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Tag Archives: Obama

20/Jan/2013 · 16:43

Coming Soon: Benghazi E-Book by Jack Murphy and Brandon Webb

Coming in early February is my non-fiction ebook which I co-wrote with Brandon Webb. If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been posting on SOFREP as much as usual, it is because of this project. I spent months on this ebook. I sifted through the stacks in the basements of Columbia, read through diplomatic cables that came out via Wikileaks, combed through white papers, and went back and researched relevant books to get the most complete picture on Benghazi and Libya. Beyond that, I consulted with numerous sources on Benghazi who helped flesh out the big picture and what really happened that day.

It was a long, uphill battle in which many of my own assumptions about the attack on the US Consulate and the death of four Americans was called into question. One of the deceased was in fact best friends with Brandon Webb and an acquaintance of mine. For this reason alone, we felt compelled to get the most complete story. Yes, the media lied to you, but maybe not in the ways that you think.

Brandon and I are both proud of this book and will be doing some press for it upon release. Because this book questions assumptions and even includes on the ground accounts of what happened that night there will be a lot of controversy. I know what kind of heat is coming. When people have been caught up in a scam their natural reaction when that scam is revealed is to withdraw even deeper into the fraud. It is a protective measure, no one wants to admit that they were wrong.

As I wrote in the prologue of the book, let the chips fall where they may.

Now available for pre-order.

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Filed under News, Writing

Tagged as Benghazi, CIA, Counter-Terrorism, covert operations, Libya, Obama, terrorism

07/Nov/2012 · 23:33

What Does Four More Years of Obama Mean for US Special Operations Forces?

Since 9/11 we have seen a revolution in how the entire US defense structure approaches and deals with the issue of terrorism. While the Clinton administration introduced some legislation that would pave the way for “targeted” killings in instances where there was an Executive Finding, the Clinton administration took a limp-wristed approach to intelligence gathering and counter-terrorism for the bulk for the 1990s, including missed opportunities to kill Al Qaeda head honcho, Osama Bin Laden.

The post-9/11 Bush Administration not only swung US Special Operations forces into action, along with Para-Military and Clandestine Services, but also pushed hard for an expansion of these capabilities. Then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld played a large role in expanding the Special Forces Regiment and personally visited the Delta Force compound on Ft. Bragg to get a better understanding of how counter-terrorist forces operate.

Obama stepped into the White House during a transition period where America was withdrawing from Iraq and attempting to hash out an exit strategy for Afghanistan. While timelines were debated, shifted to the right, and a number of phony withdrawals were staged for the media, the US military did pull out of Iraq and is currently working towards doing the same in Afghanistan. No doubt this action has increased support from both the Pentagon and the American public with the near total lose of credibility of US Counter-Insurgency strategy with the so-called “insider” or “green on blue” attack where our Afghan allies suddenly turn on and kill American soldiers.

In the face of this withdrawal, the War on Terror seems to be decreasing in over all troop deployments while simultaneously expanding in all directions with low-visibility operations in places like Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Mali, and Libya. Meanwhile, other long standing operations have continued in places like Colombia which have been largely ignored by a media, and perhaps a Pentagon, that has a fixation on the Middle East.

With SEAL Team Six eliminating Osama Bin Laden during Obama’s watch, the Special Operations community has received unprecedented popularity in the public arena. Reportedly, the Obama Administration has delegated responsibility for counter-terrorist operations to JSOC and his National Security Council, leaving them more or less to their own devices.