The Command: Deep Inside the President's Secret Army by Ambinder Marc;Grady D. B

Author:Ambinder, Marc;Grady, D. B. [Ambinder, Marc;Grady, D. B.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
Published: 2012-02-07T06:00:00+00:00

The Bush administration showered attention and resources on JSOC, and as the mission in Iraq wound down and the United States elected a new president who, it seemed, would take counterterrorism in a different direction, the Command prepared itself for an uncertain future. There were whispers of a Justice Department investigation into JSOC’s financial and operational practices. This appears untrue, although the Senate Armed Services Committee did conduct some type of JSOC investigation beginning in 2008—with results no one will discuss.

Barack Obama was a complete unknown—a Democrat with no military experience and little understanding of its dynamics. A wave of JSOC operators quietly retired as President George Bush’s second term drew to a close. Some migrated to become contractors or to the CIA or lower-profile military units.

Admiral William McRaven assumed command of JSOC on June 13, 2008. The problem with being a secret organization is that when a harsh light is cast on questionable activities—even activities performed with patriotic intent or, at least, performed when no better options seemed available at the time—there’s no opportunity for a rebuttal. “We are in a difficult position, in that there’s not much we can do to make the case for ourselves,” McRaven said in 2010. “There are some things we can try and do to respond to things like Seymour Hersh articles,” referring to the journalist’s allegations that JSOC fostered a culture that resulted in torture and later served as Dick Cheney’s personal assassination force, “but we are constrained.”

For all of McChrystal’s advances and achievements, McRaven still inherited a work in progress. Even with all of the attention paid to ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) assets, JSOC had only thirty-three planes to its name, and its drones were making only five orbits per day over Iraq. Fusion cells that worked well in some areas didn’t necessarily work in others. With a new U.S. president, the rules of engagement in Iraq were about to change, and attention would soon shift back to Afghanistan and more decisively toward Africa. The spigots were still open, but JSOC’s bureaucracy was growing overburdened.

One of the earliest problems McRaven had to deal with was the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed with Iraq and which forbade the United States from conducting most counterterrorism raids without warrants. Warrants? JSOC doesn’t do warrants—that’s a law enforcement thing. Many in the Command wanted to ignore the SOFA entirely. McRaven, however, insisted that his team figure out a way to fulfill the agreement. To do this, he directed JSOC funds to build mini-courthouses, first in Baghdad and then elsewhere in the country. JSOC flew in JAG (Judge Advocate General) officers from the United States, and McRaven personally briefed the Iraqi leadership, describing the constraints under which JSOC often operated. He asked for their help.

As a result, Iraqi judges were empowered by the U.S. military and began issuing warrants based on the testimony of JSOC intelligence analysts, SEALs, or Delta guys themselves. McRaven at first faced internal resistance for bringing in the Iraqis—JSOC was supposed to be a secret organization.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.