Task Force Black to hunt IS
The UK’s Mirror reports that the UK and US are forming a team from Special Forces and Special Air Services troops who will hunt the leadership of the ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State. They’re calling the new unit Task Force Black, which should attract a good number of phonies to their ranks after a few successes;
British special forces will work with America’s Delta Force and Seal Team 6. The move sees a rebirth of top secret Task Force Black, which helped defeat al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq .
This time the counter-terrorist experts will be targeting Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of IS and now the world’s most wanted terrorist.
A source said: “We need to go into Syria and Iraq and kill as many IS members as we can. You can’t negotiate with these people.
“This is not a war of choice. They are cash rich and have a plentiful supply of arms. If we don’t go after them, they will soon come after us.
That “they will soon come after us” doesn’t square with the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s assessment of the situation, though, according to CBS News;
Gen. Martin Dempsey said Sunday that once he determines the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants in Iraq have become a direct threat to the U.S. homeland, he will recommend the U.S. military move directly against the group in Syria.
But the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that right now, he still believes the insurgent group is still more a regional threat and is not plotting or planning attacks against either the U.S. or Europe.
But, we really can’t ask Dempsey about current stuff, apparently, he’s in Afghanistan making plans for withdrawing from that war which he doesn’t want to win, according to the Canadian Press;
Shortly before landing in Kabul for a visit, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, told reporters accompanying him on the trip that under optimal circumstances the U.S. would need about 120 days to pull all troops and equipment out of the country if there is no agreement allowing them to stay into 2015.
But Dempsey also said the U.S. can act quickly to pull out if necessary. And he added, “We’ve got our own planning mechanism in place should this thing extend a little further than we hoped it would.”
“This thing…” Nice way to describe the war we’re fighting to defeat the same types of people we’re fighting all over the world. I sure hope no more US troops die for “this thing” while Dempsey does his level best to encourage world terrorism.
Category: Big Army
Eddie Murphy to military veteran cops: Agent Orange? naw, naw…that was my dad! I’m…I’m…TASK FORCE BLACK !!!
Cutting off the head, makes two grow in its stead. When will they learn that ALL ISLAMIC RADICALS have to be eliminated??
I agree, for true victory over terrorism we must not stop at the leadership. The men who follow are true believers and will not just stop fighting because they lost. they will continue to fight until their very last breath. It is our duty to help them find that last breath.
I called this last night.
However, it was completely obvious to me it would be Tier 1 + SAS.
But what do I know?
Ta Ta.
Remind me again why Dempsey is CJCS? Oh right–his lips are firmly planted on Obama’s ass.
You would think after General Petraeus, generals would stop putting their lips in places.
Whatever they decide to do about it, I sure hope they keep everyone advised of the details on the front page of every major media outlet. Details like; Who, What, Where, When, and How will surely improve the polling numbers of The One. Why do I get the feeling that Obama’s practical understanding of Opsec only involves sneaking cigarettes behind Moochele’s back?
And one more thing…. why does it have to be black?
Black is the new orange.
Remember that this announcement comes from the Glorious Leader. Don’t confuse the issue with logic!
I here the Round Ranger (William Derek Church *google hit*)has already packed his chutes and is waiting for the black helicopter to come get him in the parking lot of the local hooters (great wings, and they call him Hon).
I am sure Commander Phil Monkress at All-Points Logistics is already angling for the contract.
Being a former SEAL Commander, he has the experience and insight.
Not.
I hear that LTC *Code Name BLOBFISH* is warming his C130 up as I type this and he eats another huge block of cheese at the same time!!!
He really is an amazing guy.
I have never met anyone (nor do I wish too, either) that can eat a seven-pound block of cheese while simultaneously gargling a set of balls.
I have also sent them an updated resume, and updated photos of me so that they could see that I am healthy enough to do the job!
http://www.aquaportail.com/definition-13381-blobfish.html
Cheese,
Dennis “The Blobfish” Chevalier
If the Round Ranger’s waiting on his helicopter they may have to bring a CH54 out of mothballs or wait until the CH53K comes online
“The move sees a rebirth of top secret Task Force Black”
If we’re talking about it; it ain’t that “top secret”.
Du-u-uh.
Yeah.
Lets tell them its coming so they can be ready.
Another political folly to make Obummer and his less than competent administration appear tough.
What a racist name for a Task Force /snark
Does anyone have a bet on the first phony that pops up claiming participation?
As pointed out above, it would seem to be inevitable.
