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<blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>The Special Ops Surge </strong>
</span><br>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>America’s Secret War in 134
Countries</strong> </span><br>
By <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/nickturse">Nick Turse</a><br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175794/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_secret_wars_and_black_ops_blowback/#more">http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175794/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_secret_wars_and_black_ops_blowback/#more</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
</p>
<p>They operate in the green glow of night vision in Southwest Asia
and stalk through the jungles of South America. They <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/us-commando-raids-john-kerry-defends-capture-of-libyan-terror-suspect-abu-anas-alliby-in-tripoli-8863933.html">snatch</a>
men from their homes in the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/356614/Maghrib">Maghreb</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/Al-Qaeda-Suspect-Wanted-in-US-Said-to-Be-Taken-in-Libya.html">shoot
it out</a> with 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 <a
target="_blank"
href="http://yle.fi/uutiset/us_army_special_forces_in_finland_for_winter_war_games/6517027">deep
freeze</a> of Scandinavia. All over the planet, the Obama
administration is <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175790/">waging a secret war</a>
whose full extent has never been fully revealed -- until now.</p>
<p>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’s 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>
<p>In the waning days of the Bush presidency, Special Operations
forces were reportedly <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/socom/posture2008.pdf">deployed</a>
in about 60 countries around the world. By 2010, that number had
swelled to 75, <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html">according</a>
to Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the <em>Washington Post.</em> In
2011, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) spokesman Colonel Tim Nye <a
target="_blank" href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175426/">told</a>
TomDispatch that the total would reach 120. Today, that figure has
risen higher still.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>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 <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175551/engelhardt_assassin_in_chief">CIA
drone campaign</a>, public diplomacy and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175713/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_you_are_our_secret/">extensive
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’s 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. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Growth Industry</strong></p>
<p>Formally established in 1987, Special Operations Command has grown
steadily in the post-9/11 era. 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 “man-years” in 2001 to 11,500 in 2013.</p>
<p>A recent <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175790/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_special_ops_goes_global">investigation</a>
by TomDispatch, using open source government documents and news
releases as well as press reports, <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175790/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_special_ops_goes_global">found</a>
evidence 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 <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175790/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_special_ops_goes_global">article</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. “We
don’t just keep it on hand,” SOCOM’s Bockholt explained in a telephone
interview once the article had been filed. “We have to go searching
through stuff. It takes a long time to do that.” Hours later, just
prior to publication, he provided an answer to a question I first asked
in November of last year. “SOF [Special Operations forces] were
deployed to 134 countries” during fiscal year 2013, Bockholt explained
in an email.</p>
<p><strong>Globalized Special Ops</strong></p>
<p>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>
<p style="padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px;">“USSOCOM 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...”</p>
<p>While that “presence” 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’s tenure
reflects his desire to put boots on the ground just about everywhere on
Earth. SOCOM 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’s secret military.</p>
<p>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 Berets <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usasoc/9492888165/">conducted</a>
explosives training with Honduran sailors. In September, <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130930/DEFREG03/309300033">according
to</a> media 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
counterterrorism exercise held at a training center in Sentul, West
Java. </p>
<p>In October, elite U.S. troops <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/06/us-special-forces-libya-somalia">carried
out</a> commando raids in Libya and Somalia, <a target="_blank"
href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/us-forces-africa-terrorist-raids/">kidnapping</a>
a terror suspect in the former nation while SEALs killed at least one
militant in the latter before being <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-navy-seals-raid-al-shabab-leaders-somalia-home-in-response-to-nairobi-attack/2013/10/05/78f135dc-2e0c-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html">driven
off</a> under 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 <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.afsoc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123375269">conducted</a>
a training exercise involving approximately 130 airmen and six aircraft
at an airbase in England and Navy SEALs were wounded while <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/world/africa/us-mission-in-south-sudan-shows-limits-of-military.html">undertaking</a>
an 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>
<p>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’s Trans Regional Web Initiative, potentially “develop new
websites tailored to foreign audiences.” These would join an existing
global network of 10 propaganda websites, run by various combatant
commands and made to look like legitimate news outlets, including
CentralAsiaOnline.com, <a target="_blank"
href="http://sabahionline.com/">Sabahi</a> which targets the Horn of
Africa; an effort aimed at the Middle East known as Al-Shorfa.com; and
another targeting Latin America called <a target="_blank"
href="http://infosurhoy.com/">Infosurhoy.com</a>.</p>
<p>SOCOM’s push into cyberspace is mirrored by a concerted effort of
the command to embed itself ever more deeply inside the Beltway. “I
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,” SOCOM chief Admiral
McRaven said during a panel discussion at Washington’s Wilson Center
last year. Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Library in November, he put
the number of departments and agencies where SOCOM is now <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=121167">entrenched</a>
at 38.</p>
<p><strong>134 Chances for Blowback</strong></p>
<p>Although elected in 2008 by many who saw him as an <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/us/politics/26obama.html?pagewanted=all">antiwar
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 <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175578/best_of_tomdispatch%3A_chalmers_johnson,_the_cia_and_a_blowback_world/">blowback</a>.
