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Former CIA Officer Breaks Down Source Operations in Afghanistan | Delbert Roll

The Team House

dee takos

June 6, 2026

Show Notes

Former Army officer and CIA operations officer Delbert Roll joins us to discuss his path from Third Special Forces Group to the Agency, including joining CIA just before 9/11 and working counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan. He breaks down CIA training, running sources, building targeting packages against al-Qaeda, working with JSOC and indigenous forces, and the realities of protecting assets in the field.
The episode also covers covert action, counterintelligence, counter-WMD work, teaching at the Farm, CIA bureaucracy, writing after retirement, and the bizarre CIA gold bar scandal.
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— Start / Delbert Roll joins The Team House
— Growing up in Pennsylvania and joining the Army
— Third Special Forces Group, Africa missions, and comms work in the 1990s
— Leaving the Army and trying to join the FBI before the CIA
— Joining CIA three weeks before 9/11
— The day after 9/11 and CIA’s shift toward counterterrorism
— Moving from analyst to operations officer
— CIA training and “Ranger School for your brain”
— First Afghanistan tour and arriving at a forward operating base
— Running a source operation against a senior al-Qaeda target
— Building a targeting package without GPS coordinates
— Airstrike decision, protecting assets, and the target slipping away
— Working with JSOC and indigenous forces to shut down rat lines
— CIA support to conventional Army units in Afghanistan
— Language training, European posting, and traditional case officer work
— Covert action, liaison partners, and gathering intelligence through proxies
— Counterintelligence, recruiting foreign officers, and disrupting Russian operations
— Counter-WMD work and handling sources without being the technical expert
— Teaching at the Farm and training future CIA officers
— CIA bureaucracy, NSA comparisons, and publication review problems
— Recruiting, technology, and learning how to talk around classified subjects
— From CIA officer to fantasy, spy, and horror novelist
— CIA gold bars, non-traditional payments, and final thoughts


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Former CIA Officer Breaks Down Source Operations in Afghanistan | Delbert Roll — Podcst