10 Things You Didn't Know About The President's Army

[Are_grits_groceries]

The U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC, pronounced: JAY-sock) is best known for the Osama bin Laden raid. But it has long served as the president’s secret army, planning and executing the most dangerous, highly classified missions of the United States military. In 2009, its snipers rescued an American ship captain held captive by Somali pirates. In 2003, JSOC hunted down and captured Saddam Hussein near Tikrit, Iraq. In 1993, two Delta snipers earned posthumous Congressional Medals of Honor for actions during the Battle of Mogadishu (a JSOC operation portrayed in Black Hawk Down). And before that, members of the Command were tracking Scud missiles during the Gulf War and slithering down ropes in Panama. Here are a few things about the president’s secret army that you might not know.
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3. JSOC can reconstruct documents that have been burned.
When JSOC teams collect intelligence on the battlefield, they benefit from a quiet revolution in document exploitation (DOCEX) techniques. Algorithms assign values to data based on the probability that a faint “I” is indeed an “I.” The upshot is that DOCEX specialists can even reconstruct documents that have been burned beyond recognition.

4. The aircraft used in the Bin Laden raid were from Area 51.
Specially modified helicopters carried Red Squadron of SEAL Team Six to Abbottabad, Pakistan, for the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. The Black Hawks were fitted with top secret radar-spoofing technology allowing U.S. forces to slip across the border unnoticed. These stealth aircraft were developed and tested at the infamous Area 51, near Groom Lake, Nevada. They are of earthly origin.

5. The president’s secret army is everywhere.
Alongside the Central Intelligence Agency, operators from Delta Force and SEAL Team Six infiltrated China to map the locations of Chinese satellite transmission facilities. It has operated in Peru, tracking members of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. And a JSOC team usually shadows the president of the United States when he is overseas, in the event of a catastrophic breakdown by U.S. Secret Service.
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Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/117735#ixzz1mvISwptR
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Well, I wonder what else they can do? And on American soil?

[orpupilofnature57]

1. One man thought it was a danger to Democracy

[Lurks Often]

2. Doubt he was referring to Special Operations

since he was the President that supported the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) in the early years to the point that the Special Forces named their training school the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

[orpupilofnature57]

9. True ,but there wouldn't have been

a CIA to " work beside " . No disparaging thoughts to the brave soldiers that make up our elite , just the scoundrels that run to & fro misinforming them.

[geek tragedy]

3. The guy who launched the Bay of Pigs fiasco? nt

[orpupilofnature57]

6. The same, post 4/61 pre 11/63

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion

[Gman]

4. I can't say this is a bad thing

Just in case they're needed.

[zipplewrath]

5. The juiciest one

And one that answers your question somewhat:

10. There was a JSOC equivalent to the Department of Pre-Crime.

In Minority Report, a police agency organized around psychics and machines can predict a crime before it happens. In Iraq, the president’s secret army had something similar. A project codenamed NGA SKOPE allowed JSOC to merge data collected from just about any intelligence source and predict, based on patterns of movement, where insurgents were likely to be and what they were likely to do. (For example: The recorded locations and orientations of insurgents’ cars during one IED attack made it possible to predict future attacks based on similar movements.)

We developed, as part of the effort to combat IED's, a technology they are calling "persistent surveillance". In it's beginning it was crude, and basically compared scenes over time looking for certain kinds of changes. Since then, they are developing the kinds of algorithims alluded to here. The ability to not just do scene comparisons, but to look for patterns of movement and orientation as well, and use multiple data sources to do it.

THAT'S what they can bring home. It has commercial and law enforcment applications, as well as code enforcement and traffic management.

[orpupilofnature57]

7. " Persistent Surveillance " after the Vast applications is

Dangerous to Democracy . Unless Phychics and machines can be trusted not to have a skewed agenda.

[xchrom]

8. Du rec. Nt

[raouldukelives]

10. It's too bad they aren't outfitted to take on terrorism

As we've seen the only way to go after a small terrorist group is by full scale ground invasions of foreign countries resulting in civilian casualties in the tens of thousands.
We should develop a crack squad of undercover infiltrators who can take on terrorist organizations and target individual criminals while sparing the needless deaths of the innocent.
Of course it wouldn't be good for the stock market or generate the mindset of fear one might want if you were looking to pass draconian measures against our personal freedoms at home.
But luckily were operating from a bastion of liberty & justice towards mankind so it's never been about money or power.