WASHINGTON—The Obama administration has been secretly building up its ranks of hunter-killer commandos, such as the Navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden.
Since 2009, the U.S. has boosted the number of strike teams in Afghanistan from four to 20, each with 10 to 100 men. These and other special-operations forces have carried out thousands of raids in the past year, officials said, killing about 3,200 insurgents and capturing approximately 8,000 more.
A senior U.S. official said stepped-up raids in Afghanistan honed the teams' skills, increased intelligence about militants in Pakistan and gave President Barack Obama confidence that a SEAL assault on bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad could succeed.
The raid on the bin Laden compound has raised the curtain on this and a host of other secret military capabilities, including the possible existence of new stealth helicopter technology and commando teams' use of trained dogs. Although the military jealously guards such details, the chance to take out the al Qaeda leader appeared worth the trade-off of revealing some of the commando teams' tradecraft.
Few have publicly criticized the use of hunter-killer commandos in the wake of the SEAL team's successful strike. But in the past, some critics have expressed worry that use of the teams amounts to targeted killings and that inserting commandos in countries where the U.S. isn't at war can threaten to enmesh the U.S. in bigger, more costly conflicts.
Hunting al Qaeda fighters and gathering intelligence on bin Laden was a prime justification for the buildup of commando units in Afghanistan. But their mission isn't likely to end with bin Laden's death. Officials say the Pentagon intends to further bolster the teams and increase the number of missions they are assigned to carry out.
Says a U.S. official,
"They are building their target lists and stacking them up. These guys have never been as busy as they are now."
Mr. Obama planned to travel Friday to Fort Campbell, Ky., to meet with members of the team involved in the strike on bin Laden's compound. The commandos belong to Joint Special Operations Command, the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based headquarters, usually called JSOC, which oversees the U.S. military counterterrorism missions around the world.
Since the beginning of last year, the Obama administration has embraced the hunter-killer mission with vigor.
The military distinguishes between counterinsurgency—which focuses on protecting the locals and winning their trust with government services and economic development—and what the Pentagon calls counterterrorism, which in Afghanistan is a campaign to hunt down top insurgent leaders and foreign fighters.
Some in the White House view the military's counterinsurgency mission with skepticism, worried about the huge expense of having large numbers of U.S. troops deployed overseas. By contrast, the JSOC counterterrorism teams are small, travel light and require little in the way of the heavy logistics needed to sustain conventional forces.
In Afghanistan, JSOC units are credited with weakening the Taliban over the past year with constant attacks. Those insurgents reported killed or captured in the past year by JSOC and other special-operations forces, such as Army Green Berets and Marine commandos, include some 1,500 insurgent leaders, officials say.
Although foot soldiers are easily replaced, military commanders say, eliminating midlevel commanders has helped to erode the Taliban's ability to control territory and fighters.
Still, violence levels in Afghanistan remain high, with the number of weekly attacks hitting an all-time peak last September.
Such teams have generally not ventured into Pakistan. During the George W. Bush administration, military officials proposed sending a team there to capture al Qaeda's then-No. 3, Faraj al-Libbi. Senior administration officials vetoed the plan, saying he wasn't a valuable enough target to risk angering the Pakistanis. In 2005, he was captured by Pakistani special forces working with the Central Intelligence Agency.
But in 2008, the Bush administration did approve a raid into Pakistan. In an operation code-named "Cottonmouth," a SEAL team crossed into Pakistan and grabbed a militant who later provided detailed information about al Qaeda safe houses in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, a tribal area where many militants take refuge. Officials say the Central Intelligence Agency used the information to develop targets for drone strikes.
The incursion caused a furor in Pakistan, where the government publicized and condemned the strike. Within the Bush administration, State Department officials argued that further raids could permanently damage the relationship with Pakistan. The White House ruled out future strikes.
"It got to the point that bin Laden would be the only reason to go in," the senior official said.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, then-Sen. Obama repeatedly stressed his willingness to enter Pakistan to pursue al Qaeda targets. Soon after he became president, the number of CIA missile strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan increased.
Before this week's attack on bin Laden's compound, as far as is known publicly, Mr. Obama hadn't authorized any commando raids into Pakistan. But senior U.S. officials said the administration used the expanded number of hunter-killer teams in Afghanistan to try to pressure the Pakistanis themselves to move against militants.
