{"id":106341,"date":"2014-01-16T22:07:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T22:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=106341"},"modified":"2014-01-16T22:07:16","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T22:07:16","slug":"special-ops-surge-americas-secret-war-134-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/special-ops-surge-americas-secret-war-134-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"The Special Ops Surge: America\u2019s Secret War in 134 Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Turse\u00a0<\/strong>
\nRINF Alternative News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

They operate in the green glow of night vision in Southwest Asia and stalk through the jungles of South America. They\u00a0snatch<\/a>\u00a0men from their homes in the\u00a0Maghreb<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0shoot it out<\/a>\u00a0with heavily armed militants in the Horn of Africa. They feel the salty spray while skimming over the tops of waves from the turquoise Caribbean to the deep blue Pacific. They conduct missions in the oppressive heat of Middle Eastern deserts and the\u00a0deep freeze<\/a>\u00a0of Scandinavia. All over the planet, the Obama administration is\u00a0waging a secret war<\/a>\u00a0whose full extent has never been fully revealed — until now.<\/p>\n

Since September 11, 2001, U.S. Special Operations forces have grown in every conceivable way, from their numbers to their budget. Most telling, however, has been the exponential rise in special ops deployments globally. This presence — now, in nearly 70% of the world\u2019s nations — provides new evidence of the size and scope of a secret war being waged from Latin America to the backlands of Afghanistan, from training missions with African allies to information operations launched in cyberspace.<\/p>\n

In the waning days of the Bush presidency, Special Operations forces were reportedlydeployed<\/a>\u00a0in about 60 countries around the world. By 2010, that number had swelled to 75,according<\/a>\u00a0to Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the\u00a0Washington Post.<\/em> In 2011, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) spokesman Colonel Tim Nye\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0TomDispatch that the total would reach 120. Today, that figure has risen higher still.<\/p>\n

In 2013, elite U.S. forces were deployed in 134 countries around the globe, according to Major Matthew Robert Bockholt of SOCOM Public Affairs. This 123% increase during the Obama years demonstrates how, in addition to conventional wars and a\u00a0CIA drone campaign<\/a>, public diplomacy and\u00a0extensive electronic spying<\/a>, the U.S. has engaged in still another significant and growing form of overseas power projection. Conducted largely in the shadows by America\u2019s most elite troops, the vast majority of these missions take place far from prying eyes, media scrutiny, or any type of outside oversight, increasing the chances of unforeseen blowback and catastrophic consequences.<\/p>\n

Growth Industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Formally established in 1987, Special Operations Command has grown steadily in the post-9\/11 era.\u00a0 SOCOM is reportedly on track to reach 72,000 personnel in 2014, up from 33,000 in 2001. Funding for the command has also jumped exponentially as its baseline budget, $2.3 billion in 2001, hit $6.9 billion in 2013 ($10.4 billion, if you add in supplemental funding). Personnel deployments abroad have skyrocketed, too, from 4,900 \u201cman-years\u201d in 2001 to 11,500 in 2013.<\/p>\n

A recent\u00a0investigation<\/a>\u00a0by TomDispatch, using open source government documents and news releases as well as press reports,\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0evidence that U.S. Special Operations forces were deployed in or involved with the militaries of 106 nations around the world in 2012-2013. For more than a month during the preparation of that\u00a0article<\/a>, however, SOCOM failed to provide accurate statistics on the total number of countries to which special operators — Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs and Delta Force commandos, specialized helicopter crews, boat teams, and civil affairs personnel — were deployed. \u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t just keep it on hand,\u201d SOCOM\u2019s Bockholt explained in a telephone interview once the article had been filed. \u201cWe have to go searching through stuff. It takes a long time to do that.\u201d Hours later, just prior to publication, he provided an answer to a question I first asked in November of last year. \u201cSOF [Special Operations forces] were deployed to 134 countries\u201d during fiscal year 2013, Bockholt explained in an email.<\/p>\n

Globalized Special Ops<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year, Special Operations Command chief Admiral William McRaven explained his vision for special ops globalization. In a statement to the House Armed Services Committee, he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cUSSOCOM is enhancing its global network of SOF to support our interagency and international partners in order to gain expanded situational awareness of emerging threats and opportunities. The network enables small, persistent presence in critical locations, and facilitates engagement where necessary or appropriate…\u201d<\/p>\n

