INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
thicker than flies on roadkill
Machine guns rattled.And the rocket-propelled grenades
They hammered down with awful concussive thuds, smashing cinder block into choking clouds of powderFor days in that sweltering October of
2017, Michael Enright crouched in an apartment building turned battle station, staring into the maw of the last Islamic State stronghold in
Enright was the most unlikely of soldiers, pinned down there alongside his Kurdish and expat militia brothers, dodging bullets, blasting
away with his Kalashnikov rifle, wondering whether these might be his last moments on earth."It felt like the devil himself was breathing
fire on me," Enright says.Less than two years earlier, Enright - a Hollywood actor by way of Britain - had been tooling around Los Angeles
in an aging black Porsche 911 and hobnobbing with movie stars at awards ceremony after-parties
Enright, who bears a passing resemblance to actor Russell Crowe, had appeared with Tom Cruise in the movie "Knight and Day." He was guest
starring as a bad guy on the television series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Since the 1980s he had been living the working actor's dream life in
the entertainment capital of the world.Michael Enright in Belize with an ISIS headband.Yet, one day in 2015, in defiance of common sense and
the tearful urgings of his friends, he decided to leave all that behind
Never having fired a gun at another human being, he embarked on an odyssey at the age of 51 that could have sprung straight from the
imagination of a Hollywood scriptwriter.His strange, sinuous meanderings have taken him on two harrowing tours of battle in Syria as a
volunteer with the formerly U.S.-backed Kurdish militia
They also have thrust him into the byzantine pathways and switchbacks of the U.S
immigration system and, by his account, the wilds of international spy networks
His decision to overstay a U.S
tourist visa three decades ago and start a new life as an American has now made him unwelcome to come back to the only nation he considers
So far, it hasn't mattered that he risked his life fighting an American enemy.Because he fears returning to the United Kingdom, where some
British volunteers with the Kurdish militia have been arrested and accused of consorting with terrorists, he finds himself, essentially, a
Unable to work, his money dwindling, he wanders, flopping for the past two years in slum apartments or couch-surfing in Belize and elsewhere
in Latin America in the homes of people he meets in the streets or online
He hauls a thin pad to sleep on, a backpack, a handful of tank tops and shorts, and a clunky old laptop, hoping against hope that someone,
anyone, will help him get back to Los Angeles.Michael Enright in Belize, where he landed after two tours as a volunteer fighter for the
Kurds against the ISISThrough more than two dozen interviews with his friends, fellow soldiers and others, as well as video and other
documentation of Enright's battlefield exploits, The Washington Post has been able to confirm nearly every aspect of the actor's account
His saga has now captured the attention of Washington power players and veterans advocates who have been agitating to end Enright's exile
and bring him home.The details of his trajectory offer an unusually intimate glimpse into the forces that motivate men and women from around
the world to throw themselves into conflicts not their own
Unlike mercenaries who flood into war zones for profit, Enright joined the fight for no pay, a throwback to the storied dramas of yore when
the famed British writer George Orwell and others fought in the Spanish Civil War.As Enright tells it, his war experiences were all about
The ledger he holds in his head is particular to that of some successful immigrants - he says he wanted to repay America by helping to
vanquish one of its terrorist enemies.On screen, he'd often played the bad guy, leveraging his ability to shoot a menacing stare at the
In real-life, he yearned to be a good guy.Enright envisions a final scene yet to be shot, one in which this master of small character roles
steals the show by unlocking the secrets of a murderous, fanatical cabal: He's gathered intelligence about the Islamic State on the
battlefields of Syria - computer memory cards, IDs, letters - that he hopes will unlock clues about the movements of the group in the Middle
East and in the United States, he says
The improbable warrior/spy just needs the U.S
government to validate and value what he's found - enough to look past his immigration-law transgressions.Despite his frustration, Enright,
now 56, his hair cropped short and graying, has repeated the same phrase over and over in hours of interviews with The Post: "I don't regret
