I am embedded with the US marines. We are flying to their forward operating base, or FOB, in central Afghanistan. The C120 lands in complete darkness. There is no landing strip. Not even the US Air Force flies here.

AMERICAN MARINE: When the shit hits the fan it's going to get.....that's when the fuckin' Taliban, man, is going to fuckin' hit us, you understand? Don't let your guard down at all.

This is one of the most inaccessible parts of Afghanistan. The marines call it Taliban country.

AMERICAN MARINE: Let me see you fuckin' walk around here like you don't give a fuck and somebody's going to get fuckin' killed. You understand me? I will go fuckin' go spastic on every fuckin' single one of you. You better fuckin' wake up. You better get some fuckin' intensity. You better fuckin' realise what the fuck is going on. This is serious fuckin' business. We've got two more fuckin' weeks here and I'm not in the mood for somebody who doesn't give a fuck. You understand?

MARINES: Yes.

AMERICAN MARINE: Do you fuckin' understand because I swear to God, do you understand?

MARINES: Yes.

AMERICAN MARINE: Do you understand because you better wake the fuck up. Do you understand? McBride, do you fuckin' understand? Let's clean our fuckin' weapons, get in the fuckin' vehicles, and ready to fuckin' go.

For the past month, the marines have been travelling to the surrounding villages. They are hunting for Taliban and al-Qa'ida.

GUNNERY SERGEANT: When Charlie company, helicopter company first makes their insertion, we're going to move into the town. There's at least five vehicles and the infantry company. If you want to go somewhere, let us know, you know. If you can hear someone start to yell "Indian head", it means something's about to happen. So either someone's going to start shooting or something else. So that's...so if one of us grabs you, then you know, that's why. Now what I want you to do...

Working with the marines on their sweeps through the villages are the Afghan militia. They are under the command of the local governor, Jan Mohammad. He's seen here on the left with the dark clothes.

GOVERNOR JAN MOHAMMAD (Translation): Tell everyone, if you have any guns, explosives, or anything, if you have mines or anything, bring them out now voluntarily. If we find these things later, don't complain to us then. Do you hear?

US MARINE: Can you open? He said there's another door around that way. It's locked. There's a chain on the door. There's another entrance that way. Go. Go.

JANNAN (Translation): Listen... where is your translator? The one doing the communicating... where is the person who translates?

It appears that this young man, Jannan, is under arrest. After 20 minutes, Jannan is brought to the side of the house for interrogation by the governor, Jan Mohammad.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL KHAN, US MARINE CORPS: What's up, bud? This AK47, they found this magazine, belongs to this man too, OK? This is for your gun. OK, that's fine.

Some photos have been taken from Jannan's house.

MILITIA MEMBER (Translation): Ask him about these photos to see if he's being truthful because we know these people. What is he doing now? He was in the Taliban. They're Taliban. Bin Laden's son. That's him. They say you're bin Laden's son.

Governor Jan Mohammad turns the exchange into a joke but you can't help feeling the implied threat behind it.

GOVERNOR JAN MOHAMMAD (Translation): Where did you find these boys? O Allah, what good looks? Aren't they heavenly creatures? What beautiful boys they are. I wish I was young again. They're more beautiful than 10 women.

MILITIA MEMBER (Translation): We found this in the open field. Is this the one?

GOVERNOR JAN MOHAMMAD (Translation): Yes, it's another one.

As the militia leader and the governor, Jan Mohammad has huge power in these villages. He can do and say what he likes.

GOVERNOR JAN MOHAMMAD (Translation): Come on, man. You say this is the photo of a lion. It looks like a donkey. I fuck the vagina of your mother. I stick my penis in your head. Tell the colonel we'll take him along with us and for a few nights he will keep us entertained. He will do his thing with us and then we'll see. Nine guns.

Nine guns. In a country awash with weapons and from a major operation involving a convoy of humvees, helicopters and up to 50 marines, this number is hardly significant. Jannan is arrested and the convoy moves on.
As the sweeps wind down for day, Lieutenant-Colonel Khan, the marine commander of this operation, shares a joke about the surrounding poppy fields with the militia leader who calls himself the agriculture minister.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL KHAN, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Tell him he's doing a very lousy job. I don't see any agriculture.

