttrell recalled Murphy, the team leader, arguing, "is the goats. Around December 2014, Gulab received a call from an unfamiliar number. He uncovered a bevy of discrepancies in Luttrell's account. Schneiderman Newsweek May 2016 Permalink He even visited Las Vegas. No one wants their signature on the next 9/11 hijacker's visa papers…. When he came to, the SEAL realized the blast had blown his pants off, and he was badly injured: His back and nose were broken, and his face was busted up, he wrote. After several days, they set him free and apologized. Things only got worse for Gulab. Not long after Gulab arrived in the U.S., this friend said, someone from Luttrell's camp asked the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to send him back to Afghanistan, afraid he would harm the family. Some are small: He got the name of the operation wrong—it was Red Wings, like the hockey team, not Redwing. "He totally changed," Gulab says of Luttrell. Gulab says he's still looking for a job (and the relief agency is helping him), but his English is rudimentary, despite several months of classes. Fazilhaq tried to calm him, but Gulab felt betrayed. He and I hadn't spoken in a while, and there was a sense of urgency in his voice message I'd never heard before. He wasn't on the mountain with Luttrell but says everyone in the village could hear the gunfire. But a few turn that battle against some of the world's most dangerous militants into something far less heroic. That is until early 2006, when he and his brother-in-law were walking on a rural road outside of Asadabad. That fall, the Taliban's "shadow governor" in Kunar province sent Gulab a written threat. "Soon," one militant warned him by phone, "we will blow you to hell.". 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When the Afghan contacted him through Fairchild, the former SEAL was setting up a nonprofit, the Lone Survivor Foundation, to help American military personnel adjust to life after war. Gulab refused to hand over the Seal when the Taliban came looking for him. They then spoke by phone, Wildes said, and he agreed to take the case pro bono. Paying smugglers was too dangerous and expensive. Gulab maintains the SEALs were far from the stealthy, superhuman warriors described in Lone Survivor. In 2010, he again tried to reach out to Luttrell. The Luttrells wouldn't directly confirm or deny the claim, but generally dispute all of Gulab's allegations.) Gulab asked the interpreter to call Luttrell several times but says he never got through. He says he's never threatened the Luttrells but was afraid the U.S. would send him back to the Taliban. But one night in 2012, as he returned from a grocery store, riding in the passenger seat of his nephew's Toyota, the Taliban opened fire from the side of the road. Yet Luttrell, he claims, had dropped the subject. Gulab, however, says he wanted only friendship—and Luttrell said he wanted the same. "We need to herald this guy, and give him a red carpet to America," Wildes said. The 51-year-old has spent the past two decades representing high-profile asylum seekers—Russian spies, Pakistani scientists and even contestants in Miss Universe, a beauty pageant once partly owned by Donald Trump. Yet on May 30, Gulab's benefits will expire. Jul 9, 2018 - Explore Joyce Spoden's board "Marcus Luttrell" on Pinterest. The four of us make tea in the lobby and chat. The Afghan pressed on—he bought another truck and hired workers to haul timber. Then the Afghan and his sons boarded a flight from Kabul to New Delhi. ", That sacrifice would soon be rewarded, Gulab says his friend told him. The money has been helpful, the Afghan says; it allowed him to pay back some of what he borrowed while in India. Now that he was in the States, he hoped the former SEAL would help him find a job. At least he had Luttrell, who promised to always come to his rescue. "It was the stupidest, most southern-fried, lame-brained decision I ever made in my life," he wrote. The way Gulab heard it from fellow villagers, when the militants finally found them, the Americans were deliberating about what to do with the goat herders. In his 2009 book, Victory Point, the journalist Ed Darack wrote about the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment in Afghanistan, the unit that planned the mission. He did not comment on Gulab's claims about the money from the movie. He gave Luttrell water and helped carry him back to their village. He carries four cellphones and sometimes hires drivers and bodyguards. "But a lot of things are different [than in Afghanistan]. In the five years since he and Gulab had last spoken, the American had served another tour, retired and received the Navy Cross for heroism in combat for that mission in Kunar. Luttrell helped too. Since they'd last seen each other, the former SEAL had become an entrepreneur, launching his own clothing line (and later his own brand of ammunition called Team Never Quit). The burly Texas native frequently offered to help him start a business, Gulab says, and the two discussed a market the Afghan said he wanted to buy in Asadabad. On the night of June 27, 2005, with a sense of dread creeping over him, Luttrell and his fellow SEALs—Michael Murphy, Matthew Axelson and Danny Dietz—headed out for a recon mission in a dangerous part of Kunar province near the Pakistani border. At a stoplight, we watch a homeless man move from car to car, begging for change. (Luttrell did not directly confirm or deny Robinson's account. How Trump Uses the Playbook of Europe's Far Right. “Marcus Luttrell’s Savior, Mohammad Gulab, Claims ‘Lone Survivor’ Got It Wrong” May 11, 2016. one of them shouted. I've been in enough firefights to know that when shit hits the fan, it's hard to know how many people are shooting at you. [1600x1600] And he's the best. As gunfire rained down on them, the SEALs blasted back before tumbling down the mountain, as their attackers followed, firing rocket propelled grenades. Gulab wasn't so polite. ", Gulab claims that one afternoon, while sitting with Luttrell in his father-in-law's living room, he brought up some of these discrepancies. "I told the commander the man I saved was a human being. De notre correspondant à New York. Marcus Luttrell's Savior, Mohammad Gulab, Claims 'Lone Survivor' Got It Wrong What happened to the Afghan timber worker after a 2005 battle was made into a book and feature film. "Marcus was absolutely furious about the entire thing," Robinson adds. The Taliban put him on a kill list, so he couldn't return to his village. So in early 2013, the former SEAL sent him an intriguing message through a new interpreter, a fellow Pashtun. ", We pull up to Nora, a trendy restaurant that boasts a "taste of Afghan culture," along with signature cocktails such as the Kabul Mule. "I love you," Luttrell said at one point during the interview with Cooper, throwing a meaty arm around his Afghan friend. The State Department funneled his case to a local relief agency, which paid his rent and gave him thousands of dollars in cash assistance over eight months—all on the condition he continued looking for work and attended free English classes.