Pentagon Seeking Leeway Overseas (Spec Ops w/o Ambassador Agree)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48522-2005Feb23?language=printer

The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said.

The plan would weaken the long-standing "chief of mission" authority under which the U.S. ambassador, as the president's top representative in a foreign country, decides whether to grant entry to U.S. government personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations.

The Special Operations missions envisioned in the plan would largely be secret, known to only a handful of officials from the foreign country, if any.

The change is included in a highly classified "execute order" -- part of a broad strategy developed since Sept. 11, 2001, to give the U.S. Special Operations Command new flexibility to track down and destroy terrorist networks worldwide, the officials said.

"This is a military order on a global scale, something that hasn't existed since World War II," said a counterterrorism official with lengthy experience in special operations. He and other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal is classified.

[NYC]

1. Running amok.

The Special Operations missions envisioned in the plan would largely be secret, known to only a handful of officials from the foreign country, if any.

So, if one of these Spec Ops people was caught, couldn't/shouldn't he be charged with murder in that country?

[reprobate]

5. Probably charged with espionage and terrorism

[dave123williams]

2. Right; why involve the STATE department? They don't have any knowledge...

Now that the ex-NSA director is the Secretary of State...Jesus, this is getting like one step beyond the pale.

[bemildred]

3. Ah yes, we don't have enough desperate morons running amok already. nt

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Here's one...

That will come to no good end.

[Rex]

6. So secret we are reading about it on DU

This is Spec Ops having a warrant to kill anywhere, Iraq and Afghanistan comes to mind. Would Negroponte mind if his boss wants to waylay Iraq? Ha.

[daleo]

7. IOW, the president's secret army. n/t

[maddezmom]

8. kick to combine threads

[LiviaOlivia]

9. Pentagon Seeking Leeway Overseas

Pentagon Seeking Leeway Overseas
Operations Could Bypass Envoys

By Ann Scott Tyson and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 24, 2005

The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said.

The plan would weaken the long-standing "chief of mission" authority under which the U.S. ambassador, as the president's top representative in a foreign country, decides whether to grant entry to U.S. government personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations.

~snip~

U.S. ambassadors have full responsibility for supervising all U.S. government employees in that country, and when granting country clearances they are supposed to consider various factors, including ramifications for overall bilateral relations. For example, one reason the U.S. military never conducted aggressive operations against al Qaeda in Pakistan was a fear that such actions would incite the local population to overthrow the fragile, nuclear-capable government of President Pervez Musharraf.

The rift between the Pentagon and State Department over chief-of-mission authority parallels broader concerns about the push to empower the Special Operations Command in the war on terrorism. The CIA, for example, has concerns that new intelligence-gathering initiatives by the military could weaken CIA station chiefs and complicate U.S. espionage abroad. Without close coordination with the CIA, former senior intelligence officials said, the military could target someone whom the CIA is secretly surveilling and disrupt a flow of valuable intelligence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48522-2005Feb23.html

[LynnTheDem]

10. And of course the USA is happy to allow any other nation's Special Ops to

enter America any time they want to conduct military operations.

Right?

RIGHT???

Heh. No, didn't think so.

America, the Hypocrite.

[roguevalley]

11. death squad legislation.

[Richard Steele]

13. Wow, you named that tune in 3 words.

Cuz that's exactly what it is.

[NuttyFluffers]

12. the nullification of national sovereignty right there.

well, if there was any last bit of good will left to america it was stamped out right there. basically saying your nation will 'disappear' any person, in any nation, of any citizenship, without redress or notice is essentially a criminal terrorist cartel -- pure and simple.

[saigon68]

14. Some of these thugs wiill be captured

And shot by firing squads.

I hope they try it. I can't believe the inhabitants of Amerika are dumb enough to accept this shit.