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Did newly announced top Afghan general run Cheney’s assassination wing?
Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
It was reported on Tuesday that Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal will be taking over command of US forces in Afghanistan, pending Senate approval.
McChrystal is presently director of the Joint Chiefs staff, but from September 2003 to August 2008, he headed the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees such elite units as the Army’s Delta Force and the Navy SEALs.
Famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh recently described the JSOC as an “executive assassination wing” controlled for many years by the office of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Speaking to a University of Minnesota audience in March, Hersh called JSOC “a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. … They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. … Congress has no oversight of it. … It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on.”
Although McChrystal’s efforts with JSOC were not widely reported at the time, Newsweek did run a brief article on him in June 2006:
No one would have mentioned his name at all if President George W. Bush hadn’t singled him out in public. Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, West Point ‘76, is not someone the Army likes to talk about. He isn’t even listed in the directory at Fort Bragg, N.C., his home base. That’s not because McChrystal has done anything wrong—quite the contrary, he’s one of the Army’s rising stars—but because he runs the most secretive force in the U.S. military. That is the Joint Special Operations Command, the snake-eating, slit-their-throats “black ops” guys who captured Saddam Hussein and targeted Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
JSOC is part of what Vice President Dick Cheney was referring to when he said America would have to “work the dark side” after 9/11. To many critics, the veep’s remark back in 2001 fostered his rep as the Darth Vader of the war on terror and presaged bad things to come, like the interrogation abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. But America also has its share of Jedi Knights who are fighting in what Cheney calls “the shadows.” And McChrystal, an affable but tough Army Ranger, and the Delta Force and other elite teams he commands are among them. …
Rumsfeld is especially enamored of McChrystal’s “direct action” forces or so-called SMUs—Special Mission Units—whose job is to kill or capture bad guys, say Pentagon sources who would speak about Special Ops only if they were not identified. But critics say the Pentagon is short-shrifting the “hearts and minds” side of Special Operations that is critical to counterinsurgency—like training foreign armies and engaging with locals.
McChrystal, however, may not be quite as much of a white knight as Newsweek made him out to be. A far less flattering impression of him is given by an Esquire article which ran at the same time as the Newsweek piece. This article details revelations by a military interrogator, “Jeff,” about the use of torture “at a secret camp used by Task Force 121, the ultimate Special Ops team, the elite titanium tip of Donald Rumsfeld’s spear.”
It was a point of pride that the Red Cross would never be allowed in the door, Jeff says. This is important because it defied the Geneva Conventions, which require that the Red Cross have access to military prisons. “Once, somebody brought it up with the colonel. ‘Will they ever be allowed in here?’ And he said absolutely not. He had this directly from General McChrystal and the Pentagon that there’s no way that the Red Cross could get in–they won’t have access and they never will. This facility was completely closed off to anybody investigating, even Army investigators.”
Given Task Force 121’s history, that was a remarkable promise. Formed in the summer of 2003, it quickly became notorious. By August the CIA had already ordered its officers to avoid Camp Nama. Then two Iraqi men died following encounters with Navy Seals from Task Force 121–one at Abu Ghraib and one in Mosul–and an official investigation by a retired Army colonel named Stuart Herrington, first reported in The Washington Post, found evidence of widespread beatings. “Everyone knows about it,” one Task Force officer told Herrington. Six months later, two FBI agents raised concerns about suspicious burn marks and other signs of harsh treatment. Then the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that his men had seen evidence of prisoners with burn marks and bruises and once saw a Task Force member “punch [the] prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention.”
Fred Kaplan at Slate and Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish have already noted Task Force 121’s involvement in harsh interrogations and General McChrystal’s apparent protection of the abuses. Hopefully, these questions about McChrystal will not be overlooked during his confirmation hearings.
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May 13th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Confirmation hearings are little more than dog and pony shows. If they make it that far they usually breeze through. We have already seen the democrats lie and then fold on the torture thing. Why would assassination make a difference?
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May 13th, 2009 at 5:09 am
When I think of what the bad guys would have done without these squads (blowing up airliners, public transport, etc. etc.), I don’t think what they do is wrong. In WWII, there were similar squads: my relatives were in the British equivalent. They have many advantages over more rigid military structures, and are fleet of foot, and can take action swiftly and decisively. In a couple decades, books about them will be best sellers. I hope I live long enough to read the big book on Dick Cheney: it will be an amazing read, probably the best American book ever.