In October 2010, amid new intelligence reports that militants in the tribal areas were planning an attack on America or Europe, senior U.S. officials told their Pakistani counterparts that if an attack on the U.S. or its allies were traced to Pakistan, the military would act unilaterally and send commandos to attack plotters or training camps there.
JSOC controls the Pentagon's three classified special-mission units:
- Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, known as Delta Force.
- Navy's Naval Special Warfare Development Group, commonly called SEAL Team Six.
- Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron. Units from the Army's secretive Ranger battalions are routinely assigned to JSOC, as well.
Marine Maj Gen. Richard Mills, who just finished a tour as the commander in southwest Afghanistan, told reporters on Thursday,
"SEAL Team Six is unique. Those are big boys. That particular team is your top-shelf stuff."
In public, military officials will not discuss in any detail the activities of JSOC. Its budget remains classified. Still, its commanders have risen to the most senior posts. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who led JSOC at the height of the Iraq war, became the top commander in Afghanistan. Vice Adm. William McRaven, the current commander, has been tapped to lead Special Operations Command, which oversees all such troops.
CBS' video, "The Iron Will of Seal Team 6", provides a brief history of the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team 6 and the infamous Michael Marcinko, the founder of SEAL Team 6. Here's another excellent video about Seal Team 6.
The video of President Barack Obama national TV announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed:
Osama Bin Laden's compound located in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Click the above image to view the original Wall Street article, "U.S. boosts Ranks of Elite Fighting Forces", a video (see below) about America's growing special operations units and slide show of pictures taken by the Pakistani authorities of the inside of Osama Bin Laden's compound. WARNING: The slideshow shows some very graphic and distrubing images.
Prior to 2009, Army's Delta Force primarily worked in Iraq, while SEAL Team Six was assigned to Afghanistan. But as the Iraq war wound down, and the Obama administration shifted the military's focus, Delta Force units and additional Army Green Berets were reassigned to Afghanistan.
Says a senior White House official,
"The Obama administration made Pakistan and Afghanistan its primary mission, not Iraq. By doing that, we resourced that part of the world to go after bin Laden. Obama said we are in this because of bin Laden, we are going to go after bin Laden. And we did."
COMMENTARY: The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), formed in 1980 in response to Operation Eagle Claw, the failed mission to free the U.S. Embassy employees held hostage in Iran, is charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Commands (SOC or SOCOM) of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corp.
The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) commands and controls the Special Mission Units (SMU) of USSOCOM.
These units perform highly classified activities. So far, only three SMUs have been publicly disclosed:
- 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta Force (U.S. Army).
- Naval Special Warfare Development Group (U.S. Navy).
- 24th Special Tactics Squadron (U.S. Air Force).
The Intelligence Support Activity (ISA) is also under JSOC. The ISA collects specific target intelligence prior to SMU missions, and provides signals support, etc. during those missions. The ISA often operates under various cover names, the most recent one being Gray Fox. The Army once maintained the ISA, but after the September 11 attacks, shifted direct control to Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, NC. If needed, the Army Rangers and Night Stalkers can be transferred under the JSOC command. JSOC’s primary mission is believed to be identifying and destroying terrorists and terror cells worldwide.
The Navy SEALs team that conducted this operation was the legendary Team Six, aka DevGru, or the Naval Special Warfare Development Group flown into Pakistan by helicopter teams from the 160th Special Operations Air Regiment, part of the Joint Special Operations Command.
SEAL Team 6 History
Auburn graduate Richard Marcinko is the founder of the elite special forces unit ‘SEAL Team 6′ which is today widely credited with engaging and killing the world’s most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Team Six operations are highly classified and information about the unit or its current members is typically not available to the public. Acknowledging the unit’s existence, much less crediting it with the execution of a successful mission is an unusual step by the U.S. government.
Marcinko served two tours in Vietnam where he served with SEAL Team 2 as the officer in command of the Eighth Platoon. During the Tet offensive, Marcinko and his platoon helped rescue American nurses who were trapped in churches and hospitals at Chau Doc. While serving in Vietnam, Marcinko won the Silver Star, four bronze stars with combat V, two Navy Commendation Medals, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star.
Marcinko was promoted to Commanding Officer of SEAL Team Two after serving as Naval Attache to Cambodia in 1973.
