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It was the news the world breathlessly waited for immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks: a report of the first American troops on the ground in Afghanistan. All at once, the world’s attention focused on an iconic photo of those Special Operations Forces doing something no American military had done in nearly a century: They rode horses into combat. Horse Soldiers of 9/11 Film Trailer Their secret mission: secure northern Afghanistan by advising the warring tribal factions that formed the Northern Alliance. During the 2011 Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, a new monument to these men — and to...

India has denied as "factually incorrect" a report that US special forces were stationed in the country as part of counter-terrorism cooperation. Media reports quoted top Pentagon commander Admiral Robert Willard as telling a Congressional hearing on Thursday that US special forces teams were stationed in five South Asian countries, including India and Sri Lanka. "The report is factually incorrect in so far as the reference to India is concerned," Indian defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said in a statement late on Friday. "US special forces teams have never been stationed in India in the past, nor are such teams...

The dramatic rescue of an American aid worker and her Danish colleague in Somalia by Navy commandos was a terrific encore to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan nine months ago. However, all the White House-driven publicity for both events has helped turn the once-secret SEAL Team 6 into a household term, with likely negative consequences. Although SEAL Team 6 and its official successor, the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, have been around since the 1980s, their missions always were kept secret to shield their members’ identities and protect operational security. Every president since the team’s founding has...

...In a statement sent to NBC News and other media, Obama says that he authorized the operation to rescue Buchanan. "Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our Special Operations Forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home," he says. "As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts." Obama, who spoke to Buchanan's father Tuesday night, says she was "selflessly serving her fellow human beings when she was taken hostage by criminals and pirates who showed no regard for...

A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: the shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. Fort Bragg’s Special Warfare Center shows how the U.S. has turned hunting terror networks into half-science, half-art-form since the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Forging lessons painfully learned in the decade since into a formal curriculum, the training is...

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of 30 servicemembers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Aug. 6 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed. The following sailors assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit were killed: Lt. Cmdr. (SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall, 32, of Shreveport, La., Special Warfare Operator Master Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Louis J. Langlais, 44, of Santa Barbara, Calif., Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Thomas A. Ratzlaff, 34, of Green Forest, Ark., Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare...

After a delay of more than two days, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has "decided to follow the law" and release the names, ranks, hometowns and units of those killed in the Aug. 6 Chinook helicopter crash in Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Wednesday. The names will be released in the next 24 hours. Panetta "never intended not to release the names," Lapan said, explaining that a delay in their release was the result of a request from military commanders in the Special Operations community who wanted to review the policy of releasing names "because of possible (security) implications

  33 Americans Including 25 SEALs Killed Every Time History Repeats Itself, the Price Goes Up David C. Stolinsky Aug. 8, 2011 Afghan insurgents shoot down Chinook helicopter with rocket-propelled grenade, killing 30 Americans, including 22 SEALS, some of whom were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden. Three more SEALs were killed on the ground, for a total of 33 American dead. − News item Some time ago, I was driving my old car. As I pulled out of a parking lot, I heard a terrible screeching noise. Looking under the car, I found...

Secrets: Good news of bin Laden's death may be followed by bad news of Pakistan giving China a peek at our downed helicopter. Will we be threatened by our own technology? They are something out of the latest Batman flick, the modified Black Hawk helicopters that were used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound. With a curious hublike housing around the unusually configured rear-rotor, among other things, it was clearly designed to be as quiet and stealthy as possible. When one of the copters clipped a wall in bin Laden's compound, it had to be destroyed, leaving...

WASHINGTON – Helicopters descended out of darkness on the most important counterterrorism mission in U.S. history. It was an operation so secret, only a select few U.S. officials knew what was about to happen. The location was a fortified compound in an affluent Pakistani town two hours outside Islamabad. The target was Osama bin Laden.

Fort Walton Beach - Authorities believe that between 30 and 40 illegal aliens were employed in the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex, but by the time the very thorough 3-month investigation was wrapped up, so was most of the work, and the great majority of the workers were unaccounted for. Fort Walton Beach - Authorities believe that between 30 and 40 illegal aliens were employed in the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex, but by the time the very thorough 3-month investigation was wrapped up, so was most of the work, and the great majority of the...

