thanks Mike, forwarding to the list,<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 10:37 AM, mike stagman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:artemesium@yahoo.co.uk">artemesium@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<span>
Hi Michel,<br><br>This is an extremely important article regarding the New Fascist World Order.� This info really ought to get around!!!<br><br>Mike<br><br><br>Published on Thursday, August 4, 2011 by <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175426/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_uncovering_the_military%27s_secret_military/" target="_blank">TomDispatch.com</a>
</span>
<div>
<h2>A Secret War in 120 Countries: The Pentagon�s New Power Elite </h2>
</div>
<div>
by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/nick-turse" target="_blank">Nick Turse</a> </div>
</div>
<p>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.<span style="width: 325px;"><img src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/resize/imce-images/hl_110513_seal_night_lg-325x209.jpg" style="width: 325px; min-height: 209px;" title="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. Once �special� for being small, lean, outsider outfits, today they are special for their power, access, influence, and aura." height="209" width="325" border="0"><span>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. Once �special� for being small, lean, outsider outfits,
today they are special for their power, access, influence, and aura.</span></span></p>
<p>After a U.S. Navy SEAL put a bullet in Osama bin Laden�s chest and another in his <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle?currentPage=all" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">head</a>, one of the most secretive black-ops units in the American military suddenly found<b> </b>its
mission in the public spotlight.� It was atypical.� While it�s well
known that U.S. Special Operations forces are deployed in the war zones
of Afghanistan and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Iraq</a>, and it�s increasingly apparent that such units operate in murkier conflict zones like <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle?currentPage=all" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yemen</a> and <a href="http://www.nationinstitute.org/featuredwork/fellows/2283/the_cia%27s_secret_sites_in_somalia/?page=entire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Somalia</a>, the full extent of their worldwide war has remained deeply in the shadows.</p>
<p>Last year, Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the <i>Washington Post</i> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reported</a>
that U.S. Special Operations forces were deployed in 75 countries, up
from 60 at the end of the Bush presidency.� By the end of this year,
U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me, that
number will likely reach 120.� �We do a lot of traveling -- a lot more
than Afghanistan or Iraq,� he said recently.� This global presence -- in
about <a href="http://www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">60% of the world�s nations</a>
and far larger than previously acknowledged -- provides striking new
evidence of a rising clandestine Pentagon power elite waging a secret
war in all corners of the world.</p>
<p><a name="131bc115902feccf_more"></a></p>
<p><b>The Rise of the Military�s Secret Military</b></p>
<p>Born of a failed 1980 raid to rescue American hostages in Iran, in
which eight U.S. service members died, U.S. Special Operations Command
(SOCOM) was established in 1987.� Having spent the post-Vietnam years
distrusted and starved for money by the regular military, special
operations forces suddenly had a single home, a stable budget, and a
four-star commander as their advocate.� Since then, SOCOM has grown into
a combined force of startling proportions.� Made up of units from all
the service branches, including the Army�s �Green Berets� and Rangers,
Navy SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, and Marine Corps Special Operations
teams, in addition to specialized helicopter crews, boat teams, civil
affairs personnel, para-rescuemen, and even battlefield air-traffic
controllers and special operations weathermen, SOCOM carries out the
United States� most specialized and secret missions.� These include
assassinations, counterterrorist raids, long-range reconnaissance,
intelligence analysis, foreign troop training, and weapons of mass
destruction counter-proliferation operations.</p>
<p>One of its key components is the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, a clandestine sub-command whose primary mission is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/26/AR2010012604239.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tracking and killing</a> suspected terrorists.� Reporting to the president and acting under his authority, JSOC maintains a global hit list <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/26/AR2010012604239.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">that includes American citizens</a>.�
It has been operating an extra-legal �kill/capture� campaign that John
Nagl, a past counterinsurgency adviser to four-star general and
soon-to-be CIA Director David Petraeus, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kill-capture/what-is-kill-capture/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">calls</a> "an almost industrial-scale counterterrorism killing machine."</p>
<p>This assassination program has been carried out by commando units
like the Navy SEALs and the Army�s Delta Force as well as via drone
strikes as part of covert wars in which the CIA is also involved in