US MARINES TRANSLATOR: You're doing a lousy job. I don't see any agriculture here. Is that correct?

GOVERNOR JAN MOHAMMAD (Translation): Tell him I may have been less responsible in agriculture but I've been clever in this war.

US MARINES TRANSLATOR: He says if I didn't take any action of my agriculture but I am too busy fighting.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL KHAN: Tell him Chala wants to get rid of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida here and improve the security of this nation and then he can have more agriculture and water. How's the water situation?

GOVERNOR JAN MOHAMMAD (Translation): There's no water at all. On this side there's a river, then from here and the entire region over there... that side is completely dry.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL KHAN: Tell us which villages need wells so we can start digging wells and make an impact.

At the end of the day, the marines wind down.

AMERICAN MARINE: Don't worry, when we we're done with the war on terrorism, we start the war on drugs, you're not going to be our friends anymore.

(Back at the FOB)

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL KHAN: One of the big differences that you see in these MAGTAF operations up here is we're in Taliban country. We're not operating from a remote FOB where we come in for a day or two. We're here, we've established a presence here and they know it. They monitor us and we closely monitor their activities.
Yesterday you observed the people that we detained. That was from local sources. They told us where the leadership was living and we went to those compounds and we picked those people up. So the people are starting to provide us essential information for us to be able to conduct precision operations, and that's what we're doing here. And our focus is disrupt them, don't allow them to operate. It's a long-term commitment, it's a long-term reference.

Apart from the search for the Taliban, the Americans are also conducting civic operations by helicopter. This is essentially a hearts-and-minds campaign to convince the locals that the Americans are their friends.

MAJOR ALVA COOK: Hello, how are you?

VILLAGER: Fine, how are you?

In charge of civic operations is Major Alva Cook, who used to be a cop in Mississippi. He's actually with the army and the marines are providing force protection.

MAJOR ALVA COOK: Tell him I apologise for all the traffic and extra dust. Ask him does he have any issues or any points that he would like to bring up in reference to that.

VILLAGER (Translation): That's a public road. You can't help it. It's a public road. You didn't put it through the village. If we have any trouble, it's a public road and we can't help it. The militia is carrying out a lot of atrocities in this area. People are suffering unimaginable atrocities.

On the ground, the civic operations are not going according to script. The army translator steps in to stop the conversation in its tracks.

ARMY TRANSLATOR: Stop your private discussions. You can discuss those things after evening prayers. This is not the place for such discussions. They might ask me what you're saying. They must have their doubts about us.

This area of central Afghanistan - Uruzgon Province - is so remote and dangerous that the Afghan Central Government has no presence here. Neither do the United Nations or aid agencies. The nonexistent medical facilities in this region means that Major Cook's campaign often gets involved in medical matters even though he is not equipped to do so.

MAJOR ALVA COOK: How old is she?

NOMAD (Translation): There's no medicine. Tell the doctor she's too thin. Eight months.

MAJOR ALVA COOK: The problem's going to be the mother's probably a little malnourished, she's not producing enough vitamins or anything in her milk. We don't have any prenatal vitamins and that's what she needs.

NOMAD (Translation): That's right, she's malnourished. OK. She doesn't have any milk.

MAJOR ALVA COOK: The mother needs more vitamin D for the calcium. Vitamin D is in the milk. The one thing I can think of is to drink, like, goat's milk, or the cow's milk.

NOMAD: Doesn't he have any medicine?

ARMY TRANSLATOR: No, we don't have anything.

After three weeks with the US Marines, I'm choppered back to Kandahar air force base. My embed with the US military is over. I decide to head back independently to the same area of central Afghanistan without the presence of the marines and the militia. I want to find out the real story behind the American and militia operations.
I travel Afghan style, with a driver, translator and two armed policemen from Kandahar. Their brief is to safeguard us from roadside robbers but we all realise that there is no real protection from the Taliban. I head first to Mossazai. This is the village where the young man Jannan was arrested by the governor Jan Mohammad. I ask Jannan first whether the Taliban were active in his village.

REPORTER: Here, in this area, is this Taliban country.

