America’s Black-Ops Blackout: Unraveling the secrets of the military’s secret military

[bananas]

http://www.zcommunications.org/america-s-black-ops-blackout-by-nick-turse.html

America’s Black-Ops Blackout
Unraveling the secrets of the military’s secret military
By Nick Turse
Source: TomDispatch.com
Wednesday, January 08, 2014

“Dude, I don’t need to play these stupid games. I know what you’re trying to do.” With that, Major Matthew Robert Bockholt hung up on me.

More than a month before, I had called U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) with a series of basic questions: In how many countries were U.S. Special Operations Forces deployed in 2013? Are manpower levels set to expand to 72,000 in 2014? Is SOCOM still aiming for growth rates of 3%-5% per year? How many training exercises did the command carry out in 2013? Basic stuff.

And for more than a month, I waited for answers. I called. I left messages. I emailed. I waited some more. I started to get the feeling that Special Operations Command didn’t want me to know what its Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs and Delta Force commandos -- the men who operate in the hottest of hotspots and most remote locales around the world -- were doing.

Then, at the last moment, just before my filing deadline, Special Operations Command got back to me with an answer so incongruous, confusing, and contradictory that I was glad I had given up on SOCOM and tried to figure things out for myself.



<snip>

[Aristus]

1. "Dude, this is, like, totally bogus, okay?

Totally not talking about this anymore, right?"

This is how generals talk these days?...