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Author: Special operations units should strategically adapt
Future of unconventional warfare discussed at Fort Bragg
Special operations units should go back to their roots to learn lessons for today’s unconventional warfare, an author said.
David J. Kilcullen, who served as chief strategist in the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau and wrote the federal government’s “Counterinsurgency Handbook,” spoke at Fort Bragg’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School on Wednesday. His speech, which lasted about an hour, was called, “The Future of Unconventional and Resistance Warfare.”
The presentation was part of the school’s Maj. Gen. Michael Healy Distinguished Lecture Series. Kilcullen noted that special operations units and the CIA trace their lineage to the Office of Strategic Services in World War II. The adjective for the unit was “strategic,” not “special,” he said.
“That’s a subtle but significant difference,” he said. A strategic force has an external frame of reference that considers whether its actions are strategically relevant now and are relevant in the same way they were a year ago, Kilcullen said. Such a unit stays ready to adapt and acquires capabilities to stay relevant, he said.
“If you look at the organizational history of the OSS that’s exactly how they were,” he said. “They only existed for four years, but they reinvented themselves continually because they were trying to remain strategically relevant.”
Kilcullen said a special force has an internal frame of reference and considers whether it’s doing better than traditional units. “I’m not knocking it, but the problem is because it’s an internal frame of reference, you can achieve the goal of being special but still not be strategically relevant,” he said. Special operations units should ask if they’re ready for an adversary that may be using unexpected sets of techniques and technologies, Kilcullen said.
“That’s a question that’s worth thinking about,” he said.
Kilcullen suggested a model based on the OSS Jedburgh teams in World War II. The teams, which had two to four soldiers, included American, British, French Belgian and Dutch troops, according to the Army Special Operations website.
In addition to being multinational, the teams would have local partnerships, strategic mobility and a light footprint, Kilcullen said. They would include a communicator, a trainer and an adviser or commander, he said.
Kilcullen said the teams would focus on strategic impact rather than special operations, he said. They would be closer to the traditional understanding of unconventional warfare, he said.
“The good news is we already have the doctrine for this,” he said. “The bad news is for whatever reason over the last 20 years we have gotten into a defensive crouch where we think the bad guys are out there and we have to counter what they’re doing.”
Kilcullen mentioned a quote from CIA Director James Woolsey in 1993, when the Cold War was ending. “We have slain a large dragon, but we live now in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes,” Woolsey said. “And in many ways, the dragon was easier to keep track of.”
Kilcullen said today’s world includes both dragons and snakes.
ISIS, al-Qaida and the Taliban use conventional maneuvers for conventional means, while Russia and China use conventional means for unconventional objectives, Kilcullen said. Iran and North Korea use a mix of conventional and nonconventional means and objectives, he said.
Smartphones and computer tablets are being used on the battlefield with drones, Kilcullen said. Remote sniper rifles can be operated by someone in a cafe hundreds of miles away from the weapons, he said. Kilcullen said national military units are borrowing techniques that non-state groups are using, while those groups are gaining military power that previously was only seen in national units.
Kilcullen also talked about how groups using unconventional warfare evolve and adapt and the key features of that type of conflict. Maj. Gen. Patrick Roberson, the commander of the center and school, said Kilcullen provided a lot of insights into what special operations units do and the “current operating environment.” The presentation reinforced how the center and school are training special operations troops.
“We’ve optimized some of our training based on the last 20 years,” he said. “We’re always interested … in how should we evolve, how should we change, what’s the new environment look like, what should we teach and train our folks to do.”
https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20200222/author-special-operations-units-should-strategically-adapt
Richard Grenell seeks intelligence from briefing on Russia election interference
Richard Grenell moved quickly to review intelligence after President Trump appointed him as acting spy chief last week.
Grenell, a Trump loyalist who may only be acting director of national intelligence for a short time, requested the intelligence that went into a classified briefing to the House Intelligence Committee earlier this month, in which lawmakers were told the Kremlin was interfering in the 2020 election and that Russian President Vladimir Putin favors Trump's reelection, according to the New York Times.
The briefing, conducted by a top aide to former acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, reportedly upset Trump, who complained Democrats could use this information against him. Trump announced on Wednesday that Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, would replace Maguire. Some reports have said Trump was angry with Maguire, but his allies deny the removal had anything to do with the briefing.