While the Obama administration oversaw a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq (<a
target="_blank"
href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/24/news/la-pn-obama-bush-iraq-withdraw-20111024">negotiated</a>
by his predecessor), as well as a <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-afghanistan-drawdown-us-forced-to-take-costly-option-in-transporting-military-gear-out/2013/09/12/6a5e260a-1bde-11e3-b4fb-944b778463f5_story.htmlhttp:/www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/">drawdown</a>
of U.S. forces in Afghanistan (after a <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/world/asia/06reconstruct.html?pagewanted=all">major
military surge</a> in that country), the president has presided over a
ramping up of the U.S. military presence in <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175743">Africa</a>, a <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/world/americas/us-turns-its-focus-on-drug-smuggling-in-honduras.html?_r=0">reinvigoration</a>
of <a target="_blank"
href="http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2544:us-expands-its-presence-in-mexico-ramping-up-drug-war">efforts</a>
in <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/world/americas/us-turns-its-focus-on-drug-smuggling-in-honduras.html?_r=0">Latin
America</a>, and tough talk about a rebalancing or “<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/17/us-japan-asia-security-strategy/4049517/">pivot
to Asia</a>” (even if it has amounted to little as of yet). </p>
<p>The White House has also overseen an exponential expansion of
America’s drone war. While President Bush launched 51 such strikes,
President Obama has<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/01/06/a-changing-drone-campaign-us-covert-actions-in-2013/">
presided</a> over 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, <a target="_blank"
href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/us-forces-africa-terrorist-raids/">Libya</a>,
<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/01/06/a-changing-drone-campaign-us-covert-actions-in-2013/">Pakistan</a>,
<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/01/06/a-changing-drone-campaign-us-covert-actions-in-2013/">Somalia</a>,
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/01/06/a-changing-drone-campaign-us-covert-actions-in-2013/">Yemen</a>.
Recent revelations from National Security Agency whistleblower <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-profile">Edward
Snowden</a> have 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’s tenure.</p>
<p>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’s “<a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/174127/ten-years-ago-bush-declared-mission-accomplished-and-media-swooned">mission
accomplished</a>” moment, seven years after its much vaunted <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/thegamble/timeline/">surge</a>,
the Iraq that America helped make is <a target="_blank"
href="http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/06/osullivan/">in flames</a>.
