Admiral McRaven Charts a New Path for Special Operations Command. Empire's changing face masks old ambitions. DISPATCHES FROM AMERICAEmpire's changing face masks old ambitionsBy Nick Turse They looked like a gang of geriatric giants.
Clad in smart casual attire - dress shirts, sweaters, and jeans - and incongruous blue hospital booties, they strode around "the world," stopping to stroke their chins and ponder this or that potential crisis. The Age of Special Warfare: The Medill Project on Targeted Warfare and the Law. U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role. Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials.
Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa.
Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group. 'More access' U.S. Special Ops Troops Deployed in Mexico, Leaked Briefing Confirms. Document, Prepared At the Request of a “Tea Party” Congressman, Indicates the 7th Special Forces Group “Has Conducted Operations in Every Latin American Country” A Pentagon document has come to light that confirms the U.S. has put special operations troops on the ground in Mexico as the drug war there continues to escalate, notching some 40,000 murders since late 2006.
The document is a Department of Defense briefing presented in mid-May 2009 in Washington, D.C., to a group of business and political leaders from northwest Florida. The “Unclassified/For Official Use Only” briefing reveals the 18 Latin American nations where 7th Special Forces Group soldiers [Airborne Green Berets] were deployed as of fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, 2009. A Secret War in 120 Countries: The Pentagon’s New Power Elite. Somewhere on this planet an American commando is carrying out a mission.
Now, say that 70 times and you’re done... for the day. Without the knowledge of the American public, a secret force within the U.S. military is undertaking operations in a majority of the world’s countries. This new Pentagon power elite is waging a global war whose size and scope has never been revealed, until now. In 120 countries across the globe, troops from Special Operations Command carry out their secret war of high-profile assassinations, low-level targeted killings, capture/kidnap operations, kick-down-the-door night raids, joint operations with foreign forces, and training missions with indigenous partners as part of a shadowy conflict unknown to most Americans.
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Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Manhunt Inc.: Firm ‘Tags’ Terrorists for Special Ops. When trading ended Tuesday night at the New York Stock Exchange, the closing bell wasn’t rung by a titan of finance or an imported celebrity.
It was sounded by the CEO of an obscure defense firm with deep ties to the U.S. intelligence and special operations communities. The traders on the floor may not have recognized Mary Margaret “Peggy” Styer. But her company’s products are well known by the small group of commandos and spies who hunt down top terrorists. Over the last decade Styer’s company, the Virginia-based Blackbird Technologies, has become a leading supplier of equipment for the covert “tagging, tracking and locating” of suspected enemies. The US military's secret military. Somewhere on this planet a US commando is carrying out a mission.
United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) - Home. SOF focus on world's 'unlit spaces' Associated Press Interactive. Special Operations Spending Quadruples. The U.S.
Special Operations Command’s spending since 2001 has quadrupled, with an almost fivefold increase in revenue for its four largest defense contractors, according to a Bloomberg Government study. The amount paid to the top four defense contractors supplying the special ops command with equipment and services -- New York-based L-3 Communications Holdings, Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co. (RTN), Florida-based Harris Corp. (HRS) and Chicago-based Boeing Co. (BA) -- has increased from $194.8 million in fiscal year 2001 to $949.9 million in fiscal 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount of prime contract awards to small businesses, which are often more nimble in producing specialty products, has increased even faster -- almost sixfold for procurement, research and development -- from $121.2 million in fiscal 2001 to $702.4 million in fiscal 2010, according to the study, published today.
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