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Category Archives: Special Forces
An Empire of Bases and Special Forces: Garrisoning the Globe
In what follows, I explore the U.S. military’s global basing and Special Forces strategy. The article updates a lot of my own previous writing on the U.S. military’s “Baseworld” or “Droneworld,” and gives fresh statistics on the number of U.S. … Continue reading
The U.S. Military’s Ongoing Securitization of Africa
U.S. Marines simulate a riot during a crowd control training exercise with soldiers from Burkina Faso. Source. In what follows, I want to explore, and summarize, four articles–written by Nick Turse–that were released in 2015 about the U.S. military’s presence … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Baseworld, Drone Technology, JSOC, Special Forces, Uncategorized
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U.S. Special Command outsourced $13 billion in contracts since 2009
A report by The Remote Control Project explores the billions of dollars’ worth of procurements by the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command. Unsurprisingly, the military-industrial complex is fully integrated in “off-the-radar” missions. Corporations are integrated into some of the most … Continue reading
Posted in Special Forces
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The Dronification of State Violence, Part IV: The Predator
Previous section: The Dronification of State Violence, Part III: The Drone War Paper Trail The Predator “The bar for war had been lowered, the remote-controlled age had begun, and the killer drones became an object of fascination inside the CIA.”—Mark Mazzetti[1] … Continue reading
Posted in Afghanistan, CIA, Hannah Arendt, History of Drones, Pakistan, Special Forces
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Obama escalates hunt for Joseph Kony
The Washington Post reports that Obama is ramping up Special Forces in Central Africa in the hunt for Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army, taking the number of troops in the region up to 300. Graphic credit
The U.S. military’s rush to secure Africa
David Cloud of the LA Times writes an interesting piece on the growing involvement of U.S. Special Forces in North Africa. Typically, small teams have worked in remote and skeletal outposts to train native armed forces across “an arc of … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Empire, France, Libya, Mali, Nick Turse, Special Forces, Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Tagged Africa Command, Colonialism, France, Mali, Special Forces, U.S. military
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Highlights from Special Operations meeting
Micah Zenko has posted highlights from the “U.S. Special Operations Command in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for FY2015 and the Future Years Defense Program,” Senate Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, on March 11, 2014. … Continue reading
Dirty Wars – UK Screenings
Last night I was lucky enough to be a panelist at the Scottish screening of “Dirty Wars” in Edinburgh. I also met the producers of the documentary, Anthony Arnove and Brenda Coughlin. Aside from being a great film, the cinema’s … Continue reading
Bureaucratic Assassination — How do U.S. Targeted Killings Work?
INTRODUCTION Since the First World War and the birth of airpower, both military and civilian personnel have worked together to compile target lists for bombing. New and evolving technology has reduced the “blast radius” of the munitions dropped to such … Continue reading
Understanding Empire: Technology, Power, Politics 
When the truth is also a lie: drone strikes in Yemen
Human Rights Watch has called upon the U.S. government to investigate a 2013 drone strike in Yemen that targeted a wedding procession. The December 12 attack, which was probably carried out by the military’s JSOC, killed 12 men and wounded … Continue reading →