Maguire resigned on Friday along with his deputy, Andrew Hallman.
In a couple of days' time, Grenell has requested access to information from intelligence agencies, such as the CIA. An official familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner the request is completely straightforward and typical of a new director of national intelligence.
Democrats raised concerns about Grenell being a political appointee without sufficient background in intelligence, but Grenell said he won't be nominated to take on the spy chief role permanently. Trump must announce a nominee for Grenell to keep the role in an acting capacity past March 11, after which he would get at least six more months. Trump tweeted on Friday that four people are under consideration and would be making a decision in the coming weeks.
Grenell appointed Kash Patel, a National Security Council staffer who previously worked for the House Intelligence Committee's Devin Nunes, to be his senior adviser. According to a source who spoke with CBS News, Patel has a mandate to "clean house."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/richard-grenell-seeks-intelligence-from-briefing-on-russia-election-interference
UK minister who approved Trump's request to extradite Assange spoke @ secretive conferences with people calling for him to be "neutralized"
The British minister who approved the controversial US request for the UK to extradite publisher Julian Assange attended six secretive meetings organised by a US institute which has published calls for Assange to be assassinated or taken down, it can be revealed.
Sajid Javid, who was Britain’s Home Secretary from April 2018 to July 2019, attended “starlight chats” and “after-dinner cocktails” in a series of off-the-record conferences involving high-level US military and intelligence figures at a 5-star island resort off the coast of Georgia, USA. Many of those attending have been exposed in WikiLeaks publications and have demanded the organisation be shut down.
Javid signed the Trump administration’s extradition request for Assange in June 2019. He was Britain’s Chancellor until his resignation 9 days ago. One of the criteria under which a British Home Secretary can block extradition to the US is if “the person could face the death penalty”.
The month before being appointed Home Secretary in April 2018, Javid visited Georgia for the “world forum” of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)—an influential neoconservative US organisation with close ties to the US intelligence community. The AEI has run a campaign against WikiLeaks and Assangesince 2010.
It can now be revealed that Javid spoke at the 2018 meeting, as did Jonah Goldberg, a fellow at the AEI who has called for Assange to be “garroted”. In a column published on the AEI website, Goldberg wrote: “WikiLeaks is easily among the most significant and well-publicised breaches of American national security since the Rosenbergs gave the Soviets the bomb. So again, I ask: Why wasn’t Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago? It’s a serious question.”
Bill Kristol, a close associate of the AEI who also spoke in Georgia with Javid, has written a column titled “Whack WikiLeaks” in which he asked: “Why can’t we use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are? Why can’t we disrupt and destroy WikiLeaks in both cyberspace and physical space, to the extent possible?” Kristol’s article was promotedon social media by another AEI fellow who spoke in Georgia with Javid.
Both Goldberg and Kristol spoke at all four of the AEI’s world fora that Javid attended from 2014 to 2018.
On the panel with Javid in 2018 was Elliott Abrams, a key neo-conservative architect of the Iraq war of 2003 best-known for his conviction during the Iran-Contra scandal in the Reagan administration. Abrams has lamented WikiLeaks’ document releases. Also on Javid’s panel was Fred Kagan, a senior AEI staffer who served as an advisor to the US military in Afghanistan.
Javid’s signing of the US extradition request was a controversial decision opposed at the time by the Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott. “Julian Assange is not being pursued to protect US national security, he is being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing by US administrations and their military forces,” Abbott told the British parliament in April 2019 after Assange had been grabbed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The Trump administration’s extradition request is unprecedented in that the UK has never extradited a journalist and publisher to a third country for prosecution.
The deliberations within the UK Home Office about Assange’s extradition and incarceration in Belmarsh maximum-security prison, where he is currently held, are opaque. Declassified sent a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office asking for any telephone call or email mentioning Assange sent to or from Sajid Javid while he was running the department. The Home Office replied: “We have carried out a thorough search and we have established that the Home Office does not hold the information that you have requested.”
It is unclear if Javid only discussed the Assange extradition request in person while Home Secretary or if he used a private email or phone to do so.
(cont.)
https://www.newcoldwar.org/uk-minister-who-approved-trumps-request-to-extradite-assange-spoke-at-secretive-us-conferences-with-people-calling-for-him-to-be-neutralized/
https://twitter.com/helloitsthao/status/1231342123900907522
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