I proffer three months.
I’d take chevey chevette cheesedish blobfish, but the odds are far too low.
I have faith in William Derek Church, AKA the Round Ranger. “I’m moving out with Task Force Black” is going to be good for multiple orders of chicken wings!!!
I say Kenneth Crocheron. All he has to do is take an “important phone call” and then disappear into his RD and hide out for like 6 weeks, then Bingo, Task Force Black veteran!
I meant RV. Damn auto correct!
I’m SO glad that they’re letting everyone in the world know about this thing, especially the folks surrounding al-Baghdadi-o, because now they have a heads up to move him to a different street address than his old one.
It used to be that if something was labeled ‘Top Secret’, you didn’t talk about it until 25 years after the fact. And even then, only in passing. But that was when ‘secret’ actually meant what it says in the unabridge Oxford Dictionary.
Letting everyone -well, ISIS really- know about this actually does some good. Right now, the key problem is we don’t know enough about their organizational structure, the leadership, their logistics, etc.
We need intelligence, and this ‘news’ does two things to that effect – first, it straight up tells ISIS recruits, some of whom have been essentially press-ganged into their line of work and aren’t fanatics, “Hey, here’s a way out. Work with us and we’ll help you… that, or be a target.” And TF Black, in its prior incarnation, was known for being pretty damn effective, so even the name carries weight.
The other thing it does on the intelligence front is it ‘pokes’ them. Assuming we have SOME intelligence in place that’s capable of looking at their reaction to news like this, we get to see IF they move people, how wide-spread that knowledge is, and, in line with the above bit about recruiting informants, if they crack down on their own people and how that plays out. Basically, you learn about a network by seeing how it reacts to stimuli. Being told the most lethal and well-trained military fighters in the world are coming after you is one hell of a stimulus.
I’m pretty damn sure no operational plans will be revealed to the press, but the overall fact that we’re assembling a team of our best to whack these thugs isn’t a surprise to anyone, and has some psychological and intelligence value for this very team.
I’ll accept most of your response, except that it has already been reported elsewhere, in June and July, that ISIL/IS tends to kill anyone who tries to leave them or ‘defect’, if you will, to their previous groups.
It might seem semi-smart to broadcast this intent on our part, but unless it’s a decoy to distract ISIL/IS – and I don’t believe anyone there in WDC is quite that clever any more – it’s no longer even a ‘poke’, as you say. It’s just a giveaway.
And they’ll never find al-Baghdadi-o, because he’s holed up somewhere reading sermons. I have a photo of him doing that, let out to the news media by ISIL/IS a week or two ago.
A much better way to prod them is to simply wake them up at 3 am to say goodbye before you put a couple in their chest.
Telegraphing your intentions may sound like a great idea from an intel perspective, but it sucks ass when you have to carry out the ground operation.
Yep. Just ask the pilots who had to fly the retaliation airstrikes after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
They reached their North Vietnamese targets about 1 hr 40 min after LBJ’s speech announcing US retaliation.
And I’d have to disagree, Paragrouper. IMO a much better way for ISIS to find out we’re there would be when their location explodes.
Or in select cases, when they are taken captive – never to be seen again.
I’m all for them getting a late-night tickle from a gun barrel, but the problem right now is we don’t know where to find the top people, or even who they are.
Apparently the mission to rescue Foley (and others) failed because Delta was on the ground in Antakya asking the locals for information on the ISIS location. ISIS informations or sympathizers notified them of this and they moved the prisoner, and probably prepped for the attack. If we had an insider or two who could give and confirm that information, instead of being spotted in the area first, our guys would ultimately be at less risk because we wouldn’t be telegraphing operational info.
If anyone read in to TF Black releases specific operational info ahead of a mission, I’ll eat my hat.
“Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured in Syria, took too long to authorise the mission.
Anthony Shaffer, a former lieutenant-colonel in US military intelligence who worked on covert operations, said: “I’m told it was almost a 30-day delay from when they said they wanted to go to when he finally gave the green light. They were ready to go in June to grab the guy [Foley] and they weren’t permitted.”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/08/25/obamas_iraqi_mission_impossible_123753.html
That’s entirely possible – I wouldn’t doubt for a moment that the White House is a bit indecisive. However, it’s at best only half the story. Here’s the other half (article linked below):
Now, I don’t know what the time-frame is between IS informants / sympathizers getting word of American SOF personnel asking questions damn close to a holding area and them getting word back to their contacts, but I’d bet it beat the turn-around time for a mission, which would at least have to wait until nightfall to take place. I’m not sure how going sooner -and without the specific location of where the hostages were being held?- would’ve helped, even if I personally would’ve preferred it. We need to develop some contacts within the IS network so we don’t need to be on the ground asking around beforehand.
