The security issues are not new, but the snippets below are interesting in light of all we have learned. Worth posting because sex has hijacked the story.
I am not sure how much of the specific request made in April would have related to what happened in Libya, but the mindset of the admin tells it all.
The link to the remarks by Clinton in Tampa is
Remarks by Clinton in Tampa, May 23, 2012 Sure enough, she seems to think Spec Ops need to be comfortable drinking tea with tribal leaders.
The snippets below might appear choppy and unrelated to one another. I pulled the parts I found interesting, as always full context is best. :)
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Elite Military Forces Are Denied in Bid for Expansion
June 4, 2012
By Eric Schmitt
WASHINGTON — In late April, the military’s Special Operations Command presented the State Department and Congress with an urgent request for new authority to train and equip security forces in places like Yemen and Kenya.
The request…… was the latest effort by the command’s top officer, Adm. William H. McRaven, to make it easier for his elite forces to respond faster to emerging threats and better enable allies to counter the same dangers.
…….the proposal seemed to have momentum. ……
…in a rare rebuke ……., powerful House and Senate officials as well as the State Department, and ultimately the deputy cabinet-level aides who met at the White House on the issue on May 7, rejected the changes. [Ordered] to use security assistance programs already in place, particularly one created last year by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the defense secretary at the time, Robert M. Gates, for just these types of issues.
(snip)
…rare window into the sometimes uneasy relationship between the powerful Special Operations Command, whose dynamic boss, Admiral McRaven, is pushing hard to achieve broad changes to his forces, and the more traditional interests of Congress, the State Department and some top military commanders. …..
Admiral McRaven’s broad goal …obtain new authority from the Defense Department to move his elite forces faster and outside normal Pentagon deployment channels. … give him more autonomy to position his personnel and their fighting equipment where intelligence and world events indicate they are most needed. It would also allow the Special Operations forces to expand their presence in regions where they have not operated in large numbers for the past decade, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
…… not all senior officers welcome Admiral McRaven’s ambitious proposals, suspecting a power grab that might weaken the authority of regional commanders.
….Adm. Timothy J. Keating…… “I don’t fundamentally understand what needs fixing.”
(snip)
……the command argued …… it could provide “a fast turnaround resource for dealing with breaking issues.” Special Operations officers would work closely with American ambassadors in each country and the State Department to support foreign policy goals.
…… some details of a plan sketched out for Congress on March 27 by the Pentagon’s top civilian Special Operations policy official, Michael A. Sheehan. Citing Africa as a prime example….. told the Senate Armed Services Committee, “We will need different authorities, we will need different types of programs in order for us to engage with the range of countries, from Libya down through Mali, which is obviously in the middle of chaos right now, to Mauritania, all the way — and, quite frankly, all the way over to Nigeria.”
…lawmakers and State Department officials were puzzled. Only last year, Mr. Gates and Mrs. Clinton, backed by Congress, agreed to pool resources from their two departments in a new fund to respond more quickly to counter emerging threats from Al Qaeda and other militants in places like Yemen and the Horn of Africa.
The program, the Global Security Contingency Fund……meant to address many of the needs the command’s proposal outlined.
A report ….. last month summed up the objections of not only lawmakers in the House and Senate, but also high-ranking administration officials who met on May 7 at the White House to work out the dispute. “The committee is concerned that the proliferation of similar, overlapping and/or competing building partner capacity authorities creates unnecessary confusion and friction,” the House report said.
(snip)
In a visit to command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., on May 23, Mrs. Clinton extolled the newly forged ties between diplomats and commandos. “We need Special Operations forces who are as comfortable drinking tea with tribal leaders as raiding a terrorist compound,” she said. “We also need diplomats and development experts who understand modern warfare and are up to the job of being your partners.”
(snip)