While that \u201cpresence\u201d may be small, the reach and influence of those Special Operations forces are another matter. The 12% jump in national deployments — from 120 to 134 — during McRaven\u2019s tenure reflects his desire to put boots on the ground just about everywhere on Earth. \u00a0SOCOM will not name the nations involved, citing host nation sensitivities and the safety of American personnel, but the deployments we do know about shed at least some light on the full range of missions being carried out by America\u2019s secret military.<\/p>\n

Last April and May, for instance, Special Ops personnel took part in training exercises in Djibouti, Malawi, and the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. In June, U.S. Navy SEALs joined Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, and other allied Mideast forces for irregular warfare simulations in Aqaba, Jordan. The next month, Green Berets traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to carry out small unit tactical exercises with local forces. In August, Green Beretsconducted<\/a>\u00a0explosives training with Honduran sailors. In September,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0media reports, U.S. Special Operations forces joined elite troops from the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Cambodia — as well as their counterparts from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China, India, and Russia for a US-Indonesian joint-funded coun\u00adterterrorism exercise held at a training center in Sentul, West Java.<\/p>\n

In October, elite U.S. troops\u00a0carried out<\/a>\u00a0commando raids in Libya and Somalia,\u00a0kidnapping<\/a>\u00a0a terror suspect in the former nation while SEALs killed at least one militant in the latter before being\u00a0driven off<\/a>\u00a0under fire. In November, Special Ops troops conducted humanitarian operations in the Philippines to aid survivors of Typhoon Haiyan. The next month, members of the 352nd Special Operations Group\u00a0conducted<\/a>\u00a0a training exercise involving approximately 130 airmen and six aircraft at an airbase in England and Navy SEALs were wounded whileundertaking<\/a>\u00a0an evacuation mission in South Sudan. Green Berets then rang in the new year with a January 1st combat mission alongside elite Afghan troops in Bahlozi village in Kandahar province.<\/p>\n

Deployments in 134 countries, however, turn out not to be expansive enough for SOCOM. In November 2013, the command announced that it was seeking to identify industry partners who could, under SOCOM\u2019s Trans Regional Web Initiative, potentially \u201cdevelop new websites tailored to foreign audiences.\u201d \u00a0These would join an existing global network of 10 propaganda websites, run by various combatant commands and made to look like legitimate news outlets,\u00a0including CentralAsiaOnline.com,\u00a0Sabahi<\/a>\u00a0which targets the Horn of Africa; an effort aimed at the Middle East known as Al-Shorfa.com; and another targeting Latin America called\u00a0Infosurhoy.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SOCOM\u2019s push into cyberspace is mirrored by a concerted effort of the command to embed itself ever more deeply inside the Beltway. \u201cI have folks in every agency here in Washington, D.C. — from the CIA, to the FBI, to the National Security Agency, to the National Geospatial Agency, to the Defense Intelligence Agency,\u201d SOCOM chief Admiral McRaven said during a panel discussion at Washington\u2019s Wilson Center last year. Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Library in November, he put the number of departments and agencies where SOCOM is nowentrenched<\/a>\u00a0at 38.<\/p>\n

134 Chances for Blowback<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although elected in 2008 by many who saw him as an\u00a0antiwar candidate<\/a>, President Obama has proved to be a decidedly hawkish commander-in-chief whose policies have already produced notable instances of what in CIA trade-speak has long been called\u00a0blowback<\/a>. \u00a0While the Obama administration oversaw a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq (negotiated<\/a>\u00a0by his predecessor), as well as a\u00a0drawdown<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. forces in Afghanistan (after a\u00a0major military surge<\/a>\u00a0in that country), the president has presided over a ramping up of the U.S. military presence in\u00a0Africa<\/a>, a\u00a0reinvigoration<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0efforts<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Latin America<\/a>, and tough talk about a rebalancing or \u201cpivot to Asia<\/a>\u201d (even if it has amounted to little as of yet).<\/p>\n

The White House has also overseen an exponential expansion of America\u2019s drone war. While President Bush launched 51 such strikes, President Obama has\u00a0presided<\/a>\u00a0over 330, according to research by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Last year, alone, the U.S. also engaged in combat operations in Afghanistan,\u00a0Libya<\/a>,\u00a0Pakistan<\/a>,\u00a0Somalia<\/a>, and\u00a0Yemen<\/a>. Recent revelations from National Security Agency whistleblower\u00a0Edward Snowden<\/a>\u00a0have demonstrated the tremendous breadth and global reach of U.S. electronic surveillance during the Obama years. And deep in the shadows, Special Operations forces are now annually deployed to more than double the number of nations as at the end of Bush\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

