© U.S. ArmyU.S. Army Special Forces soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan.
To help manage these soldiers and their missions, the Pentagon has established a network of small command posts around the world.
But despite the existence of these units being public knowledge — which reveal in part how America fights wars in the 21st century —
the U.S. military's top commando headquarters would prefer not to talk about them.In September 2014, War Is Boring submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for any orders related to so-called "Special Operations Command (Forward)" entities. In February, we finally received an answer.
"It has been determined that the fact of the existence or non-existence of records concerning the matters relating to those set forth in your request is classified," James Boisselle, the Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Special Operations Command, wrote back.
"USSOCOM neither confirms nor denies that such records may or may not exist."We appealed this decision, pointing out that
the command posts in question are regularly discussed in unclassified news items, and that it would be logical to assume the Pentagon would require formal orders for the creation of
any new unit.
In August, Director of Oversight and Compliance
Joo Chung sent a second letter saying that she had rejected our arguments and upheld SOCOM's original opinion.But these headquarters are out in the open.
Historically and today,
one of the main jobs of Special Operations soldiers is training, advising and otherwise working with foreign allies. The United States possesses the largest commando force in the world and makes active use of it.
Comment: The tentacles of Empire have spread around the world, subverting country after country, all in the name of "fighting" an enemy (Al Qaeda, or ISIS or whomever) that they themselves created. Psychopathy at its best.