JANNAN (Translation): This is not the Taliban’s territory. The Taliban come here but they don’t stay. If one night they do come and confront us or someone else or the government, the Taliban won’t let us go. We’re like lambs to the slaughter. They don’t stay. How can they stay? But the Taliban come 2 or 3 days before the Americans, then the Americans just arrest you and me and hassle us….normal people going about their business. They don’t have the means to arrest the Taliban. They’re usually three days late so they just hassle us.

According to Jannan, the reason his village is targeted by Governor Jan Mohammad and the militia is because they belong to a different tribe.

JANNAN (Translation): Their tribe, in their areas, have never been searched or had anything to do with them. For example, in searches in this area they imprison people according to their tribe.

Jannan has told us about others in the valley who have been persecuted because of their tribal group. On the way to see them we are stopped at a militia checkpoint and decide to interview the commander. We want to know whether the Taliban are still in the area.

COMMANDER (Translation): I told you that in this area, under the Taliban there were prominent commanders. Of those prominent commanders, surely there would still be some remnants. Naturally, these remnants would be part of the community. They might have established relations with others. They might have hidden a few bullets or guns somewhere. These issues or the fact that there may be someone here who communicates with the Taliban... these are the two possibilities which may eventuate, that we are trying to stop. Other than that the people here are very poor and very helpless.

The commander volunteers to send this tribal elder with us. The commander tells us that if the Taliban kidnap me, then they will kidnap the tribal elder as well and the commander will negotiate with the Taliban for both of us. The only problem with this ingenuous scheme is the tribal elder's participation is not guaranteed.

TRANSLATOR (Translation): If you would like to come with us, we’ll take you, if you don’t, then stay.

COMMANDER (Translation): I want to stay. She’s come from far away and your not prepared to go.

TRIBAL ELDER: I’ll go anywhere but not there.

We decide to leave our two policemen from Kandahar at the militia checkpoint. The less protection we have the more secure we feel. In the first village the locals tell us the militia have been here.

YOUNG MAN (Translation): The other day they caught some children, beat and interrogated them. Jan Mohammad and his people. The boys said they did not know where or who the Taliban were. For this people are imprisoned. They were seven or eight years old. They’re uneducated.

We see our first US marine convoy in the distance. In the next village of Passau, we hear more tales of abuse but this time directly related to American soldiers. Marines had conducted a major operation in the village nine days before, around 20 June.

MAN (Translation): Three to five helicopters were there and three over there. The Americans had a sledgehammer this big to force open the gates. They broke down the gates.

REPORTER: How many men did they take up to the mountain?

VILLAGE LEADER (Translation): Only thirty five of us were arrested. Over there the entire village was arrested.

This man, Wali Mohammad, was arrested by the US Marines Force Recon unit, their forward operating intelligence unit. He spent three nights in detention.

WALI MOHAMMAD (Translation): When they tok us away from here, this is what happened to us. They made us stand like this. They fingered us, beat us and humiliated us.

OLD MAN (Translation): I was imprisoned too. No Muslim should suffer that.

This elder, Noor Mohammad Lala, who is the father of Wali Mohammad, also spent three nights in detention.

NOOR MOHAMMAD LALA (Translation): They took my clothes, I could not do anything. I was told to look up and put my hands on the container. I could not see behind me, but someone was fingering me. Some of them were pulling my testicles.

WALI MOHAMMAD (Translation): There was no food, my legs gave way. We were asking desperately for food, there was nothing. They gave us water but spilt it over our mouths, noses and eyes. They were all Americans, there were blacks as well. The black ones were the cruel ones.

REPORTER: Did anybody explain to them why they were in the jail?

VILLAGE ELDER (Translation): They said they had a report and accused us of providing food and shelter to al-Qaida and the Taliban. We are all dead, we have no more honour. We’d prefer death to this humiliation.

I asked to interview the father and son who were abused away from the other villagers because of the deep cultural sensitivity involved.

