Inside FBI’s Secret Relationship with the Military’s Special Operations
Inside FBI’s Secret Relationship with the Military’s Special Operations by Adam Goldman and Julie Tate, Washington Post
… The FBI’s transformation from a crime-fighting agency to a counterterrorism organization in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been well documented. Less widely known has been the bureau’s role in secret operations against al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other locations around the world.
With the war in Afghanistan ending, FBI officials have become more willing to discuss a little-known alliance between the bureau and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that allowed agents to participate in hundreds of raids in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The relationship benefited both sides. JSOC used the FBI’s expertise in exploiting digital media and other materials to locate insurgents and detect plots, including any against the United States. The bureau’s agents, in turn, could preserve evidence and maintain a chain of custody should any suspect be transferred to the United States for trial…
QUOTE JSOC had shifted priorities, Joyce said, targeting Taliban and other local insurgents who were not necessarily plotting against the United States. Moreover, the number of al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan had plummeted to fewer than 100, and many of its operatives were across the border, in Pakistan, where the military could not operate.
The FBI drew down in 2010 despite pleas from JSOC to stay.
“Our focus was al-Qaeda and threats to the homeland,” Joyce said. “The mission had changed.” END QUOTE
What I like about the FBI is their ability to not succumb to bureaucratic inertia and when the mission changes they are not afraid to call endex and move on when other organizations might try to reinvent themselves to continue operations and to remain deployed and “in the fight.” There is a lesson to be learned about remaining true to one’s designated mission and expertise. Other organizations might benefit from such discipline.
I know this is a bit tangential but this name in the article caught my eye:
I think I posted the following somewhere else around here, or maybe at the old Line of Departure site:
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/local-news/prince-bandar-bin-sultan-tries-to-sell-kalorama-apartment-for-1-million-under-market-value.php
And this link from the Hugh Hewitt show which stays in a partisan lane in its questioning, and is very “2007” if you see what I mean:
I wonder about these intellectual and psychological circles, how an idea works itself out, where the idea came from for working with this person, or that person. When you then signal you will work with someone (the Saudis, actually, it’s now the Saudis I am thinking about) you also then given them information, don’t you, if only into your own thinking?
Sometimes I feel bad focusing on the things that I do around here, although I know it’s the right thing to do. It overshadows other actions, though, which doesn’t always feel right:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/world/asia/american-doctor-dilip-joseph-rescued-in-afghanistan.html
There are good people in this world, really good people.