countries like <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/us-drones-target-two-leaders-of-somali-group-allied-with-al-qaeda/2011/06/29/AGJFxZrH_story.html?wprss=rss_national-security" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Somalia</a>, <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/cias-drones-join-shadow-war-over-yemen/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pakistan, and Yemen</a>.� In addition, the command operates a <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/commandos-hold-afghan-detainees-in-secret-jails/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">network of secret prisons</a>, perhaps as many as 20 black sites in Afghanistan alone, used for <a href="http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/04/ap-secret-detention-040811/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">interrogating high-value targets</a>.�</p>
<p><b>Growth Industry</b></p>
<p>From a force of about 37,000 in the early 1990s, Special Operations
Command personnel have grown to almost 60,000, about a third of whom are
career members of SOCOM; the rest have other military occupational
specialties, but periodically cycle through the command.� Growth has
been exponential since September 11, 2001, as SOCOM�s baseline budget
almost tripled from $2.3 billion to $6.3 billion.� If you add in funding
for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has actually<b> </b>more than<b> </b><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-07/special-operations-spending-quadruples-with-commando-demand.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">quadrupled</a> to $9.8 billion in these years.� Not surprisingly, the number of its personnel deployed abroad has also <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-03/navy-seal-raid-on-bin-laden-reflects-tradition-of-grit-secrecy.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">jumped</a> four-fold.� Further increases, and expanded operations, are on the horizon.</p>
<p>Lieutenant General Dennis Hejlik, the former head of the Marine Corps
Forces Special Operations Command -- the last of the service branches
to be incorporated into SOCOM in 2006 -- <a href="http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/07/marine-marsoc-hejlik-grow-get-air-assets-072411w/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">indicated</a>,
for instance, that he foresees a doubling of his former unit of 2,600.�
�I see them as a force someday of about 5,000, like equivalent to the
number of SEALs that we have on the battlefield. Between [5,000] and
6,000,� he <a href="http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/07/marine-marsoc-hejlik-grow-get-air-assets-072411w/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">said</a>
at a June breakfast with defense reporters in Washington.� Long-term
plans already call for the force to increase by 1,000. ����</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1844674517/ref=nosim/?tag=commondreams-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/tursecase.gif" align="left" border="0"></a>During his recent Senate confirmation hearings, Navy <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/tag/william-mcraven/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vice Admiral William McRaven</a>,
the incoming SOCOM chief and outgoing head of JSOC (which he commanded
during the bin Laden raid) endorsed a steady manpower growth rate of 3%
to 5% a year, while also making a pitch for even more resources,
including additional drones and the construction of new special
operations facilities.</p>
<p>A former SEAL who still sometimes accompanies troops into the field,
McRaven expressed a belief that, as conventional forces are drawn down
in Afghanistan, special ops troops will take on an ever greater role.
�Iraq, he added, would benefit if elite U.S forces continued to conduct
missions there past the December 2011 deadline for a total American
troop withdrawal.� He also assured the Senate Armed Services Committee
that �as a former JSOC commander, I can tell you we were looking very
hard at Yemen and at Somalia.�</p>
<p>During a speech at the National Defense Industrial Association's
annual Special Operations and Low-intensity Conflict Symposium earlier
this year, Navy Admiral Eric Olson, the outgoing chief of Special
Operations Command, pointed to a composite satellite image of the world
at night.� Before September 11, 2001, the lit portions of the planet --
mostly the industrialized nations of the global north -- were considered
the key areas. "But the world changed over the last decade," <a href="http://www.socom.mil/News/Pages/Specialoperationsunlitspaces.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">he said</a>.�
"Our strategic focus has shifted largely to the south... certainly
within the special operations community, as we deal with the emerging
threats from the places where the lights aren't."�</p>
<p>To that end, Olson launched <a href="http://www.soc.mil/UNS/Releases/2011/February/110211-02.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Project Lawrence,"</a>
an effort to increase cultural proficiencies -- like advanced language
training and better knowledge of local history and customs -- for
overseas operations.� The program is, of course, named after the British
officer, Thomas Edward Lawrence (better known as "Lawrence of Arabia"),
who teamed up with Arab fighters to wage a guerrilla war in the Middle
East during World War I. �Mentioning Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mali, and
Indonesia, Olson added that SOCOM now needed "Lawrences of Wherever."</p>
<p>While Olson made reference to only 51 countries of top concern to
SOCOM, Col. Nye told me that on any given day, Special Operations forces
are deployed in approximately 70 nations around the world.� All of
them, he hastened to add, at the request of the host government.�
According to testimony by Olson before the House Armed Services