In recent years, however, the unintended consequences of U.S. military operations have helped to sow outrage and discontent, setting whole regions aflame. More than 10 years after America\u2019s \u201cmission accomplished<\/a>\u201d moment, seven years after its much vaunted\u00a0surge<\/a>, the Iraq that America helped make is\u00a0in flames<\/a>. A country with\u00a0no al-Qaeda presence<\/a>\u00a0before the\u00a0U.S. invasion<\/a>\u00a0and a government\u00a0opposed<\/a>\u00a0to America\u2019s enemies in Tehran now has a central government\u00a0aligned<\/a>\u00a0with Iran and\u00a0two cities<\/a>\u00a0flying al-Qaeda flags.<\/p>\n

A more recent U.S. military intervention to aid the ouster of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi helped send neighboring Mali, a U.S.-supported bulwark against regional terrorism, into a downward spiral, saw a coup there carried out by a U.S.-trained officer, ultimately led to a bloody terror attack on an Algerian gas plant, and helped to unleash nothing short of a\u00a0terror diaspora<\/a>\u00a0in the region.<\/p>\n

And today South Sudan — a nation the U.S. shepherded into being, has supportedeconomically<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0militarily<\/a>\u00a0(despite its reliance on\u00a0child soldiers<\/a>), and has used as a\u00a0hush-hush base<\/a>\u00a0for Special Operations forces — is being torn apart by violence and sliding towardcivil war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Obama presidency has seen the U.S. military\u2019s elite tactical forces increasingly used in an attempt to achieve strategic goals. But with Special Operations missions kept under tight wraps, Americans have little understanding of where their troops are deployed, what exactly they are doing, or what the consequences might be down the road. As retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, has noted, the utilization of Special Operations forces during the Obama years has decreased military accountability, strengthened the \u201cimperial presidency,\u201d and set the stage for a war without end. \u201cIn short,\u201d he\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0at TomDispatch, \u201chanding war to the special operators severs an already too tenuous link between war and politics; it becomes war for its own sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secret ops by secret forces have a nasty tendency to produce unintended, unforeseen, and completely disastrous consequences. New Yorkers will\u00a0remember<\/a>\u00a0well the\u00a0end result<\/a>\u00a0ofclandestine U.S. support<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0Islamic militants<\/a>\u00a0against the\u00a0Soviet Union<\/a>\u00a0in Afghanistan during the 1980s: 9\/11. \u00a0Strangely enough, those at the other primary attack site that day,\u00a0the Pentagon<\/a>, seem not to have learned the obvious lessons from this lethal blowback. Even today in Afghanistan and Pakistan, more than 12 years after the U.S. invaded the former andalmost 10 years<\/a>\u00a0after it began conducting\u00a0covert attacks<\/a>\u00a0in the latter, the U.S. is still dealing with that Cold War-era fallout: with, for instance, CIA drones conducting\u00a0missile strikes<\/a>against an organization (the\u00a0Haqqani network<\/a>) that, in the 1980s, the Agency\u00a0supplied with missiles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Without a clear picture of where the military\u2019s covert forces are operating and what they are doing, Americans may not even recognize the consequences of and blowback from our expanding secret wars as they wash over the world. But if history is any guide, they will be felt — from Southwest Asia to the Mahgreb, the Middle East to Central Africa, and, perhaps eventually, in the United States as well.<\/p>\n

In his blueprint for the future,\u00a0SOCOM 2020<\/em>, Admiral McRaven has touted the globalization of U.S. special ops as a means to \u201cproject power, promote stability, and prevent conflict.\u201d Last year, SOCOM may have done just the opposite in 134 places.<\/p>\n

Nick Turse is the associate editor ofTomDispatch.com<\/a>. His latest book is\u00a0Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0He is the author\/editor of several other books, including\u00a0The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyber Warfare<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(with Tom Engelhardt),\u00a0The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan<\/a><\/strong>. Turse is currently a fellow at Harvard University\u2019s Radcliffe Institute. His website is\u00a0Nick Turse.com<\/a>. You can follow him on Twitter\u00a0@NickTurse<\/a>, onTumblr<\/a>, or\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Turse\u00a0 RINF Alternative News They operate in the green glow of night vision in Southwest Asia and stalk through the jungles of South America. They\u00a0snatch\u00a0men from their homes in the\u00a0Maghreb\u00a0and\u00a0shoot it out\u00a0with heavily armed militants in the Horn of Africa. They feel the salty spray while skimming over the tops of waves from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}