I'd do it all over again."- - -He'd grown up hard in a hard section of Manchester, where he says his father, a roughneck with a temper,
committed suicide while battling cancer
Enright was 18.He scraped together a living driving a taxi, he says, and a Pakistani immigrant taxi man named Mustafa became a kind of
Mustafa - he'd never forget that man or that man's name.All Enright wanted to do was go to America
He wanted to make American money
He wanted to kiss American girls
He wanted to be an American, for it was here that he thought he could not just reinvent himself - but also invent himself.Actor Michael
Enright, here in the 2013 film "Elegy for a Revolutionary," often played the bad guy on screen
In real life, he yearned to be a good guy.When he was 19, he says, he boarded a plane and went to New York, entering the country on the
first of several tourist visas that he would overstay for his entire adult life.Arriving in New York, he got a job as a busboy at a
restaurant near the World Trade Center
The actor Kirk Douglas came in once, and one of the famed actor's companions gave Enright a $5 tip.He'd gotten the acting bug as a teenager
in England, and perhaps it was inevitable that he would find his way to Hollywood
His Manchester accent had marked him as a member of the lower classes in Britain, cutting off possibilities, but in Los Angeles it was the
It opened doors, especially in auditions.While trying to get himself established, he ran a youth hostel in Venice Beach
Carefree tourist girls came and went, looking for fun
There were plenty of girls to kiss."I was living this very hedonistic life," Enright says during an interview in the remote town of San
Ignacio in Belize, where he's lived for months.His first break as an actor came when he auditioned for the role of a boxer in a soft drink
His competition couldn't punch; Enright, who had been pounding a speed bag at a boxing gym in Watts, got the part
The residuals paid his rent for months.Actor Michael Enright, who vowed he was willing to die when he joined the Kurdish militia to fight
ISIS, is shown in Belize this summer.Television roles trickled in
He played an Irish Republican Army soldier on the television series "JAG." He picked up more commercials.Enright always has been impulsive,
In the 1990s, he flew to Rwanda after the genocide there, volunteering at an orphanage
The work appealed to his Christian notion of obligation, that human beings are commanded to alleviate suffering
He slipped back into the United States, once again, on a tourist visa.A few years later, the terrorist attacks of Sept
11, 2001, set him on a course that eventually took him to Syria
For days, Enright and his friends say, he couldn't stop watching the news."I cried every day," Enright says.He told his friends that he
Army and fight terrorists in Afghanistan
Here, he reasoned, was a chance to make a payment toward the debt he felt he owed to the United States
His friends talked him out of it.It became the biggest regret of his life.- - -In Hollywood, Enright wasn't getting rich, but made a modest
He got a gig as a Russian mobster on the television series "Kitchen Confidential." He played a deckhand in the film, "Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," appearing in a scene with Orlando Bloom."On 'Law - Order,' I was once dissolved in a vat of acid!" he says,
his eyes twinkling.For Russian roles, his r-#233;sum-#233; said he was Mikael Enrightski
For French roles, he was Michel Henright
His accents were so convincing that casting directors wouldn't figure out he wasn't French or Russian or German until his scenes were
already in the can."Well," Enright deadpans, "I speak 32 languages
Only a few words in most of them
But 32 nonetheless."He lived in a part of West Los Angeles known for gang violence
He had his own brush with the law in 2003 when he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after the car he was driving struck and
injured a man who Enright says threatened him during a traffic incident
Enright was acquitted and exonerated, according to court records.People have a tendency to want to adopt Enright
Mike Chapman, who met him while working with a spirituality group for Hollywood professionals, started taking him home to spend time with
his family."He was kind of like an uncle to our small children," Chapman says in a recent interview.Orna Cohen, one of Enright's workout
clients, folded Enright into her family, as well
At a Passover dinner at her house one year, she looked up and saw Enright, whom friends describe as a non-demoninational spiritual seeker,
She walked outside with him."He was sobbing like a baby," Cohen recalls
"He looked at me and said, 'Orna, I feel God.' "- - -In August 2014, Islamic State troops swept into the Sinjar district in northern Iraq,
an area that was home to the Yazidi, an ethnic Kurdish minority
Hundreds of men were killed in a genocidal massacre
