Former U.S. Special Forces were reportedly hired to kill Yemen's leaders. Did the government know?

{It sets a very bad precedent for rogue operators}



By Deborah Avant
October 19 at 7:00 AM

In a BuzzFeed article this week, Aram Roston reports that a Delaware company, Spear Operations Group, organized a private hit squad to work for the United Arab Emirates in Yemen. The company’s founder, Israeli operative Abraham Golan, and former U.S. Navy SEAL Isaac Gilmore admitted to these actions in the article. The company appears to have hired several other U.S. veterans and reservists, including one who retired from the well-known SEAL Team 6 (responsible for killing Osama bin Laden). Everything we understand about the private security industry tells us that this action is likely to have serious ramifications.

This may present huge legal problems

First, this is not normal. The United States has not been in the habit of exporting assassination services. To export military services legally, a company is required to receive a license from the State Department’s Export Control Office subject to the International Transfer in Arms Regulations. BuzzFeed reports that the office denies issuing such a license, and that is no surprise. Although that office has been subject to criticism for licensing private military and security companies (PMSCs) to train or otherwise support problematic governments like Equatorial Guinea, approving assassination services would be a dramatic departure.

As Ryan Goodman and Sarah Knuckey report in Just Security, the activities that employees of Spear Operations Group carried out leave them open to potential criminal liability under U.S. law for murder (under 18 U.S.C. 956) and war crimes (18 U.S.C. 2441). Taking part in actions of war abroad may also be subject to charges of violating the Neutrality Act. As recently as 2014, four U.S. citizens were convicted of violating this law by virtue of their efforts to overthrow the Gambian government.

The CIA may have known this was happening

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/10/19/former-u-s-special-forces-were-reportedly-hired-to-kill-yemens-leaders-did-the-government-know/?utm_term=.e5ae7f6ff5e1