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The shepherd who saved the SEAL

BY JAMES RUPERT | james.rupert@newsday.com

May 6, 2007

ASADABAD, Afghanistan - When Afghan shepherd Muhammad Gulab left this mountain home one morning in June 2005 to check on a strange noise his family had heard in the woods, he found a frightened and wounded American soldier pointing his rifle at him.

"His pants were torn almost off," his legs black with dirt, dried blood and bruises, Gulab recalled in an interview. "I saw from his eyes that he was almost collapsing.

"I lifted my shirt to show him that I had no weapon," Gulab said through an interpreter, "and I beckoned for him to come to me." The American lowered his weapon and limped forward. Gulab knew that in rescuing the American, Petty Officer 1st Class Marcus Luttrell, he was risking his own life. The day before, he had heard the gunfire and shouting of pro-Taliban guerrillas who had battled a team of U.S. Navy SEAL commandos. Killed in that battle were three Navy SEALs -- Matt Axelson, Danny Dietz and Michael Murphy. Luttrell was the sole American survivor of the fight.

On that day, Luttrell stepped forward to Gulab, put his arms around him and handed over his rifle, Gulab said. With that, Luttrell entrusted his life not only to the shepherd but also to the ancient and ironclad moral code of the Pashtun people. Their code of honor, called pashtunwali, is written in no constitution or legislation, but in the mountains and deserts of Pakistan and Afghanistan that are the Pashtuns' homeland. It carries the force of law.

Unflinching honor

Born out of centuries of Pashtun tribal wars and clan feuds, pashtunwali demands of a man both unflinching violence when his honor is thought to have been stained, and selfless humanitarianism when anyone -- stranger or enemy -- requests protection from a foe.

"He came to me for help. If I did not help a guest, it would have been a great shame for me," Gulab said -- a shame that might have led to his expulsion from his community.

As Gulab walked the wounded Luttrell to his home, he was spotted by the guerrillas who had fought the SEALs. "They called to me to give him to them," Gulab said. "But they know that I belong to a powerful clan, and they didn't dare to attack."

An attack on Gulab or the man he had taken under his care would have obligated Gulab's extended family -- a powerful clan called the Masaud -- to fight the guerrillas.

At his house, Gulab tried to make Luttrell comfortable. "I gave him some of my clothes, but he was too tall for them . . . We laid him in a bed and my brother cleaned his wounds. We cooked some goat for him, but at first he wouldn't eat."

As word spread that Gulab's family was now responsible for the safety of an American, "my brothers and nephews and cousins began arriving" with guns, Gulab said.

Other armed men came, too -- Shuraik valley residents with connections to the guerrillas, whose commander the SEALs had been tracking when they were ambushed. Over four days, the commander, Ahmed Shah, "sent a lot of intermediaries to tell me to hand over the soldier," Gulab said. "They said, 'We'll give you 5 million rupees [about $80,000] and any house you want in Peshawar,' " a city in neighboring Pakistan.

The promise of a home in Pakistan would have been the best attempt the guerrillas could make at getting Gulab to break his obligation, but it didn't work. Had he accepted the offer, Gulab might well have been expelled from the valley by the Masaud.

Protecting the SEAL

When the intermediaries came to deliver the guerrillas' demands, Gulab invited them into his house's main room, but sat protectively between them and the bed where Luttrell lay. Seeing the armed men, the SEAL "asked me, 'Taliban?' " Gulab recalled.

"I couldn't explain anything to him, so I just said, 'Yes, Taliban.' He was afraid."

The Masaud clan met to decide their response. "We told them we would not hand him over while even one of us remained alive," Gulab said.

The guerrillas' tone hardened. "They sent us a message saying, 'Prepare for war. We will attack your house tonight.' "

The family moved Gulab's wife and children to his father-in-law's home nearby. Then Gulab and some relatives walked Luttrell to a hiding place in the woods while others prepared to fight off an attack that never came.

That night, the American "was very afraid," Gulab said. "He thought maybe we were taking him up the mountain to kill him. I stayed with him that night, lying next to him. He patted my side."