Will the Biden Administration Shine Light on Shadowy Special Ops Programs?
Amid a broad review of American war-making policy, how and where commandos will be used in the coming years hangs in the balance.
https://theintercept.com/2021/03/20/joe-...pt%20Newsletter
Nick Turse

March 20 2021, 6:00 a.m.

Members of the U.S. special operations forces deployed to 154 countries, or roughly 80 percent of the world’s nations, last year, but information about exactly where elite forces conduct missions, under what authorities they operate, who they’ve killed, and whether they’re adhering to the laws of armed conflict is closely guarded, buried in obscure legal provisions, shrouded in secrecy, or allegedly unknown even to Special Operations Command.

The command, known as SOCOM, will only name half the countries where its forces were active in 2020. It claims that its personnel — Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and Marine Corps Raiders among them — have captured or killed “thousands of terrorists” under one obscure program but also that it doesn’t track such data. SOCOM refuses to provide even basic information about publicly acknowledged operations.

The Biden administration has imposed temporary limits on counterterrorism drone strikes and commando raids outside conventional war zones like Afghanistan to “ensure the president has full visibility on proposed significant actions in these areas,” Emily Horne, a National Security Council spokesperson, told The Intercept. But so far there is little indication that the new administration will be more open with the American people about what commandos are doing and where they’re doing it.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

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Will the Biden Administration Shine Light on Shadowy Special Ops Programs?

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