Coming Soon to Your Country: US Government "Hit Squads"?
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On the surface this story from Danger Room seems overblown --- the US military has long had "snatch squads" to capture or kill bad guys, and they have been used extensively in Iraq in recent years. However, once the story develops, two important aspects emerge: 1) this proposal for an organised effort between US agencies has an utter disregard for the sovereignty of other countries, be they friend or foe; 2) this is no longer the snaring and/or assassination of wartime opponents but the disruption of any hostile "human network":CIA director Leon Panetta got into hot water with Congress, after he revealed an agency program to hunt down and kill terrorists. A recent report from the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations University argues that the CIA didn’t go far enough (.pdf). Instead, it suggests the American government should set up something like a “National Manhunting Agency” to go after jihadists, drug dealers, pirates and other enemies of the state.
America’s military, intelligence and law-enforcement agencies already devote thousands of people and billions of dollars to tracking down top terrorists and insurgents. But even the most successful of these efforts — like going after Iraqi militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — have been “ad hoc” efforts, with units cobbled together from different corners of the government. Report author and retired Lt. Col. George Crawford instead would like to see a permanent group with clear authority, training, doctrine and technology to go after these dangerous individuals. These “manhunting teams would be standing formations, trained to pursue their designated quarry relentlessly for as long as required to accomplish the mission,” he writes.
Sometimes, that will mean operating “in uncooperative countries.” In those cases, the teams must be prepared “to act unilaterally, with no support or coordination with local authorities, in a manner similar to that employed by Israel’s Avner team in response to the Munich Olympics massacre.” (That was the controversial unit, fictionalized in Steven Spielberg’s movie, that allegedly roamed the world, assassinating Palestinian militants in response to the 1972 Olympic attack.)
The hit squads would only be one part of the manhunting agency, according to the Joint Special Operations University monograph, uncovered by Inside Defense. “Dedicated teams must be assembled, able to respond ‘on-call’ in the event of a raid on a suspect site or to conduct independent ‘break-in and search’ operations without leaving evidence of their intrusion,” Crawford notes.
Reader Comments (5)
Don't you just love Democracies - and their free Press?
Here we have a case of an organisation (called the Joint Special Operations University) which puts out an idea - for EVERYBODY to kick around. Of course, this outfit has a certain interest in the subject of discussion - and this idea perhaps suffers from their over-enthusiasm. But you have to give some credit too them - they haven't kept it too themselves, like may happen elsewhere.
I think that a quick check around with a lot of people would show that they don't like the idea. In fact, many would have a real aversion to it. But, you know - I can't just get out of my head, the thought of how the world would have been if old Adolph and Joseph (to name just two) had been quietly disposed of early in the piece. It really is the case that a lot of "our" (us - we - the ordinary peoples of the world) problems are caused by a very small number of certain individuals. I can think of a small number of individuals right now - whose departure from our Planet would benefit everybody
But I am not God - and don't really want to pretend that I am. I just wish that He/She (if He/She even exists) would hurry up and fix these problems for us.
Barry
A few bad guys get eliminated and thousands of innocent lives are saved. Nothing wrong with this picture.
Imagine how many Iraqis and how many American soldiers were living today to tell the story if Saddam Hussein was snatched and sent to hell 10 years ago. And now imagine how many more Iraqis and how many Iranians would have lived if Saddam life had been cut short 30 years ago.
We would not have ever endured the pain of Bin Laden venom if he was quietly buried in his cave on September 11, 2000 or even a few years earlier. Iran would not have been strangled by theocrats if Khomeini had poison in his yogurt in 1977.
I sleep comfortably if my tax dollars are spent saving lives even if it is at the expense of cutting short lives of those who have utter disregard for their fellow man.
In theory this is a great idea for most Americans (although questionable morally and legally) but for the sake of the argument as Megan stated, looking back in history the world would have been much better place if only a select Evil few would have been quietly eliminated. But the danger is when this hit squad won't have the hind sight and will start eliminating people for various other reasons.
Perhaps the a fair and popular candidate in a developing country who has had harsh words for US foreign policy? A General in a friendly country who disagreed with the higher command? A business man across the world who didn't take the deal with a US Conglomerate?
How do you draw the line?
I did some further research on this concept. The original report is at http://www.jsoupublic.socom.mil , under their 2009 reports. I read through it. Pretty interesting piece. I had no idea how many times in history governments have pursued individuals or small groups. The paper highlights many of the cases, and draws "lessons learned" from them. It's fascinating -- and the author envisions that "killing" bad guys would be the exception rather than the rule. The guy wrote a book in 2008, http://www.amazon.com/Manhunting-Reversing-Polarity-George-Crawford/dp/1604413328 I'm going to order a copy. It has great reviews, and really sounds interesting.
Hi Zack,
The link to the original report give a server not found error. Could you check if you posted the link correctly? It sounds interesting and I'd like to read it.