FATHER (Translation): They told me to take off my shirt. I said “How can I do that?” Then I told myself “Take your shirt off”. When I took off my shirt, they told me to undo my belt. I found that very painful. I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown. In my entire life I’d never exposed myself. With respect, I have a bladder problem and I could not stop urinating. After that I was so humiliated I couldn’t see for my pain. When they took off my trousers I had my eyes closed. I was totally disoriented, they stood me up in the container. When they stood me up like this, they took off all my clothes. I was completely naked, I’m not telling you a lie. They told me to look straight ahead, not to look around. While I was standing, I’m not lying to you, they kicked my feet apart with their boots and they were touching me. That’s how it was I did not know what was going on. That’s the sort of treatment I received. That’s what they did. When I looked around there was only an interpreter, no one else. He told me to get dressed, my bottom was wet. I would not be a Muslim it I lied to you. When I put on my clothes, I rubbed it off. And this happened when I’m old, white-bearded with no teeth. And this outrage happened to me.

SON (Translation): They took off my clothes I can’t tell you… Fingering the anus is against Islam, since I know what is good and bad. They were American soldiers and they were laughing, they were all laughing and mocking. It was not one, it was more than 20 Americans. When they took me a second time they stripped me again. The second time, there were interpreters and Americans. They made me take off my trousers and put them on again. They disrespected us and undermined our dignity. They brought shame on us before the whole world. Yes they took our pictures, I do believe they took our picture. They had cameras on us over here. I assume for photographing us naked.

The American raid was so confronting that villagers want to show me every indiscretion.

VILLAGER (Translation): Look here, you can see some marks. They scratch these lines. It happened to my neighbour as well. They used it as a toilet.

This field is where the helicopters landed and destroyed the wheat harvest. For the US Marines, all doors look the same. They did not realise that what they hacked through was the door to the mosque. As I am leaving the village, my translator asks the villagers not to reveal our presence.

TRANSLATOR (Translation): If anyone asks, don’t say we came here with a lady journalist. Or that we asked you questions.

We hear that Major Cook of the Civil Affairs Unit visited this area yesterday. When we returned to Jannan's village of Mossazai, one of the leaders tells us how the stories of abuse have tainted the US military's entire efforts in this valley.

VILLAGE LEADER (Translation): They gave us medicine and also a radio and corn seed. He asked if we needed anything. I said “We don’t need anything. Don’t humiliate us. Don’t rob our country. Don’t commit crimes. “We don’t need anything”. My last word was “Don’t humiliate us”. They sexually assault youngsters, you don’t see them, they’ve already fled. You heard the old people say how they were undressed, how they fingered their anuses and exuse me, touched their penises.

MAN (Translation): Show us how we can get rid of this menace and cruelty. How we can stop this torture? Who can we complain to? We can’t get to the Americans. We don’t have access.

The next day I return to Passau. Overnight the villagers have heard on the BBC Pashtun service that I am suppose to be missing and in danger.

MAN 1(Translation): I don’t know, it might be dangerous.

MAN 2 (Translation): Of course it is, if she has come from Australia, to travel about secretly in Afghanistan, in this difficult situation. It’s 100% dangerous, danger from the government, the US, the Taliban, danger from all sides.

Many people have already left this village. The elders tell me it's as a result of the treatment and abuse of the US Marines.

MAN 2 (Translation): Almost all the families are gone. There were more than 200 people in the village. They have all gone except for 10, 15 people. Who’ll look after the kids? Some have gone to Tarin Kowt and to Pakistan as well.

If the aim of the American military presence in Afghanistan is to remove the Taliban and al-Qa'ida remnants and allow the country to embrace true democracy, they clearly still have a long way to go. Their security sweeps and the actions of their militia allies are proving counterproductive. In this remote corner of the country they are turning the local people against them. They are either driving them away into Pakistan, or worse, are driving them to join what remain mains of the Taliban. The village leader from Mossazai sums up the feelings I heard widely expressed in the valley.

VILLAGE LEADER (Translation): These Americans who’ve come here either of their own accord or sent by the international community, they carry their guns with a licence to do as they like. After all, they must be accountable to somebody. Enough is enough, we can’t accept it any more. Our people are being forced to pack up and leave. If I was forced to leave, I swear I wouldn’t be interested in leading a normal life. I wouldn’t farm the land or do anything else, I know how to find them, and I swear I won’t let them live. Whether I do good or bad, you’re the ones responsible. You humiliate my elders my tribe and my land. So again you bring violence to my Afghanistan. And the Coalition forces will be responsible.