Wider Antiterror Role for Elite Forces Rejected (Rumsfeld's plan scrapped)

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — The military’s elite Special Operations Command has quietly stepped back from a controversial plan that gave it the authority to carry out secret counterterrorism missions on its own around the world.

The decision culminates four years of misgivings within the military that the command, with its expertise in commando missions and unconventional war, would use its broader mandate too aggressively, by carrying out operations that had not been reviewed or approved by the regional commanders.

A new Special Operations commander, Adm. Eric T. Olson of the Navy Seals, has now said publicly that he intends to play a different role, and will instead continue the command’s new mission as coordinator of the military’s counterterrorism efforts around the world.

The shift reverses what Donald H. Rumsfeld put in place as defense secretary in 2004, when he said he wanted the Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, Fla., to operate unilaterally; he believed that it would be more aggressive in hunting down terrorists than the regional commanders, who are tied most closely to conventional forces.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/washington/21military.html?em&ex=1211515200&en=f611986d41f7a4b2&ei=5087%0A

Away from the use of a secret "anti-terrorist" unit to create havoc in the name of peace should give one pause.

Are they saying they won't, or are they "saying" they "won't" with a <wink> nudge <wink??

that is all.

anything conventional, when he can just order torture.

what else do you call a group of commandos who operate without any oversight and are authorized to operate "unilaterally" as they alone see fit??????? TERRORISTS!

We have now officially become what we claim to reject and abhor. congratulations rummy and company.