Committee earlier this year, approximately 85% of special operations
troops deployed overseas are in 20 countries in the CENTCOM area of
operations in the Greater Middle East: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt,
Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman,
Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United
Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.� The others are scattered across
the globe from South America to Southeast Asia, some in small numbers,
others as larger contingents.�</p>
<p>Special Operations Command won�t disclose exactly which countries its
forces operate in.� �We�re obviously going to have some places where
it�s not advantageous for us to list where we�re at,� says Nye.� �Not
all host nations want it known, for whatever reasons they have -- it may
be internal, it may be regional.��</p>
<p>But it�s no secret (or at least a poorly kept one) that so-called
black special operations troops, like the SEALs and Delta Force, are
conducting kill/capture missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and
Yemen, while �white� forces like the Green Berets and Rangers are
training indigenous partners as part of a worldwide secret war against
al-Qaeda and other militant groups. In the Philippines, for instance,
the U.S. spends <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-30-secretwar30_ST_N.htm?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d9374a3b423728e%2C0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">$50 million a year</a>
on a 600-person contingent of Army Special Operations forces, Navy
Seals, Air Force special operators, and others that carries out
counterterrorist operations with Filipino allies against insurgent
groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf.</p>
<p>Last year, as an analysis of SOCOM documents, open-source Pentagon information, and a <a href="http://nationalsecurityzone.org/specialops/maps/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">database of Special Operations missions</a>
compiled by investigative journalist Tara McKelvey (for the Medill
School of Journalism�s National Security Journalism Initiative) reveals,
America�s most elite troops carried out joint-training exercises in
Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Germany, Indonesia, Mali,
Norway, Panama, and Poland.� So far in 2011, similar training missions
have been conducted in the Dominican Republic, Jordan, Romania, Senegal,
South Korea, and Thailand, among other nations.� In reality, Nye told
me, training actually went on in almost every nation where Special
Operations forces are deployed.� �Of the 120 countries we visit by the
end of the year, I would say the vast majority are training exercises in
one fashion or another.� They would be classified as training
exercises.�</p>
<p><b>The Pentagon�s Power Elite</b></p>
<p>Once the neglected stepchildren of the military establishment,
Special Operations forces have been growing exponentially not just in
size and budget, but also in power and influence.� Since 2002, SOCOM has
been authorized to create its own Joint Task Forces -- like Joint
Special Operations Task Force-Philippines -- a prerogative normally
limited to larger combatant commands like CENTCOM.� This year, without
much fanfare, SOCOM also established its own Joint Acquisition Task
Force, a cadre of equipment designers and acquisition specialists.�</p>
<p>With control over budgeting, training, and equipping its force,
powers usually reserved for departments (like the Department of the Army
or the Department of the Navy), dedicated dollars in every Defense
Department budget, and <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/in-wake-of-bin-laden-kill-congress-smooches-spec-ops/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">influential advocates in Congress</a>,
SOCOM is by now an exceptionally powerful player at the Pentagon.� With
real clout, it can win bureaucratic battles, purchase cutting-edge
technology, and pursue fringe research like <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-07/special-operations-spending-quadruples-with-commando-demand.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">electronically beaming messages</a> into people�s heads or developing stealth-like <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/socom-wants-invisible-commandos/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cloaking technologies</a>
for ground troops.� Since 2001, SOCOM�s prime contracts awarded to
small businesses -- those that generally produce specialty equipment and
weapons -- have jumped six-fold.</p>
<p>Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, but operating out of theater<b> </b>commands
spread out around the globe, including Hawaii, Germany, and South
Korea, and active in the majority of countries on the planet, Special
Operations Command is now a force unto itself.� As outgoing SOCOM chief
Olson <a href="http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2011/03%20March/Olson%2003-01-11.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">put it</a>
earlier this year, SOCOM �is a microcosm of the Department of Defense,
with ground, air, and maritime components, a global presence, and
authorities and responsibilities that mirror the Military Departments,
Military Services, and Defense Agencies.��</p>
<p>Tasked to coordinate all Pentagon planning against global terrorism
networks and, as a result, closely connected to other government
agencies, foreign militaries, and intelligence services, and armed with a
vast inventory of stealthy helicopters, manned fixed-wing aircraft,
heavily-armed drones, high-tech guns-a-go-go speedboats, specialized
Humvees and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, as well
