Obama Administration Expands Elite Military Unit’s Powers To Hunt Foreign Fighters Globally

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is expanding the JSOC's role in hunting foreign fighters.

The Obama administration is giving the elite Joint Special Operations Command— the same organization that helped kill Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid by Navy SEALs — expanded power to track, plan and potentially launch attacks on terrorist cells around the globe, a move driven by concerns of a dispersed terrorist threat as Islamic State militants are driven from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials said.

The missions could occur well beyond the battlefields of places like Iraq, Syria and Libya where Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has carried out clandestine operations in the past. When finalized, it will elevate JSOC from being a highly-valued strike tool used by regional military commands to leading a new multiagency intelligence and action force. Known as the “Counter-External Operations Task Force,” the group will be designed to take JSOC’s targeting model — honed over the last 15 years of conflict — and export it globally to go after terrorist networks plotting attacks against the West.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/11/25/obama-administration-expands-elite-military-units-powers-to-hunt-foreign-fighters-globally/?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-world%252Bnation

Special Ops Commander Says Book On SEAL Raid That Killed Bin laden Is 'A Lie"

An Associated Press report on FoxNews.com quotes a Special Operations Command spokesman who claims that Chuck Pfarrer's book about the Navy SEALs' raid that killed Osama bin Laden's is not true.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is denouncing a former Navy SEAL's book that claims to describe the "real" version of the raid that killed Usama bin laden.

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"It's just not true," U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Col. Tim Nye said. "It's not how it happened."

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Laden with conspiracy theories and attacks on the Obama White House, Chuck Pfarrer's "SEAL Target Geronimo" claims an alternative version of the raid in which the SEAL team shot bin Laden within 90 seconds of arriving at the Pakistan compound where the Al Qaeda mastermind was holed up.

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You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/15/special-ops-commander-says-book-on-seal-raid-that-killed-usama-is-lie/

You can also read an earlier post on Chuck Pfarrer's SEAL book via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2011/11/correcting-fairy-tale-navy-seals.html

U.S. Special Ops Forces Unmatched In World, Admiral William H. McRaven Says

By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2011 - U.S. special operations forces are unmatched by any country in the world, said Navy Adm. William H. McRaven, who assumed command of the Tampa, Fla.,-based U.S. Special Operations Command today.

McRaven took the reins from Navy Adm. Eric T. Olson during a ceremony presided over by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. The video of the ceremony streamed to special operations teams around the world.

McRaven had been the commander of Joint Special Operations Command and worked with then-CIA Director Panetta to find and kill Osama bin Laden. The admiral told Panetta he looks forward to working with him in his new position.

"Today's [U.S.] special operations forces are the finest the world has ever seen," McRaven said. "As demonstrated time and again, their courage, their experience, their dedication to the mission and their sense of patriotism is unparalleled in the annals of history."

McRaven, who was promoted to four-star rank earlier, also praised families of special operations personnel. "Behind every SOF warrior stands a family of equal strength and commitment," he said. "As a nation, we are blessed to have such magnificent patriots."

McRaven spoke directly to special operations personnel during his short statement upon taking command. "I look forward to serving with you," he said. "The world today is as unpredictable as ever. As such, the American people will expect us to ... answer every call to arms, to venture where other forces cannot and to win every fight no matter how tough or how long. They will expect it because we are the nation's special operations force, and I guarantee you we will not let them down."

McRaven, a Navy SEAL, has commanded at every level from SEAL platoon leader to his current position. He served during Desert Storm and was commander of Special Operations Command Europe where he also served as the first director of the NATO Special Operations Coordination Center.

Ranger General Replaces SEAL Admiral As Commander Of The Joint Special Operations Command

Henry Cuningham at the Fayetteville Observer reported on the change of command at the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, with Army Ranger Lt General Joseph L. Votel replacing Navy SEAL Vice Admiral William H. McRaven as commander.

President Obama nominated Admiral McRaven for a fourth star and command of the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base.

Alongside CIA Director Leon Panetta at CIA headquarters, Admiral McRaven oversaw the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden in Pakastan.

You can read the Observer piece via the below link:

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/06/10/1100882?sac=Home      

Bin Laden Raid: SEAL Admiral Wrote The Book In 1995

Spencer Ackerman at Wired.com wrote an interesting piece about Admiral William H. McRaven, noting that the high-ranking SEAL officer offered a plan like the one the Navy SEALs used to kill bin Laden in his book Spec Ops back in 1995.

Admiral McRaven (seen in the above U.S. Navy photo) is currently the commanding officer of the Joint Special Operations Command. His book Spec Ops also offers case studies of previous raids in military history.

You can read the Wired.com piece via the below link:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/risky-bin-laden-raid-came-from-commanders-book/

You can also read Ackerman's earlier piece, cleverly titled It's His Special Operations World. You Just Get Hunted In It, on Admiral McRaven via the below link:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/its-his-special-operations-world-you-just-get-hunted-in-it/