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency, headquarters for the government’s eavesdroppers and code breakers, has been located at Fort Meade, Md., for half a century. Its nickname, the Fort, has been familiar for decades to neighbors and government workers alike. Yet that nickname is one of hundreds of supposed secrets Pentagon reviewers blacked out in the new, censored edition of an intelligence officer’s Afghan war memoir. The Defense Department is buying and destroying the entire uncensored first printing of “Operation Dark Heart,” by Anthony Shaffer, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, in the...

Washington (CNN) -- The Department of Defense recently purchased and destroyed thousands of copies of an Army Reserve officer's memoir in an effort to safeguard state secrets, a spokeswoman said Saturday. "DoD decided to purchase copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. In a statement to CNN, Cunningham said defense officials observed the September 20 destruction of about 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's new memoir "Operation Dark Heart." Shaffer says he was notified Friday about the Pentagon's purchase. "The whole...

The bodies of nine American soldiers and sailors killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan two days ago have arrived home to a Delaware air base. -excerpt- Among them was Navy Lt. Brendan John Looney, 29, a 2004 graduate of the Naval Academy, where he was an All-American lacrosse player. Since June 2008, he'd been assigned to a Navy SEAL unit based in Coronado, Calif., the Los Angeles Times reported. His comrades considered Looney "a skilled SEAL operator who led and motivated the people around him," the Times quoted a Navy statement as saying. Another Navy man killed was Senior...

Task Force is Embedded with Mexican Troops, CIA Operative Claims A special operations task force under the command of the Pentagon is currently in place south of the border providing advice and training to the Mexican Army in gathering intelligence, infiltrating and, as needed, taking direct action against narco-trafficking organizations, claims a former CIA asset who has a long history in the covert operations theater. The U.S. unit, dubbed Task Force 7, since early 2009 , according to the CIA operative...

Full Article Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, recently sent an urgent request to the Pentagon's Joint Staff to speed up deployment of four new light attack aircraft needed by special operations commandos for airstrikes against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The request was stalled after Congress blocked funds for the classified project, code-named Imminent Fury. "An August 2009 Centcom [request for forces] for four aircraft in support of SOF forces conducting operations against al Qaeda and Taliban senior leadership in Afghanistan was not fulfilled and remains open," Gen. McChrystal stated in a...

Teams of American special forces have been authorised to conduct spying missions intended to pave the way for a military strike on Iran in case President Obama orders one, US government sources have confirmed. The military units would penetrate Iranian territory to reconnoitre potential nuclear targets and make contact with friendly dissident groups, according to a secret directive written by General David Petraeus. The document's existence was disclosed for the first time yesterday. It authorises an expansion in the use of US special forces throughout the Middle East, US officials said. However, it is the possibility of American troops operating...

Virginia military jury found a Navy SEAL not guilty on charges of punching a suspected Iraqi terrorist. Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class, was facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault. The suspected terrorist McCabe was accused of punching is Ahmed Hashim Abed, who is the suspected masterminded the grisly killings of four American contractors in Iraq six years ago. This follows four days of pre-trial motions, jury selection and testimony before a Judge Advocate General, Captain Moira Modelewski, at the Naval...

Special Ops Teams I think two of the most inspiring people I have seen in the last year are James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who made ACORN videos, and what I'm suggesting in this post is inspired by them. If there's anything the passage of the Health Care Bill has done to me, it is to convince me that it is time to take action against those who would deprive us of our liberty. It is time to take the gloves off and to fight with bare fists. I am NOT saying it is time to take up arms against...

LONDON Newly apppointed Mossad chief Meir Dagan is planning to reactivate a special operations unit, code named Caesarea, to target the commanders, controllers, and financiers of terrorist groups throughout the Middle East, the London Sunday Times reports. Quoting sources close to the Mossad, the paper said Islamic extremists abroad will become as vulnerable as those in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "There is no reason why we should not do the same abroad. They will have nowhere to hide," said one source who is said to be familiar with Dagan's plans for the Mossad. "Gone are the days of...