Basically, it wouldn’t surprise me if the White House delayed, and that’s pretty terrible. But I also don’t see how the mission would’ve gone differently if the intel on where to find the hostages wasn’t solid beforehand.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/23/us-syria-usa-raid-idUSKBN0GM26620140823
Well, LC, that depends.
Let’s assume the operation was ready in early/mid June as claimed. Now assume the questions that allegedly tipped ISIS occurred on, say, 1 July in an attempt to ascertain if Foley was still at the original location. Under that scenario, it’s easy for me to see how delay would likely have altered the outcome; the second queries wouldn’t have been necessary if approval had been timely.
However, if the query that tipped ISIS was the original inquiry, you are likely correct.
Even putting the two “halves” together, there’s still a substantial amount of pertinent info missing.
Implicit in LC’s first comment on the matter is that letting them know you are coming with the result of them moving people is a good thing. Not in this case of hostage rescue however.
LC I get your point about keep them off balance and make them paranoid. Look at Hamas in that the last Palestinians that assumed room temperature there (that I am aware of) did so at the hands of Hamas and not the IDF.
That said, however, why not make up bullshit? Over in Iraq and A’Stan all the locals thought we could see through walls and clothes using thermal. Why not exploit that or something similar? Why not put the word out that we are certain AS TO the location of the beheading because we have every square inch of the ME from every perspective databased in 3d? Etc. I can think of innumerable ways we can put stuff out in the public realm to steer these jackasses toward paranoia and confusion, none of which involve referencing real assets or intentions.
You don’t make up ‘big’ lies because once you’re called out on them (and they do seem to have some pretty savvy people in IS, unfortunately) they can dismiss anything else you say as more lies.
You have to make the lies believable enough, and thus small enough, that they give you an advantage without setting off ‘bullshit’ alarms that’ll cause your target to stop listening to you altogether. I’m pretty sure our IO guys do this quite well, but IS is a new target so things are probably just in the works now.
And yes, it goes without saying that you don’t want people to move when you’re holding hostages IF you already know where they are.
I don’t agree with your first 2 paragraphs. I see no disadvantage in sprinkling truth about our capabilities with plausible BS. If they detect a lie, so what? The only info it has given them is that among x number of statements, 1 of them was a lie, with many of the other statements being unverifiable by them. Seems like an effective way to cause unbalance them if you ask me. I do not want to go on and on arguing about this, so in closing I just want to say that I think the matter could have been handled differently and yet still attained the same desired outcome (if any was intended).
Oh, and BTW, although I live in the Dallas area, I never did by a long gun through Dennis Chevalier (yellow sheet transfer). I lied about that. Sorry Dennis if I caused you any discomfort or wasted time looking through your records and wondering…. I did not lie about Kellers though. I saw you there and I will see you again I am sure.
Above should read “…buy a long gun …”
No disagreement there – neither article has a lot of corroboration, and one or both could be wildly incorrect. As you said, there’s a whole lot of missing info.
That said, my point here isn’t to argue whether we could’ve rescued Foley or not, but rather to point out that developing some in-network assets who could tell/confirm things like this is pretty important to TF Black’s usefulness and operational tempo. Plus, in the long run, it keeps them safer too.
LC: developing contacts and/or inserting agents in terrorist organizations sounds great in theory. In practice, well, it’s a bit difficult.
As a article I saw once some years ago put it (I’m paraphrasing): “Well, let’s see. To get an effective and reliable agent, we probably need to put one of our own guys there undercover. Otherwise, loyalty will be a concern.
The job requires living among goat-smelling (and possibly goat- fornicating) thugs for several years, eating crappy food, enduring truly hellish bad weather, bad or no medical care, short supplies, and sometimes living in conditions that are worse than a barn on a US farm. It also requires not seeing a woman in a skirt or practicing Western standards of personal hygiene for years at a time. Plus, one misstep and you end up dead.
Gee, how are we ever going to pick only the few top candidates out of the tens of thousands who’ll sign up for that?”
True, but IS isn’t your usual terrorist network. From what I’ve heard, a number of their new recruits are essentially told ‘join or die’, and aren’t fanatical,… they simply don’t have other options when a gun is being aimed at them. It creates an opportunity that isn’t typically there with more traditional terrorist organizations whom people actively seek to join.