Women were taken captive and subjected to rape and forced marriages.Half a world away, Enright once again found himself obsessed with news:
"I sort of became an ISIS junkie."That same month an Islamic State terrorist beheaded the American freelance journalist James Foley,
boasting of the killing in a gruesome video
The killer was later identified as a British man of Arab descent who became known as "Jihadi John."Enright sought out a British friend in
Los Angeles, a dashing, globe-trotting sort who goes by the professional name Rob Lancaster, who has worked as operative in the shadows of
international conflicts and danger zones.At a Santa Monica bar where their favorite football team, Manchester City, was playing, Enright
told Lancaster that he couldn't stop thinking about the atrocities at Sinjar and the beheading of Foley."I'm going to right that wrong,"
Enright declared.Lancaster had heard this sort of thing from Enright before, but he'd always dismissed it as a transitory emotional reaction
He'd tell him, "Don't go, you silly sot."But Enright was insistent, and Lancaster concluded there was nothing he could do - except help.Soon
thereafter, Lancaster pointed his friend to a Facebook page.- - -At his Los Angeles apartment, Enright signed on to a Facebook page
associated with the YPG, the initials used for the People's Protection Units, a mainly Kurdish militia.He sent a straightforward message:
"I'd like to go fight for you in Syria."He waited four days before message notification popped onto his screen."Are you willing to die for
this fight?"He did not know the real name of the person with whom he was communicating
But he knew how he would answer."Yes," he typed.The person who was messaging him didn't want him to have any illusions
The militia had very little equipment
They were fighting an enemy that had tanks and armored personnel carriers
If he were injured, the only painkiller they could provide was aspirin.Nothing could dissuade him."My feeling was that I was going to go
there, I'm going to suffer, and I'm going to die," Enright says.He sold his Porsche to pay for a one-way ticket to Iraq.He told almost no
Enright had no family obligations to hold him back - he'd been married briefly years ago but was now habitually single
He had no children.Enright had once shot a prop AK-47 in a TV commercial for Norton anti-virus software
The only time he'd shot a real weapon was when he'd fired a couple of pistol rounds for fun in the woods during a long-ago Christian
retreat.The day before his departure, he went to a firing range in the L.A
It would be the sum total of his military training before leaving.- - -An odd calm settled over Enright
Knowing that he would probably perish in Syria gave him inner peace.He flew to the United Kingdom, and there he began assembling gear
A jacket for the cold desert nights.As his departure date approached, he sent a stream of messages to the person with whom he'd been
communicating via Facebook
Days passed with no response.He called his friend Lancaster, wondering whether he should fly to Iraq anyway."I wouldn't chance it,"
Lancaster said.Instead, Enright headed for London's Heathrow Airport
He landed in Sulaymaniyah, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan, around 3 in the morning
No one was there to pick him up
He checked into a low-cost hotel
He started sending more Facebook messages.Finally someone responded."When do you arrive?" the message said, according to an image reviewed
by The Post."I'm already here!" Enright wrote back.That afternoon, a man called the hotel asking for him."You want to join the YPG?" the
voice on the other end of the line asked."Yes."Then, a familiar query: "Are you willing to die?""Yes."- - -A man arrived at the hotel the
Enright had no way of knowing whether he was walking into a trap: "I don't know if I'm shaking hands with YPG or ISIS."Enright got into a
car pointed toward the Iraqi-Syrian border
They drove deep into the mountains of Iraq, eventually hopping into an inflatable rubber dinghy and crossing into Syria via a narrow stretch
of the Tigris River, its waters illuminated by a full moon.There was no going back now.In Syria, Enright says, he was led to a remote desert
camp that the YPG fighters called "the academy." He'd spend six weeks there learning how to fire an AK-47 and other arts of war
Some of the expat volunteers he met at the academy and elsewhere were suspicious of his motives, Enright says, thinking he was out for
publicity to generate better parts in the movies."Why would I risk my life for a role?" he would say.Enright chose Mustafa as his nom de
guerre to honor the Pakistani taxi driver who'd mentored him so long ago.When Enright's new Kurdish colleagues found out he was an actor,
they pressed a head-cam into his hand