A country with <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/15/bush-acknowledges-absence_n_151144.html">no
al-Qaeda presence</a> before the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/us/politics/19threat.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print">U.S.
invasion</a> and a government <a target="_blank"
href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2015277,00.html">opposed</a>
to America’s enemies in Tehran now has a central government <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/iraq-iran-ties_n_1664728.html">aligned</a>
with Iran and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june14/newswrap_01-07.html">two
cities</a> flying al-Qaeda flags.</p>
<p>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 <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/">terror diaspora</a> in
the region. </p>
<p>And today South Sudan -- a nation the U.S. shepherded into being,
has supported <a target="_blank"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-risk-civil-war-south-sudan-21474955">economically</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/13/141703/in-south-sudans-violence-us-backed.html">militarily</a>
(despite its reliance on <a target="_blank"
href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/10/01/2704611/child-soldier-waivers/">child
soldiers</a>), and has used as a <a target="_blank"
href="http://bangordailynews.com/2012/04/30/news/wheres-joseph-kony-us-troops-have-yet-to-find-him/">hush-hush
base</a> for Special Operations forces -- is being torn apart by
violence and sliding toward <a target="_blank"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-risk-civil-war-south-sudan-21474955">civil
war</a>.</p>
<p>The Obama presidency has seen the U.S. military’s 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 “imperial
presidency,” and set the stage for a war without end. “In short,” he <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175547/andrew_bacevich_golden_age">wrote</a>
at TomDispatch, “handing war to the special operators severs an already
too tenuous link between war and politics; it becomes war for its own
sake.”</p>
<p>Secret ops by secret forces have a nasty tendency to produce
unintended, unforeseen, and completely disastrous consequences. New
Yorkers will <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/9-11imagemap.html">remember</a>
well the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175578/best_of_tomdispatch%3A_chalmers_johnson,_the_cia_and_a_blowback_world/">end
result</a> of <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=574">clandestine
U.S. support</a> for <a target="_blank"
href="http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ejrcole/qaeda/fahdreagan.htm">Islamic
militants</a> against the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.juancole.com/2005/08/fisking-war-on-terror-once-upon-time.html">Soviet
Union</a> in Afghanistan during the 1980s: 9/11. Strangely enough,
those at the other primary attack site that day, <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/pentagon-attack_n_1873357.html">the
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 and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/world/asia/origins-of-cias-not-so-secret-drone-war-in-pakistan.html?pagewanted=all">almost
10 years</a> after it began conducting <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/07/01/six-month-update-us-covert-actions-in-pakistan-yemen-and-somalia/">covert
attacks</a> in the latter, the U.S. is still dealing with that Cold
War-era fallout: with, for instance, CIA drones conducting <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/world/asia/us-drone-strike-kills-6-in-pakistan-fueling-anger.html">missile
strikes</a> against an organization (the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/363">Haqqani
network</a>) that, in the 1980s, the Agency <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/world/asia/brutal-haqqani-clan-bedevils-united-states-in-afghanistan.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">supplied
with missiles</a>.</p>
<p>Without a clear picture of where the military’s 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>
<p>In his blueprint for the future, <em>SOCOM 2020</em>, Admiral
McRaven has touted the globalization of U.S. special ops as a means to
“project power, promote stability, and prevent conflict.” Last year,
SOCOM may have done just the opposite in 134 places. </p>
<p><em>Nick Turse is the managing editor of </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/"><em>TomDispatch.com</em></a><em>
and a fellow at the Nation Institute. An award-winning journalist, his
work has appeared in the </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/opinion/for-america-life-was-cheap-in-vietnam.html?_r=0">New
York Times</a><em>, the </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/24/opinion/la-oe-turse-afghanistan-and-vietnam-20120424">Los
Angeles Times</a>, <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thenation.com/article/pentagon-book-club"><em>the</em>
Nation</a>, <em>on the</em> <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23427726"><em>BBC</em></a> <em>and
</em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175635/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_a_war_victim%27s_question_only_you_can_answer/"><em>regularly</em></a><em>
at </em><em>TomDispatch.</em><em> He is the author most recently of
the </em>New York Times<em> bestseller </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045061/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20">Kill
Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam</a><em> </em><em>(just
out in paperback).</em><em> You can catch his conversation with Bill
Moyers about that book by </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://billmoyers.com/segment/nick-turse-describes-the-real-vietnam-war/"><em>clicking
here</em></a><em>. </em></p>
<p>Copyright 2014 Nick Turse</p>
</blockquote>
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