Also, with their size comes more potential informants. It’d certainly be nice to have our own people inside, but we don’t need that at this point.. we just need people providing us with information, ideally from multiple sources who aren’t aware of each other so we don’t need to worry as much about being fed disinformation.
I’m not saying it’s easy, but this isn’t putting Western officers into IS, it’s turning disgruntled IS members into informants. Still not easy, mind you, but definitely ‘easier’.
@LC- I think making UBL the “most wanted”, putting a price on his head, and letting him know we were looking for him with the intention of killing him made it harder to find him. Just saying.
I see no value in identifying assets by name (unless it is misinformation).
For me, it’s fifty-fifty – yes, they can go underground, but then their own effectiveness is diminished, which is a good thing.
That said, I don’t think we should ever single a sole person out and say, “This asshole is our primary concern!” because it gives them stature and eliminates the ‘boogeyman’ effect of us targeting ALL leadership elements. Keep the paranoia strong and people make mistakes.
At this point it shouldn’t surprise me that they’re telling the world of upcoming missions but I can’t help but cringe every time they trumpet what should be secret. This is just another “look at me, I’m doing something.” This administration has made us a laughing stock on the world stage. I just hope we can get another Reagan after Carter to turn this ship around or at the very least get someone that will hold the damn wheel.
Yes, I keep telling myself ‘This, too, shall pass’.
And then I fall down laughing til my stomach hurts.
We are now accepting applications for an upcoming SECRET mission that will occur NLT 2315(L) 03092014 at 37SFU8400407688. current and former members of All Points Logistics, US nAvY SeAlS, US Army Rangers and or Speshul Forces ( they are the same), and anyone named Wittengenfeldmeister-ton is pre-selected and should report with all due haste to our secret base outside of washington d.c.
Not the old base but the new one hidden off of the 495 freeway, down branch ave, then NE on allentown road.
Bring all issued OCIE and a cashiers check in the amount of $27,534 to cover deployment costs. After mission completion, you will be reimbursed via electronic transfer to your account in the amount of $14,000,000 US dollars !!!! (bank account and routing info requested)
And remember OPSEC is priority on this one, no one must know!@!! Loose lips and all that rot…….
They will need some pilots.
Stermer perhaps?
We need to rename it, though.
Something like “Task Force Turd”.
But do they need any RaDiOtElEpHoNeOpErAtOrs?
Bombing is great, but as often as possible I want them to know they are about to die a slow and painful death. For a few seconds anyway
Reading GEN. Dempsey’s statement about the ISIS threat makes me wonder if he did not leave a roundtable meeting with the understanding that the ISIS threat would be underplayed while, behind the scenes, a task force would dole out some tough love.
In other words, if a secret task force was being formed and tasked, GEN. Dempsey’s statement would be consistent with protecting that endeavor. Just my opinion.
Is it just me or does it seem counterproductive to announce shit like this? It’d be one thing if this was after the fact but these men are still there (or will be soon) so hey, let’s just fucking announce to the world what our SOF guys are doing and what our goal is
The man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war, and afterward he turns his rifle in at the armory and believes he’s finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands – love a woman, build a house, change his son’s diaper – his hands remember the rifle and the power the rifle proffered. The cold weight, the buttstock in the shoulder, the sexy slope and fall of the trigger guard.
High value targets taken out by Special strikes sounds good, but I dont think cutting the head off the snake does anygood when it simply grows another one.
I would rather read about a few hundred or thousands of ISIS fighters getting roasted or turned to pink mist that one of the top aides getting off who will simply be replaced and martyred.
They need to feed the hurt at every level.
I had a conversation today with a buddy down VB way.
Many pissed off people regarding the leaks out of Beltway.
In fact if you listen closely, no matter where you live in this great land, you can hear the Special Operations community and supporters screaming “SHUT THE FUCHT UP”.
This will be a 2014 and 2016 campaign issue.
I hope you are right Master Chief, but in order for it to be a campaign issue, the conservative candidates will have to hammer it home because this will get no play in the press. The liberal, Obama worshipping media see no problem with passing on operational secrets as long as it makes the anointed one look like he is a bad ass.
All y’all got it wrong.
Regardless of what the President or Dempsey say, Task Force Black’s actual mission will be to look for more ways to cut end strength and spending at the Pentagon. While buying more LCS and F35s