The Hidden General Stan McChrystal runs 'black ops.' Don't pass it on

Newsweek ^ | June 26, 2006 | Michael Hirsh and John Barry

[RDTF]

June 26, 2006 issue - 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.

After the Zarqawi strike, multinational forces spokesman Gen. Bill Caldwell refused to comment on JSOC's role, saying, "We don't talk about when special operating forces are involved." But when Bush revealed to reporters that it was McChrystal's Special Ops teams that had found Zarqawi, Caldwell had to gulp and say (to laughter), "If the president of the United States said it was, then I'm sure it was."

[Coldwater Creek]

God bless our black ops people.

We do not want to nor need to know every thing that is being done to keep us safe in this country.

[hsalaw]

Leave it to Newsweak to "out" the good guys and hide the bad guys. Fools.

[SevenMinusOne]

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,

Which is just another clear reason why SecDef Rumsfeld is the perfect man for the job in today's world.

[reagan_fanatic]

They are heroes, pure and simple. Thank God they're on OUR side!

[Gondring]

Leave it to Newsweak to "out" the good guys and hide the bad guys. Fools.

Uh, in case you missed it, it was President Bush who outed him. I saw it live, as well as poor Gen. Caldwell later trying to answer without answering.

[theFIRMbss]

>Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, West Point '76, is not someone the Army likes to talk about

Of course, he does have his own action figure and Marvel comic line . . .

[MD_Willington_1976]

Agreed

[tx_eggman]

Experts partisan hacks like former (Clinton) Deputy Defense secretary John Hamre are also concerned that Special Ops now has generic authority to deploy where it wants without case-by-case orders. Without proper civilian oversight, a Zarqawi-style success can easily become a "Black Hawk Down."

It was civilian oversight by The Stain® and his cronies that gave us "Black Hawk Down" in the first place

[rahbert]

"the snake-eating, slit-their-throats "black ops" guys"

Wonder if they have snake flavor MRE's for these guys?

[jazusamo]

Experts like former Deputy Defense secretary John Hamre are also concerned that Special Ops now has generic authority to deploy where it wants without case-by-case orders.

Why is it not surprising that a Deputy Defense Secretary in the Clinton Administration would be critical of Special Ops? If Special Ops would have been supported by Clinton, we might not be in the situation we're in now.

[MNJohnnie]

Here is the dichotomy. The Black Ops people still got to fight for their budgets. You got to have good PR to get political muscles to pull in the Budget Wars for you but Spec Ops hates to talk about what they do since keeping Methods and Means secret is life and death for them.

Read "Masters of Chaos". Spec Ops is finally starting to play the game. I think that is a good thing.

[hsalaw]

Oops.

[MNJohnnie]

Umm I seriously doubt having the top guy's name know is going to hurt them in the least. It's a two way street. Good PR gets you political pull. Classifying everything makes you prime target when the budget knives comes out. Spec Ops has to learn they CAN be TOO secret.

[theDentist]

I hear he goes by another name: Jack Bauer.

[Daus]

Experts like former Deputy Defense secretary John Hamre are also concerned that Special Ops now has generic authority to deploy where it wants without case-by-case orders. Without proper civilian oversight, a Zarqawi-style success can easily become a "Black Hawk Down."

Sure, if only their had more 'civilian control' in Somalia, the whole thing could have been avoided... /s

[Diogenesis]

[Junior]

A "black ops" ping...

[Shimmer128]

I'm pretty enamored of them too!

[Thrusher]

Without proper civilian oversight, a Zarqawi-style success can easily become a "Black Hawk Down."

Um, didn't "Blackhawk Down" become a "Black Hawk Down" because of the "civilian oversight" not wanting to do soemthing un-PC, rather than just letting the military do its job?