dChan
Anonymous ID: 27a72d Jan. 2, 2025, 6:19 p.m. No.22282026   🗄️.is 🔗kun

https://time.com/archive/6668113/the-cias-secret-army-the-cias-secret-army/

 

DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON

FEBRUARY 3, 2003 12:00 AM EST

 

he U.S. is not yet at war with Saddam Hussein. Not officially. But quietly, over the past few months, some of its savviest warriors have sneaked into his country. They have been secretly prowling the Kurdish-controlled enclave in northern Iraq, trying to organize a guerrilla force that could guide American soldiers invading from the north, hunting for targets that U.S. warplanes might bomb, setting up networks to hide U.S. pilots who might be shot down and mapping out escape routes to get them out. And they are doing the same in southern Iraq with dissident Shi’ites.

 

But the biggest surprise of all is that they are not even soldiers; they are spies, part of the CIA’s rough and ready, supersecret Special Operations Group (SOG). Until fairly recently, the CIA, in an effort to clean up a reputation sullied by botched overseas coups and imperial assassination attempts, had shied away from getting its hands dirty. Until about five years ago, it focused instead on gathering intelligence that could be used by other parts of the government. Before that, traditional CIA officers, often working under cover as U.S. diplomats, got most of their secrets from the embassy cocktail circuit or by bribing foreign officials. Most did not even have weapons training, and they looked down on the few SOG commandos who remained out in the field as knuckle draggers, relics of a bygone era. Now the knuckle draggers are not just back; they are the new hard edge of the CIA, at the forefront of the war on terrorism. And, says a U.S. intelligence official, “they know which end the bullet comes out of.”

 

It was George Tenet who began rebuilding the SOG five years ago when he took charge of the CIA, but the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, accelerated his efforts.

 

Confronted with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, an enemy that has no army, no fixed assets and no clearly defined territory, the Bush Administration needed an unconventional military force. It wanted combatants who could match al-Qaeda for wiliness, adaptability and, up to a point, ruthlessness. It wanted its own army of James Bonds. So in the past year, hundreds of millions of additional dollars have been pumped into the CIA budget by President George W. Bush, a man who may be predisposed to believe strongly in an agency his father once headed. He has ordered SOG operatives to join forces with foreign intelligence services. He has even authorized the CIA to kidnap terrorists in order to break their cells or kill them.

 

All of which could make for a more agile, effective intelligence agency. Or it could also mean a CIA that once again steps beyond the realm of collecting secrets to intervening forcibly in the affairs of foreign states. In that area, the agency’s history has often been one of blunders and worse, from Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s through the Bay of Pigs fiasco under John F. Kennedy to the Nicaraguan war that led to the Iran-contra debacle in the ’80s. Some longtime intelligence watchers are wondering whether a reinvigorated paramilitary wing of the CIA could be a mixed blessing for America once again. And the military itself is not too pleased. It believes its special-ops forces are perfectly equipped to handle these jobs. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has reacted in part by planning his own secret unit, which would function much like the SOG but would answer to him rather than Tenet.

Anonymous ID: 27a72d Jan. 2, 2025, 6:30 p.m. No.22282087   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Considering they are one of the most secretive units in the U.S. military, it shouldn't come as a big surprise if you have never heard of Delta Force. Looking back, Delta Force first came to the public's attention back in 1983, when its creator, Col. Charles Beckwith, acknowledged their existence in a book. In their time, they have been involved in countless missions, though most of them are highly classified. Delta Force officially dates to 1977, making them relatively young by U.S. military standards, but along with SEAL Team Six, they are one of the most important counter-terrorist groups in the entire U.S. armed forces.

 

Delta Force is stationed at Fort Liberty in North Carolina along with the rest of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), though the government doesn't actually officially acknowledge Delta's existence. Previously, they were internally codenamed as the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D) and then the Combat Applications Group (CAG). Now, they are officially called the Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), though they largely retain the informal Delta Force moniker among civilians. Delta combat personnel are known as "operators" rather than soldiers. 

 

The training is rigorous and most of those who apply do not make the cut. Though they have largely stayed out of the limelight to preserve their secrecy, a little bit of information has trickled out over the years about them. This is the untold truth of Delta Force, one of the most mysterious units in military history.

 

https://www.grunge.com/1456187/untold-truth-delta-force-army/