as other state-of-the-art gear (<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43859070/ns/technology_and_science-future_of_technology/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">with more on the way</a>),
SOCOM represents something new in the military.� Whereas the late
scholar of militarism Chalmers Johnson used to refer to the CIA as "<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174824/%20chalmers_johnson_agency_of_rogue" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the president's private army</a>,"
today JSOC performs that role, acting as the chief executive�s private
assassination squad, and its parent, SOCOM, functions as a new Pentagon
power-elite, a secret military within the military possessing domestic
power and global reach.�</p>
<p>In 120 countries across the globe, troops from Special Operations Command carry out their secret war of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-killed/story?id=13505703" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">high-profile assassinations</a>, <a href="http://www.nationinstitute.org/featuredwork/fellows/2283/the_cia%27s_secret_sites_in_somalia/?page=entire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">low-level targeted killings</a>, <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/floating-gitmo/#more-50999" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">capture/kidnap operations</a>, kick-down-the-door <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/24/us-afghanistan-raids-idUSTRE71N15U20110224" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">night raids</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/06/28/world/middleeast/20110629-IRAQ-7.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">joint operations with foreign forces</a>,
and training missions with indigenous partners as part of a shadowy
conflict unknown to most Americans.� Once �special� for being small,
lean, outsider outfits, today they are special for their power, access,
influence, and aura.</p>
<p>That aura now benefits from a well-honed public relations campaign which helps them project a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/seal-spotting-becomes-local-sport-in-virginia-beach-after-navy-commandos-return-from-bin-laden-raid/2011/05/10/AFhWdI1G_story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">superhuman image</a>
at home and abroad, even while many of their actual activities remain
in the ever-widening shadows.� Typical of the vision they are pushing
was this statement from Admiral Olson: �I am convinced that the forces�
are the most culturally attuned partners, the most lethal
hunter-killers, and most responsive, agile, innovative, and efficiently
effective advisors, trainers, problem-solvers, and warriors that any
nation has to offer.�</p>
<p>Recently at the <a href="http://aspensecurityforum.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aspen Institute�s Security Forum</a>, Olson offered up similarly gilded comments and some misleading information, too, <a href="http://www.aspeninstitute.org/video/admiral-eric-olson-aspen-security-forum" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">claiming</a>
that U.S. Special Operations forces were operating in just 65 countries
and engaged in combat in only two of them.� When asked about drone
strikes in Pakistan, he reportedly replied, �Are you talking about
unattributed explosions?��</p>
<p>What he did let slip, however, was telling.� He noted, for instance,
that black operations like the bin Laden mission, with commandos
conducting heliborne night raids, were now exceptionally common. �A
dozen or so are conducted every night, he said.� Perhaps most
illuminating, however, was an offhand remark about the size of SOCOM.�
Right now, he emphasized, U.S. Special Operations forces were
approximately as large as Canada�s entire active duty military.� In
fact, the force is larger than the active duty militaries of many of the
nations where America�s elite troops now operate each year, and it�s
only set to grow larger.�</p>
<p>Americans have yet to grapple with what it means to have a �special�
force this large, this active, and this secret -- and they are unlikely
to begin to do so until more information is available.� It just won�t be
coming from Olson or his troops.� �Our access [to foreign countries]
depends on our ability to not talk about it,� he said in response to
questions about SOCOM�s secrecy.� When missions are subject to scrutiny
like the bin Laden raid, he said, the elite troops object.� The
military�s secret military, said Olson, wants "to get back into the
shadows and do what they came in to do.�</p>
<p><i>This article is a collaboration between Alternet.org and TomDispatch.com.</i></p> <div>� 2011 Nick Turse</div>
<div style="float: left; padding: 1px 15px 15px 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/nick-turse" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imagecache/author_photo/nick_turse.jpg" alt="Nick Turse" title="Nick Turse" height="84" width="90"></a> </div>
<div>
<p>Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com. He is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805078967/ref=nosim/?tag=commondreams-20" target="_blank">The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1844674517/ref=nosim/?tag=commondreams-20" target="_blank"> The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan</a>. Turse is currently a fellow at Harvard University�s Radcliffe Institute. His website is <a href="http://www.nickturse.com/" target="_blank">Nick Turse.com</a>. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/NickTurse" target="_blank">@NickTurse</a>, on <a href="http://nickturse.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a>, and on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/nick.turse" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</p>
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