During the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, Marckino was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff task force known as the Terrorist Action Team, which was charged with developing a plan to rescue American hostages.
When the plan failed the Navy decided to develop a full-time dedicated Counter-Terrorism Team. Marcinko was given the task of designing and developing the unit. He became the first commanding officer of the new unit which he named SEAL Team Six. He served as its commander for three years, 1980-1983.
Marcinko has written a number of best selling novels and his autobiography. He has written books and given lectures on management and leadership techniques. He provides hands-on training for hostage rescue teams. He also has served as a corporate advisor to numerous multi-national businesses.
He received a Masters in Political Science from Auburn University.
I don't think you would want to be messing with Mr. Marcinko anytime soon.
The Mission To Get Osama Bin Laden
The original plan was for the Navy's SEAL Team 6 to rappel down into Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and that’s how they practiced it in April on a replica of the compound the military constructed in the U.S. on which SEALs Team Six conducted two practice runs.
But on Sunday, May 1, one of the two ultra-secret stealth helicopters (see below) used for the raid, had an issue – they’re not sure what as of now – and conducted a soft crash landing. The chopper hit the deck – “it was a real white-knuckle moment,” a US official tells ABC News.
Another white-knuckle moment – at the end of the operation, Pakistan’s military scrambled fighter jets looking for the US helicopters. Who knows what could have happened if the Pakistani planes had reached the US helicopters -- but they didn’t.
The US team got back to Afghanistan by around 5:45 pm ET.
This operation happened, an official said, because of dogged, relentless intelligence work. For years, from detainees at Gitmo, the CIA had the nom de guerre of the courier, but they didn’t have his true name until 2007.
Intel spotted him in early 2009 – it took a while to follow him . Last August when intel found the compound the reaction was along the lines of “Oh my God who are they hiding here?” a official said, recalling definite recognition this was a significant find. Congressional leaders were briefed about the compound in December.
One possible complication: While CIA contractor Ray Davis was in the Pakistani prison there were concerns about his safety were this mission to be conducted.
Davis’s March 16 release cleared that possible obstacle to the operation -- a kill mission, with the clear objective to kill bin Laden.
From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers.
After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were killed or captured. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap -- boom, boom -- to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One had experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by U.S. forces, military and White House officials tell National Journal.
Were it not for this high-value target (HVT), it might have been a routine mission for the specially trained and highly mythologized SEAL Team Six, officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but known even to the locals at their home base Dam Neck in Virginia as just DevGru.
This HVT was special, and the raids required practice, so they replicated the one-acre compound at Camp Alpha, a segregated section of Bagram Air Base. Trial runs were held in early April.
On April 29, President Barack Obama approved an operation to kill bin Laden. It was a mission that required surgical accuracy, even more precision than could be delivered by the government's sophisticated Predator drones. To execute it, Obama tapped a small contingent of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six and put them under the command of CIA Director Leon Panetta, whose analysts monitored the compound from afar.
Panetta was directly in charge of the team, a U.S. official said, and his conference room was transformed into a command center.
Details of exactly how the raid unfolded remain murky. But the al-Qaida courier, his brother and one of bin Laden's sons were killed. No Americans were injured. Senior administration officials will only say that bin Laden "resisted." And then the man behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil died from an American bullet to his head.
THE U.S. COUNTER-TERRORIST NETWORK
We have all heard about Delta Force, the Navy SEALS, Black Beret's and Army Rangers, but I thought I had not heard about the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the counter-terrorist organization and its chain of command. What I discovered is quite impressive and daunting, to say the least. This is what the entire organization and its various branches and arms looks like:
It's a wonder that USSOCOM gets anything done. Let's not forget that the CIA is also a silent, but very active partner of USSOCOM. CIA Director Leon Panetta was specifically put in charge of SEAL Team 6 and the mission to get Osama Bin Laden.
President Obama's decision was probably one of the gutiest calls by any U.S. President in modern times since John F. Kennedy ordered a naval embargo against Cuba back in October 1964, that nearly plunged America into the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
Courtesy of an article dated May 6, 2011 appearing in The Wall Street Journal, an article dated May 2, 2011 appearing in the Never To Yield Foundation, and the NeoGAF forum appreciation thread dated May 2, 2011
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