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SAD/SOG has been very active "on the ground" inside Pakistan targeting al-Qaeda operatives for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Predator strikes and along with USSOCOM elements they have been training Pakistani Special Service Group Commandos.[144] Before leaving office, President George W. Bush authorized SAD's successful killing of eight senior al-Qaeda operatives via targeted air strikes.[145] Among those killed were the mastermind of a 2006 plot to detonate explosives aboard planes flying across the Atlantic Rashid Rauf and the man thought to have planned the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing on September 20, 2008 that killed 53 people.[146][147] The CIA Director authorized the continuation of these operations and on January 23, SAD/SOG successfully killed 20 terrorists in a hideout in northwestern Pakistan. Some experts assess that the CIA Director Leon Panetta has been more aggressive in conducting paramilitary operations in Pakistan than his predecessor.[148] A Pakistani security official stated that other strikes killed at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly “a high-value target” such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official.[149] On February 14, the CIA drone killed 27 taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in a missile strike in south Waziristan, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border where al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri were believed to be hiding.[150]
MQ-9 Reaper
In a National Public Radio (NPR) report dated February 3, 2008, a senior official stated that al-Qaeda has been "decimated" by SAD/SOG's air and ground operations. This senior U.S. counter-terrorism official goes on to say, "The enemy is really, really struggling. These attacks have produced the broadest, deepest and most rapid reduction in al-Qaida senior leadership that we've seen in several years."[151] President Obama's CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that SAD/SOG's efforts in Pakistan have been "the most effective weapon" against senior al-Qaeda leadership.[152][153]
These covert attacks have increased significantly under President Obama, with as many at 50 al-Qaeda militants being killed in the month of May 2009 alone.[154][155][156] In June 2009, sixty Taliban fighters were killed while at a funeral to bury fighters that had been killed in previous CIA attacks.[157] On July 22, 2009, National Public Radio reported that U.S. officials believe Saad bin Laden, a son of Osama bin Laden, was killed by a CIA strike in Pakistan. Saad bin Laden spent years under house arrest in Iran before traveling last year to Pakistan, according to former National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell. It's believed he was killed sometime this year. A senior U.S. counter-terrorism said U.S. intelligence agencies are "80 to 85 percent" certain that Saad bin Laden is dead.[158]
Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials.
Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.
Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa. Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group.
The surge in Special Operations deployments, along with intensified CIA drone attacks in western Pakistan, is the other side of the national security doctrine of global engagement and domestic values President Obama released last week.
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Special Operations commanders have also become a far more regular presence at the White House than they were under George W. Bush's administration, when most briefings on potential future operations were run through the Pentagon chain of command and were conducted by the defense secretary or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We have a lot more access," a second military official said. "They are talking publicly much less but they are acting more. They are willing to get aggressive much more quickly."
The White House, he said, is "asking for ideas and plans . . . calling us in and saying, 'Tell me what you can do. Tell me how you do these things.' "
The Special Operations capabilities requested by the White House go beyond unilateral strikes and include the training of local counterterrorism forces and joint operations with them. In Yemen, for example, "we are doing all three," the official said. Officials who spoke about the increased operations were not authorized to discuss them on the record.
Overall President Obama has been much more aggressive in taking the fight to terrorist in Pakistan than George W. Bush ever was. Even to the point of pissing off the Pakistani government.
The funny thing is, Obama has been pretty good on some stuff like bombing the you know what out of terrorists in Pakistan regardless of Pakistan’s view of his efforts.
He has also been good about keeping GITMO open and keeping people like Petreaus in place.
The reason conservatives like me have said he was weak on terror and wrong on the wars was his rhetoric was to get out and to bow to foreign leaders and to apologize of all the wrongs we have done (like bombing the you know what out of people in countries we weren’t supposed to be bombing in...see what he is doing in Pakistan).
Now I am coming to a different view. Dude is as much a hawk as GWB ever was, he just wraps his hawkishness in a cloak of "we shouldn’t be doing this" and "I am sorry for all of Americas past wrongs"
all the while doing exactly what he has apologized for.
and the liberals lap it up like a dog laps antifreeze.
As long as we keeping sending Pakistan billions of dollars in cash, it doesn't matter what the leader of Pakistan says cause he is just "appearing" to be angry when he is laughing all the way to the bank...
A senior U.S. military official Monday credited President Obama for having a prominent role in pushing and shaping the plan to get Osama bin Laden. “In the final weeks and really months of this, his personal interest and direction and attention pushed the case to a new level that enabled real action,” the official told reporters. “And I think that role is quite important.”
On Tuesday, White House officials began to offer more details on exactly how Obama had shaped the final assault plan. In particular, the President, they said, urged the Pentagon to revisit the number of helicopters it planned to bring into Pakistani airspace on the mission. One of those extra helicopters later played a role in the mission.
The president made his concerns known in a briefing about 10 days before the assault on the bin Laden compound. According to senior aides, Obama felt that the special operations COA, or course of action, was too risky. Under the COA at that time, only two helicopters would enter Pakistani airspace, leaving little backup if something went wrong. “I don’t want you to plan for an option that doesn’t allow you to fight your way out,” the President told operational planners at the meeting, according to the notes of one participant.
So the plan was revised. Ultimately, four helicopters flew into Pakistani airspace, including two refueling helicopters that carried additional personnel. In the end, the extra forces didn’t need to fight their way out of the compound, but a backup helicopter did play a key role in the operation. One of the two primary assault helicopters, an HH-60 Pave Hawk lost its lift, landed hard and had to be destroyed. The backup landed to lift its passengers to safety. “The President created the ‘fight your way out’ option,” explained an administration official.
President Obama has not only proved he's got the backbone to be Commander in Chief. He's go the BRAINS as well.
Obama is also using drones in Yemen and Libya. He is kind of a bright President that some people are still not used to.
They will get used to is. This kind of warfare will continue be there "R" or "D" in the office in the future. Drones, CIA and special forces is the cure for terrorism. Obama has hit Pakistan five times more often in two years than Bush did in seven years.
They will get used to is. This kind of warfare will continue be there "R" or "D" in the office in the future. Drones, CIA and special forces is the cure for terrorism.
as a conservative, I support this action. I just am a bit put off by the fact that had this been a repbublican doing it, liberals would be calling for trials and screaming warcrimes and all kind of nonsense.
and as soon as a republican is in office they will commense with the craziness
as a conservative, I support this action. I just am a bit put off by the fact that had this been a repbublican doing it, liberals would be calling for trials and screaming warcrimes and all kind of nonsense. and as soon as a republican is in office they will commense with the craziness
I don't think so, since Obama said he would do this on the campaign trail, and they still voted for him. What liberals disagreed with was the Iraq war, and and the abandonment of Afghanistan. I do not recall anyone ripping on Bush for going into Afghanistan.
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