They wanted him to collect footage that would document their struggle.Enright resisted."I came to shoot, but not with a camera," Enright
told them.But he changed his mind when he found out that his camera would allow him to join up with any unit
The militia wanted "bang, bang" footage to promote its cause and demonstrate its commitment to eradicating the Islamic State
Enright wanted action.He took the camera.He got action fast
Within days, his unit was ordered to clear a village that had been bombed by U.S
forces supporting the YPG, he says."I was going to be coming face-to-face with a terrorist," Enright says.He went charging into the town of
Pure adrenaline.Then he went flying
Not from a bullet, but from his own clumsiness and inexperience
Loaded down with gear, he face-planted, scraping long patches of skin from his leg and arm
His first foray as a soldier and he already felt like a klutz.He'd get better at it
Head-cam footage shows Enright engaged in heavy fighting in the months to come
He took to fighting like a natural, say fellow soldiers interviewed by The Post
In the videos, machine-gun fire and explosions can be heard
Enright looks like a killer.They tore a path through Syria, clearing villages where he'd sometimes encounter dozens of rotting corpses of
Islamic State fighters in the streets
Stray dogs would eat the heads first
Enright had such contempt for his enemy that he watched with a sense of satisfaction."It's funny," he says, looking back
"In life they would take our heads off
In death the dogs would take their heads."Enright spent six months fighting alongside the YPG, completing a standard tour of duty for
But his life was about to become as bizarre and baffling as anything he'd encountered in the deserts of Syria.- - -Enright had left Los
Angeles for Syria in a tornado of emotion
He's not prone to sit and calculate risks and contingencies
But as he prepared to return to the United States, it weighed heavily on him that he had a problem.His epic tourist visa overstays, 30 years
of living in the United States without legal permission, were going to make things hard for him - to say the least
He developed a plan: attempt to cross from Mexico into California through the San Ysidro border crossing south of San Diego, the busiest in
Maybe he'd blend in with the hordes and get across, he thought.In November 2015, Enright was stopped at the border by U.S
immigration officials and sent to a detention center in Otay-Mesa, according to passport records and U.S
Immigration and Customs Enforcement corroboration.Enright's account of his six weeks of detention is similar to those of Central American
migrants who have been detained during the recent surge of apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border
Blasting air conditioning turned the cells into ice boxes
The lights were never turned off
He was stuffed into a cell where there was no room to lie down.At this point, Enright's account becomes harder to pin down
While detained, he says, he met with officials whom he believes were working for the Department of Homeland Security
He describes one of them as "Laura, the Blond Lady."In his mind's eye, the Blonde Lady became an all-powerful being capable of offering
salvation from his immigration hell
He's forgotten her last name, but remembers that she was "quite pretty." Over the course of several meetings, Enright says, he reviewed maps
of Syria with the officials and described his encounters with Islamic State fighters.Enright asserts that Laura eventually made an
extraordinary offer: If he were able to return to Syria and gather intelligence about the Islamic State that would be useful to the U.S
government, she would make his immigration problem disappear."I thought, 'OK, I'll get intelligence for you,'" Enright recalls.Enright says
he has no documentation of the offer and it was not witnessed by anyone
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said that the agency could not comment on investigative methods and that it could not
confirm the accuracy of Enright's account.The Post has interviewed four people who say Enright called them about the putative offer while he
was detained and believe he was being truthful about his understanding of the arrangement
A fifth person - filmmaker Adam Wood, now working on a documentary about Enright - says he learned about it from Enright shortly after the
actor was released.Michael Hecht, a psychotherapist who'd befriended Enright in Los Angeles and also received a call from him while he was
detained, said in an interview that Enright might have been coping with his dilemma by hearing what he wanted to hear."I think in that
situation you grasp at straws," Hecht said.Hecht referred Enright to a Los Angeles lawyer, James Kajtoch, who traveled to Otay-Mesa to meet
Kajtoch would later send an email to Enright, saying: "If you want me to provide terrorist information from Syria to our government, I am
