#CTPT
Omega was the JSOC component attached to the CTPT program. This guy was in the Kandahar CTPT, known as as the QSF or KSF in the early years and later as NSU-03 after they were ostensibly part of the NDS (with CIA actually maintaining full control). Omega 50 was the JSOC team that worked with them.
November 27, 2025 at 8:18 PM
...which we shed light on here: They were not only “advised” by CIA paramilitaries, but directly paid and formally controlled by them, even after they were ostensibly integrated into the Afghan NDS after a disastrous shootout between a CTPT and the Kandahar police in 2009.
February 23, 2026 at 5:40 PM
An Afghan CTPT officer who was with NDS-03 during the collapse, defense of HKIA, and evacuation confirms to me:

“Yes, we have one guy in Texas who has been taken.”

“Been taken” is a chilling way of phrasing it from a guy who lived through the disappearances of many of his men in Afg.
Although the Houston ICE arrestee is described in the story as part of the Afghan army, his attorney identifies him as a veteran of the Kandahar Strike Force—aka the QSF or NDS-03, the CIA’s Afghan surrogate force in Kandahar.

Here’s a 2021 story of mine about NDS-03’s very difficult escape:
June 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM
(The same guy also recalled an awkward conversation early on with a CTPT soldier who asked why his CTPT was called the “Mohawks”…PMOO explained the Mohawks were brave soldiers from American history…CTPT soldier asked what became of them…)
May 26, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Although he was from Khost, the DC shooter was a veteran of the CIA’s Kandahar CTPT surrogate unit, known in the early years as the QSF or KSF and later as NSU-03.

Here is a 2021 WaPo story I wrote about 03’s escape from Kandahar into collapsing Kabul, where they helped secure the HKIA evacuation.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Dale Comstock—the Delta Force veteran being sued by the Yemeni politician he attempted to assassinate for the UAE—was previously a CIA paramilitary contractor who advised the agency’s CTPT Afghan surrogate commandos. Veterans of the Kabul and Kunar CTPTs remember him (he’s not a forgettable guy).
Lawsuit Accuses Americans of Political Killings for Hire Overseas
www.nytimes.com
April 2, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Meanwhile, more Rangers, SEALs, Green Berets, and CIA officers (including future acting Trump SECDEF Chris Miller) and their Afghan CTPT surrogates reached the crash via a grueling overground movement across the mountains, from which some had to turn back.
March 10, 2025 at 9:17 PM
From @atpgeo.bsky.social
BREAKING: Confirmed Destruction of Huge Haul of Russian Aviation Equipment
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTPT...
BREAKING: Confirmed Destruction of Huge Haul of Russian Aviation Equipment
YouTube video by ATP Geopolitics
www.youtube.com
September 6, 2026 at 12:47 PM
I acknowledge that this is a niche application, but I’ll tell you this: if you’re trying to meet KPF/CTPT veterans, Ubers in certain parts of the country are a great way to do it
May 10, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Last month I reported in this NYT Magazine story that CIA paramilitary operatives who advised the CTPTs were in fact the perpetrators of some of the prisoner executions that have been attributed to the CTPTs, and in other cases ordered CTPT personnel to carry them out www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/m...
The CTPTs have also been repeatedly accused of prisoner executions—allegations that their direct control by CIA paramilitaries add a significant wrinkle to, with some killings attributed to Zero Units ordered by CIA or JSOC advisors, and others actually carried out by CIA or JSOC advisors.
April 2, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Anytime you see an Afghan soldier being scooped up by ICE in the coming months, they are at least as likely to be veterans of the CIA’s CTPTs as of the Afghan army, because while very few ANA members qualified for evacuation, the CTPT guys all qualified because they worked directly for the CIA…
June 8, 2025 at 12:10 AM
…never mind the Omega or ANSOF teams, the “last true cowboys” operating with the CIA outside the Regiment’s usual strict hierarchical supervision that provided air support and medevac for the agency’s CTPT surrogate forces in the war’s later years after the Rangers took the job over from Team 6
February 20, 2025 at 4:47 AM
This is obviously a disgrace. And if it applies to the thousands of former NSU/CTPT personnel (the CIA’s Afghan paramilitary surrogates) and their families who made up a quarter of the 2021 evacuees, it is also going to piss off the CIA in a big way. www.militarytimes.com/news/your-mi...
DHS ends deportation protections for Afghans
Refugees from Afghanistan previously granted temporary protected status may now be forced to return to a region many feel is unsafe.
www.militarytimes.com
May 13, 2025 at 3:34 AM
CTPT context vs a clandestine source context....I dunno if they've ever OFFICIALLY officially acknowledged the teams but they're an open secret at this point
November 27, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Came here to say this exact thing. Underrated.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctPt...
Lifetime's First Original Game Show: What's Wrong with Tanya?! - SNL
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
www.youtube.com
March 13, 2025 at 12:32 PM
In 2017-19, missions into Kunar by the CIA’s Jalalabad CTPT surrogates, NSU-02, surged, usually accompanied by JSOC’s Omega 20 team (now manned by Rangers rather than SEALs) in the agency’s telltale tigerstripes.

(First pic is Omega 20—second is Omega 30 in Khost) www.politico.com/story/2018/0...
June 17, 2025 at 6:32 PM
The context is there has been a lot of discussion at CIA over the past couple years about declassifying the agency’s connection to the CTPTs for the benefit of the several thousand CTPT members who came here in 2021—if it can publicly “own” them, it becomes easier to protect them immigration-wise
August 5, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Belonged to A Company of the “Cobra” CTPT (probably a subcomponent of NSU-01, but there were hundreds of pickups from 01, 02, 03, the KPF, and the OSF that all made their way to HKIA)
June 24, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Home town Christmas vibes www.facebook.com/share/r/CTPT...
Redirecting...
www.facebook.com
December 7, 2024 at 12:16 AM
There are also plenty of perfectly legal Afghan immigrants, especially veterans of the CIA’s CTPT surrogate units, for whom truck driving is one of the only viable options. (Although as I understand it, some new DOT rules have made it harder for them to renew their commercial drivers licenses.)
July 15, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Hurricane Tanya will be a great moment for this SNL sketch

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctPt...
Lifetime's First Original Game Show: What's Wrong with Tanya?! - SNL
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
www.youtube.com
June 1, 2025 at 1:16 PM
…back to mainly interacting with the CTPT commanders and company commanders, rather than the soldiers themselves (at least as a standard practice—some individual PMs took advantage of their extreme independence in the field to just do whatever they felt like).
May 26, 2025 at 5:06 PM