U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role

U.S. "Secret War" Expands

Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials.

Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.

Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa. Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group.

The surge in Special Operations deployments, along with intensified CIA drone attacks in western Pakistan, is the other side of the national security doctrine of global engagement and domestic values President Obama released last week.

It appears now that Obama is expanding these under-the-radar, out-of-public-view secret counter-terrorism operation. A good friend has this to say about this article:

"This is deplorable and lacks disclosure to the American people and the unseen element in this article is the massive military mercenary contractors (aka Blackwater, do your research on them and you will be shocked) that are out there doing this in the American People's name without proper & constituional oversight..."

I'd have to agree with him on this.

I posted a thread about the specifics of this last week, and have been researching it for a series of stories, but the information is incredibly scarce on exactly what is being done in these "Secret War" operations. Of particular interest to us here in London has been the United States secret bases around the world and their operations inside of the Russian Federation.

After a weekend in Moscow however, neither myself nor the Moscow office have much more than what we started with, the only things we've been able to glean have been that A: The Russian Federation is fully aware of American operations within their country and is working with the United States, B: There have been Americans training Russian troops in counter-terrorism operations and C: The United States does not have a permanent military base inside of Russia.

Anything else anyone has on this, with sources if you please, would be of incredible help.

Originally from Source

It appears now that Obama is expanding these under-the-radar, out-of-public-view secret counter-terrorism operation. A good friend has this to say about this article

Good is what I say!!! It's far more cost effective to spend money, fighting terrorism, on Special Forces than e.g. fuel for tanks, placed in some Iraqi desert. These guys can employ locals to infiltrate these groups, as well as set of, different groups fighting with each other (rather than us).

My only fear would be if they were going to be used for a False Flag operation. However if 9/11 was such a operation (bet it was) then remember US defence spending was like 200 billion, a year less. Therefore it would just go to show that Evil already has enough money being on these abilities-foreign allies. So given that no extra money is really necessary, I'd deduce, the increase in special forces, funding, is actually to safe guard Americans -the nations, strategic interests.

reply to post by Liberal1984


That's a bit of a jump wouldn't you say? From special forces operations overseas that even us journalist-types don't really have much information on yet to a false-flag attack on the United States takes a long stretch of reasoning.

I am reserving all of my judgments on this one until I know a lot more about it, and I would urge everyone else to as well.