NOT the person to assist you
As much as I am interested in contributing to the fight against terrorism, I do not have time to do this."In mid-December, Enright says, he
was deported to England, still believing he'd made a deal with the U.S
deportation officers flew with him to London based on the results of a threat assessment that an ICE spokeswoman declined to detail.Enright
knew where he needed to go next
He wanted to hold up his end of a deal that he believed would restore his life in the United States.He packed, one more time, for war.- -
-In June 2016, Enright landed again in Sulaymaniyah
He'd arrived there more than a year earlier as a neophyte soldier
Now he felt like a veteran.Before plunging back into battle, he says, he traveled to the U.S
Consulate in Erbil, Iraq, and met with an FBI agent
Enright says he handed over a data card from an Islamic State soldier's computer that he'd seized during his first tour
He wanted to give the U.S
government a taste of what he might be able to offer.That fall, Enright reached out to the consulate again, this time via a message he sent
to the consulate's Facebook page
He explained that he no longer had the agent's contact information
The consulate responded by giving him the email of the agent he'd met.As Enright fought his way across Syria, trudging slowly toward Raqqa,
an Islamic State stronghold, he kept thinking of Laura, the Blonde Lady, whom he saw as the key to his ticket back home.Video from that time
shows him riffling through the pockets of a dead Islamic State soldier, the man's right arm cocked in the air, stiff with rigor mortis
He filmed images of any documents he could find that might help ingratiate him with U.S
immigration authorities.In late December that year, Enright says, a friend introduced him by email to a woman who is a well-connected
political insider in Virginia
She connected him to a man he believed to be a U.S
intelligence official based in Texas, Enright says.They exchanged text messages using code names: the presumptive officer was "Angelman" and
Enright would go by the handle "Light Saber." (Screenshots of their communication include messages to Enright from someone identifying
himself as "Angelman," but his identity and association could not be confirmed by The Post.)Enright was determined to make Angelman happy
He stepped up his efforts to gather evidence
Video from that period shows him interrogating Islamic State fighters.On one man's phone was a video of one of Enright's fellow militiamen
being beheaded, Enright says.Enright also gathered letters written by Islamic State soldiers, he says
They might offer clues, he thought
He sent what he'd found to Angelman.Enright's zeal to gather intelligence placed him in constant danger
In January 2017 - the same day that Donald Trump was being inaugurated as president in Washington - his unit was ambushed by a large Islamic
State force, Enright says
The enemy were howling "Kafir, Kafir" - an Arabic term that means "nonbeliever" - because they did not consider the militia soldiers to be
true Muslims.(On Sunday, Trump made the surprise decision to withdraw U.S
forces who had been stationed alongside Kurdish soldiers
Critics said it would leave the Kurds vulnerable to attacks by the more heavily armed Turkish government, which has condemned the militia
groups for ties to a separatist party labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States.)Enright was trapped inside a
building behind the Islamic State front, separated from his gun, which he'd dropped
For the next 19 hours, he says, he lay beneath a mattress while Islamic State fighters roamed the area, firing at his fellow militia
He didn't dare make a noise
He urinated where he lay so that they wouldn't detect movement
He clutched a grenade in his hand and a knife
He imagined being burned to death if he were captured or dragged through the streets until he died or was beheaded
He resolved to kill himself if Islamic State soldiers found him."I was ready to go to Jesus," he says.To pass the tension-filled hours,
Enright, says he kept thinking about what was happening in Washington
He had high hopes that Trump would step up U.S
support for the Kurdish militia
Now that Trump had taken the oath of office, Enright considered him his commander in chief.After a restless night, Enright decided to make a
run for it during a lull in the shooting
He disguised himself as an Arab villager using clothes he found in the house
But as he emerged, he was spotted
When he kept running, bullets whizzed past him
Suddenly he realized it was one of his fellow militiamen mistakenly firing at him.Later, they had a laugh about it
Enright told the man he was a terrible shot - thankfully.That spring, the war became even more personal
