US special forces targeted al-Qaida in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - The U.S. helicopters, guns blazing, swooped over a convoy carrying a top al-Qaida fugitive in rural southern Somalia. Elite commandos rappelled to the ground, collected two bodies, and took off on a cloud of red dust.

The raid took just 15 minutes.

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, wanted for the 2002 car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and an attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner, was killed in Monday’s raid, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the operation and a Somali security official who cited intelligence reports.

The helicopter assault - rare in Somalia since the October 1993 battle of “Black Hawk Down” that was chronicled in a book and movie - underscored Washington’s concerns that lawless Somalia is fast becoming a haven for terrorists, including foreigners who want to plot attacks beyond the African country’s borders.

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US special forces targeted al-Qaida in Somalia

As most of my long time readers know, I am a staunch believer in covert type operations. I know that in places like Afghanistan there is a serious need for boots on the ground, but covert operations are still a valuable part of the equation, they have been since the Afghan campaign kicked off in October of 2001. Covert operators played a major roll in Afghan operations back in the 1980′s, when Charlie Wilson’s War was a lot more than a movie.

Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989. Operation Cyclone is one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken; funding began with $20-30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987. SOURCE

When we went to Afghanistan following the attacks of 9-11, we were facing an army of sorts, the Taliban, an evolved version of the Mujahideen, trained by us, armed by us and now fighting us. Our troops went in and pretty much took the Taliban apart, in fairly short order.

Then we took our eye off of the ball.

The covert type operation that was carried out in Somalia could have been all that was necessary to accomplish the REAL mission that was intended in Iraq. And Iraqi Freedom had nothing to do with it.

Back in 1991, Saddam had been chased out of Kuwait, his army was decimated and he himself had been embarrassed on the world stage. Saddam was an evil person, and I have NO problem with his demise, no matter how it came about. But there were rumors floated that as the world was crashing in on Saddam, there were 3 U.S. Special Operations teams in place, in Baghdad, and that at least one of these teams had eyes on Saddam, and that his demise was imminent. All the teams needed was a GO from Bush 41. Rumors also say that the teams were on the Satellite phones, in direct contact, BEGGING for those orders. Bush 41 did not give the order.

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Blackwater tapped foreigners on secret CIA program

WASHINGTON (AP) - When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.

With Blackwater’s lucrative government security work and contacts arrayed in hot spots around the world, company officials offered the services of foreigners supposedly skilled at tracking terrorists in lawless regions and countries where the CIA had no working relationships with the government.

Blackwater told the CIA that it “could put people on the ground to provide the surveillance and support - all of the things you need to conduct an operation,” a former senior CIA official familiar with the secret program told The Associated Press.

But the CIA’s use of the private contractor as part of its now-abandoned plan to dispatch death squads skirted concerns now re-emerging with recent disclosures about Blackwater’s role.

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Blackwater tapped foreigners on secret CIA program

Do any of you remember the old Mission Impossible television series staring Peter Graves? How about the Mission Impossible movies with Tom Cruise? Surely some of you remember that!

Do you remember what a well trained team of specialists they were? They could speak any language, had intimate knowledge of all the intricacies of ANY area, the clothing, the language, the habits, the culture and every little detailed nuance required to infiltrate enemy territory, up to, and including, masquerading as an official of that enemy, rubber masks and voice patterns done to the point that the guys own family couldn’t even recognize him as being an impostor. You DO remember all that from TV and Hollywood, right?

Well, guess what? Very little, if ANY of that stuff is real. It only exists in the movies. The CIA uses any and every resource at hand in an effort to protect this nation, and Blackwater was one of those valuable resources.

These Super Spies, or, Spooks, just aren’t real. James Bond is a character. ALL Intel agencies use as many local assets as possible. Why? Because local asset blend in to the local terrain. They speak the language. They know the customs. They know who’s who and where it’s all taking place, and if they play their cards right, they can infiltrate the area that OUR Intel guys are needing to take a look at. Then the electronic surveillance takes over.

The former senior CIA official who had knowledge of the program explained that “you wouldn’t want to have American fingerprints on it.”

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