roger that...
Posted on 05/28/2012 4:07:47 PM PDT by EBH
US and South Korean special forces have been parachuting into North Korea to gather intelligence about underground military installations, a US officer has said in comments carried in US media.
Army Brigadier General Neil Tolley, commander of US special forces in South Korea, told a conference held in Florida last week that Pyongyang had built thousands of tunnels since the Korean war, The Diplomat reported.
"The entire tunnel infrastructure is hidden from our satellites," Tolley said, according to The Diplomat, a current affairs magazine. "So we send (South Korean) soldiers and US soldiers to the North to do special reconnaissance."
"After 50 years, we still don't know much about the capability and full extent" of the underground facilities," he said, in comments reported by the National Defense Industrial Association's magazine on its website.
Tolley said the commandos were sent in with minimal equipment to facilitate their movements and minimize the risk of detection by North Korean forces.
At least four of the tunnels built by Pyongyang go under the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea, Tolley said.
"We don't know how many we don't know about," he admitted.
Among the facilities identified are 20 air fields that are partially underground, and thousands of artillery positions.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
There is no way on God’s Green Earth that Obozo would sign off on a high risk mission that if it failed would by the USS Pueblo and the Iran Hostage Crisis rolled into one in an election year.
roger that...
Agreed...this a BS story. While I think it’s a hoot to yank the NORKS’ chain, and have ‘em chasing ghosts, this just ain’t good for the hummingbird presizzie to act hawkish...or is that a HIZZAWK?
60 years to build tunnels with slave labor! hmm. Most of South Korea may sitting on top of explosives?
You would be amazed at the places you can go, drunker than Cooter Brown, and nekked as a jay bird, just on a $5 bet.
Someone sober and wearing clothing with intent on being undetected can get around in even a place like NK.
“hummingbird presizzie to act hawkish...or is that a HIZZAWK?”
A chizzikinawk..
The USSR also thought it would be difficult to land a Cessna single engine airplane undetected in Red Square. Surprise!
Wonder what ever happened to Matthew Rust?
I think I’d start clearing out the tunmels I knew of that were inside/under south Korea, and just start working the way back. Then demolish them and anytime you hear them trying to dig out and rebuild, just blow em up/again.
See the link I have at 37. Blown off the net zot.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2888868/posts?page=37#37
While doing his obligatory community service (Zivildienst) in a West German hospital in 1989, Rust stabbed a female co-worker who had rejected him. The victim barely survived. He was convicted of attempted manslaughter, sentenced to two and a half years in prison and released after having served fifteen months.[10] Since then he has lived a fragmented life, describing himself as a “bit of an oddball”[11]. After being released from court, he converted to Hinduism [12] in 1996 to become engaged to a daughter of an Indian tea merchant. In 2001, he was convicted for stealing a cashmere pullover and ordered to pay DM 10,000; the sentence was later reduced to 600 marks.[10][4] A further brush with the law came in 2005, when he was convicted of fraud and had to pay €1,500 for stolen goods.[10] In 2009 Rust described himself as a professional poker player.[13]. Most recently, in 2012, he describes himself as an analyst at a Zurich based investment bank.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust
I truly doubt that the general said anything that was not complete disinformation.
“...have been parachuting”. Highly unlikely and not the preferred mode of entry into NKor.
“The entire tunnel infrastructure is hidden from our satellites”. Now that is just utter hooey. Hyperspectral satellites have probably mapped every inch of them.
The general is probably trying to get the Norks to divert resources to where the action is not. He might be doing so to undermine a real intelligence leak.
Good one CM...I had forgotten all aboot, (I’m in Canada) that little incident.
Thanks for the follow up!
Something tells me we don’t parachute much anymore
This whole thing is bull****, a fabrication (or an exaggeration stretched to the point of fabrication) by sensationalist blogger David Axe, whose byline is on the Diplomat piece. If you read the TBO blogger’s piece, BG Tolley is clearly talking conditionally. If we go to war, I want to put my men here, and some new gadgets you guys could invent and make would help me do that.
Axe misheard, or was stoned, or just wanted to make the story more exciting. That’s how he rolls. I thought he was going to be better after embedding, but he’s the same old hack.
Guys, here’s the original David Axe story that all these stories (the one on Yahoo, the one at Daily Caller) are based on. I’ve written the ed. of the DC with my real name and background in hopes he will correct his story.
http://the-diplomat.com/flashpoints-blog/2012/05/28/u-s-commandos-spy-on-north-korea/
David Axe is NOT a trustworthy source on military affairs.
Without having been there, I read BG Tolley in Axe’s report as saying that in the event of war his forces would do SR (Strategic Reconnaissance), not that they are doing it now. He goes on to say that he’d like to have better sensors, DF-proof commo, and a wireless power system so as to unleash SR teams from betteries. Those are all reasonable requests and the audience at this conference includes the Tony Stary kind of guys who can do that kind of thing — if it’s possible at all.
It also includes a lot of foreign special operations officers from friendly and neutral nations — not the place where a very senior officer lets his freak flag fly.
Axe is jonesing for a scoop so badly, he connected some dots that don’t go together.
This post by the Tampa Bay Online military buff/blogger/reporter seems to reinforce that Tolley was talking about what he’d like to have in his quiver for wartime, NOT what he’s doing today.
Deep breaths, people. The generals and admirals in charge of SOF are still on America’s side. So are the guys under them.
Unless of course, the DOD and White House authorized and ordered it.
Nobody. The blogger, David Axe, created this story. I’d bet my retirement it’s not what the general said at all. That much is clear from comparing the other guy’s report of the same panel.
This conference is where the top SOF guys (not just ours) get together with the gadget makers and schmooze. It’s a very important part of the puzzle in arming and equipping our guys (first our SOF, and then the stuff SOF proves out trickles down to regular soldiers and marines — like body armor, night vision, IR laser pointers, frequency hopping radios, .50 and .300 WM sniper rifles, and lots of stuff that’s still in the pipeline.
There are a lot of stories here, but SOCKOR is not going to go sneaking and peeking in the denied area. It will prepare for that, but only do it if war is on (or close).
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