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for bombing the crowd at an Ariana Grande concert in Enright's hometown of Manchester, killing more
than 20 people."Apart from being heartbroken, part of me is a little bit pissed," Enright, dressed in camouflage, says in a video he
recorded from Syria, lamenting what he described as the apathetic attitudes about the Islamic State and Syria that he'd encountered in
Manchester after his first tour of duty.It would take months for Enright and his colleagues to make it to Raqqa, the final redoubt of the
Videos and interviews with fellow soldiers confirm his presence there.When Raqqa fell in October 2017, Enright pulled out his phone
He cranked a song as loudly as his device could go, and started dancing.The tune was by Ariana Grande.The title: "Bang Bang."- - -In
November 2017, Enright was ready to cash in on the deal he thought he'd made with Laura, the Blonde Lady
For months, he says, he'd been sending material to Angelman and also sharing it with his YPG compatriots
Now he wanted Angelman to deliver; he just needed someplace to wait while his immigration problem disappeared.The Kurds had paid for him to
fly anywhere in the world, he says
The perfect place, he thought.From Belize, he started flinging text messages at Angelman, who eventually suggested Enright meet with the
embassy there.In early 2018, Enright reached a U.S
diplomat in Belize's capital, Belmopan, who insisted on talking with Angelman before meeting with him, according to Enright
Once they'd spoken, the staffer invited him for a meeting."Please bring anything that would be helpful to explain your situation," she
wrote.The staffer was encouraging, he says, but hasn't been able to get him home
(The embassy did not respond to emails requesting comment.)Enright and his immigration attorney have been working on trying to get him an S
visa, which is granted to people who assist law enforcement
Eventually, Enright says, he learned through diplomatic contacts that Angelman wasn't senior enough to request an S visa.Now, Enright holds
close the intelligence material he claims to have gathered: Identification cards for Islamic State fighters
A letter written by an English-speaking Islamic State soldier to his superiors
Video images of rental car receipts with photos of men who identified themselves as Islamic State soldiers.Stuck in Belize, Enright was ever
in desperate need of a place to stay
For a time, he says, he lived in the dormitory of a Christian organization that counseled prisoners, then rented floor space in a new
Another offer led him to San Ignacio, a dusty town in western Belize.A recent evening found Enright strolling down a sleepy street lined
with restaurants in the center of San Ignacio
Settling into an outdoor table, Enright's conversation is constantly interrupted
No one, it seems, doesn't know him.A woman in a full-length red gown enters the restaurant, her attire standing out among the casually
dressed locals and backpacking tourists."Oh, my!" Enright calls out
"The Oscar goes to !"The woman, a former neighbor who'd dressed up for a night out with her husband, smiles and rushes over the table
Like his friends in Los Angeles, they'd folded him into their family
The woman and her husband were so happy to see him that they sent a soda over to Enright's table - he doesn't drink alcohol.His days and
nights spool out this way, one bleeding into the next
friends have taken to pleading for help bringing him back
On a website they've created, BringMichaelHome.com, an eclectic mix of film professionals and a retired U.S
Army Reserves major general offer testimonials.Greg Martin, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles who filmed a testimonial, told The
Post that his longtime friend "not only should be given a pass but should be celebrated for what he's done."In Washington, influential power
players have taken up Enright's cause, including Jim Dornan, a political consultant and distant cousin of former Republican congressman
Robert Dornan of California
William Scott, who heads the group Veterans in Defense of Liberty, spoke to his senator, Roy Blunt, R-Mo., about Enright, Scott said in an
Blunt has sought to help untangle Enright's immigration quandary, Scott said, but has yet to get results
(Blunt did not respond to an interview request.)And so, Enright waits with no sign that his purgatory will end
Baffled about why he can't come home, holding close materials he gathered in Syria that he has yet to turn over to U.S
authorities.Wondering whatever happened to a blond lady named Laura.- - -The Washington Post's Alice Crites and Magda Jean-Louis contributed
to this report.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated
feed.)Get Breaking news, live coverage, and Latest News from India and around the world on TheIndianSubcontinent.com
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