Jim Lunsford Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 7:20 am
I think the name of the book should be “The death of honor” or maybe “Aborting human dignity” f--- you asswipe. The brits are not exactly known for being brave nowadays are they? After all, it is the model for sheeple the world over. f--- off and go and get screwed by your sheperders!
you tool Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 8:37 am
you slavish naive tool. Hitler loved “good germans” like you. so does Dick cheney.
scott Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:09 am
so very gay
gimmeabreak Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 11:25 am
“When I think of what the bad guys would have done without these squads……..” These black ops squads ARE the bad guys. They carry out the govts false flag terror attacks. See OPERATION NORTHWOODS. When the joint chiefs came up with this plan they obviously had a group in mind to carry it out, if JFK had approved it. WAKE UP!!
scott Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 11:46 am
right, is rather take my chances on a ‘foreign’ bad guy slipping through the country’s defenses than a retired jsoc guy on the city council back home, or worse yet, hunting patriots for spouting the constitution.
May 13th, 2009 at 5:38 am
SORRY TO SPAM
I,m Australian and just made this Channel on YOUTUBE last night
For Alex Jones who i think is a wonderful man
we are growing but need all the help/ subs we can get, even in Australia it affects us too you know this NWO crap
all the best http://www.youtube.com/user/WeLoveAlexJones
your aussie mate.
May 13th, 2009 at 5:42 am
“When I think of what the bad guys would have done without these squads (blowing up airliners, public transport, etc. etc.), I don’t think what they do is wrong.”
Torture is torture. We have a duty to act responsibly and set a good example for others.
May 13th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Im a firm beliver in freedom i freely chose to not learn to spell but these guys are quite evil not the foot solders they are told less then us but those who weild the power i personly hope that my relgius belives are correct and it will soon be over
May 13th, 2009 at 6:43 am
can anyone say S.S.
reconmarine Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 8:35 am
are you really calling SS?
what about SOS Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:05 am
SOS pads clean my skillets
and taste yummy too.
scott Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:10 am
super sexy u gay ass econ
scott Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:10 am
oops reconmarine i mean, its so gay its hard to type
scott Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:11 am
ps. your a twink
scott Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:12 am
what is the difference, the gay ass ss uniforms u liked
scott Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:13 am
May 13th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Amazing how these stories never make the six oclock news, but the brain dead statements of a beauty pageant winner makes the rounds around the clock. f---ing stupid people. No wonder MSM is dying. Long suffer the msm!
May 13th, 2009 at 8:35 am
This story DID make the news. Many times over. The part about JSOC being an “assassination unit” was a conspiracy theorist reporter making an uneducated unfounded comment and you fools taking it and running with it.
As a member of JSOC and the special operations community it’s sad to see how quickly and without any evidence whatsoever you are all willing to bash our spec ops.
Just because Cheney favored using special operations in a non conventional warfare environment (What a surprise) doesn’t mean we went out on assassination missions.
You guys can have your little conspiracy theory fun, but if you really favor the truth at all, why dont you do some research before reporting this crap?
May 13th, 2009 at 10:17 am
gay ass marine says “Just because Cheney favored using special operations in a non conventional warfare environment (What a surprise) doesn’t mean we went out on assassination missions.’
every bullet fired outside the continental US in the last 40+ years was fired by an assaination unit by some twink gladiator
May 13th, 2009 at 11:54 am
regarding flypaper operations:
I dont care what leg of the stool (jesuit, zion, muslim) or which wing of the dialectic your rooting for, its all bad if it isn’t love, i’m sorry for always calling you gay reconmarine.
marx and hegel have split up the world
May 13th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
to be more accurate:
re: the holders of the flypaper
We realize we are being tracked, we just cant help ourselves, posting is fun
Alas!, loyola, weishaupt, hegel and marx have divided the world for their master
May 13th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
McChrystal knows all about the tight 3 shot group in Tillman’s forehead.
(wannabe reconmarine trolls again)
May 13th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I believe Admiral William H McRaven ran big Dicks assaination squads out of North Carolina
get the story right Kane
May 19th, 2009 at 6:39 am
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.