It was exactly ten years ago on September 11th 2001 that the terrible terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington took place.
Book by Dana Priest and William Arkin
It is sobering to reflect on how this act – the first "hostile attack by air" on the mainland of the United States - has changed the world during the past ten years. An interesting point of view is seen in a recent book Top Secret America – the Rise of the New American Security State written by Washington Post reporters Dana Priest (a Pulitzer Prize winner) and William Arkin (who served in US Army Intelligence from 1974 to 1978).
In this book, Priest and Arkin chronicle the rise of America’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that took place since the bombing of New York’s twin towers in September 11 2001. What is now referred as ‘9/11’ took America completely by surprise – and President Bush reacted in a manner that was intended to ensure that such an event would never take place again.
Priest and Arkin's book also describes the growth of the role of the Joint Special Operations Command or JSOC, the secret military command that now conducts more anti-terrorism operations than the CIA – and is described by the authors as "sitting at the center of a secret universe as the dark matter that shapes the world in ways that are usually not detectable".
Joint Secret Operations Command JSOC
The organization, established in 1980, conducted hostage rescues for many years. Since 9/11 it has developed into a particularly lethal arm of the US military – a force to be feared that conducts special targeted military operations including the secret operation that located and killed Osama Bin Laden and his family. Over the past decade, JSOC and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have conducted secret operations to hunt its enemies down and kill them – activities that the world hears little about.
"Targeted Killings" in Other Countries
They have used missiles from Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs or drones) to assassinate people like Mustafa Abu al-Yazid (also called Saeed al-Masri), a founding member of al Qaeda, along with his wife and several of their children. In 2009 another Predator drone missile killed Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, and his wife. Many of these covert assasinations (the US government euphemistically refers to these as "targeted killings") have been committed in other countries like Pakistan and Yemen. It is interestimng to speculate if JSOC would have undertaken these "Targeted Killings" it justifies if, for example, their targets were living not in Pakistan or Yemen, but in China or Saudi Arabia or France.
"As a killing machine, JSOC is highly effective," say Priest and Arkin . "No one competes with them. It is a professionalized killing force and that’s what it’s been used for. They operate in very small groups of people so they can keep a low profile. They have their own interrogation facilities that they alone control. And they have captured and killed a lot more Al-Qaeda than the CIA have."
The authors say "They also have a kill list. That is one of the more controversial aspects of JSOC and the CIA — they can put people on that list and they can then hunt them down and kill them. "
President Obama and JSOC
Priest says both Presidents Bush and Obama have used JSOC as a personal weapon against terrorists. Although Barack Obama when he was campaigning for the presidency pledged to make agencies such as JSOC more transparent and accountable, since assuming office he has re-authorised it to do what it has been doing.
On reading Priest and Arkin’s disclosures, one can be justified in contemplating – if other countries had even thought, during their own wars against deadly terrorist groups, of doing the kind of covert killing the US has been doing , they would have almost certainly been targeted by Human Rights activists, the UN Human Rights Council and the very world leaders who that accept and condone the behaviour of JSOC.
Do Two Wrongs Make a Right? And does Might make things like targeted killings in other people's countries Right?
One wonders.
Sanjiva Wijesinha - Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha, Associate Professor at Monash University medical school, writes on health, travel and medical topics.
