At the height of its influence during World War II, the OSS employed almost 24,000 people.[54]. The VC also imposed quotas. Some of Reagan's national security officials used non-appropriated money of the National Security Council (NSC) to circumvent the Amendment. "Without a doubt he was Al Qaeda's No. A practice combat infiltration was conducted in October 1970 by Recon Team Florida into the North Vietnamese held "War Zone D", in South Vietnam, the first such drop into a combat zone. The primary strengths of SAC paramilitary officers are operational agility, adaptability, and deniability. [156], In 2009, the Obama administration authorized continued lethal operations in Yemen by the CIA. Deaths Rise in Secret Afghan War", "CIA-trained Ukrainian paramilitaries may take central role if Russia invades", "globalsecurity.org: U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF): Background and Issues for Congress", "The Dallas Morning News October27,2002", "Paramilitary Operations Officer/Specialized Skills Officer", "Chef Julia Child, others part of World War II spy network", "CIA veteran reveals agency's operations in Tibet", "Korean War: CIA-Sponsored Secret Naval Raids", "Secrets of History The C.I.A. [11][34][35], There remains some conflict between the CIA's Directorate of Operations and the more clandestine parts of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM),[36] such as the Joint Special Operations Command. These teams selected and then trained Tibetan soldiers in the Rocky Mountains of the United States;[55] training occurred at Camp Hale. How a Plot Convulsed Iran in '53 (and in '79)", "The History Place Vietnam War 19451960", "US Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth", "They were smokejumpers when the CIA sent them to Laos. The plan for the invasion of Afghanistan was developed by the CIA, the first time in United States history that such a large-scale military operation was planned by the CIA. Many experts proposed that President Trump could mitigate the damage of his withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Syria by using SAC. [253], The 2008 Abu Kamal raid was a helicopter-borne raid conducted by paramilitary officers from Special Activities Division[254] and United States Special Operations Command, Joint Special Operations Command[255] inside Syrian territory on October 26, 2008. [28], Some examples of political action programs were the prevention of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from winning elections between 1948 and the late 1960s; overthrowing the governments of Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954; arming rebels in Indonesia in 1957; and providing funds and support to the trade union federation Solidarity following the imposition of martial law in Poland after 1981. [82], Also, in the 1970s, the U.S. Navy, the National Security Agency (NSA) and SAD[83] conducted Operation Ivy Bells and a series of other missions to place wiretaps on Soviet underwater communications cables. [189] On February 14, the CIA drone killed 27 taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in a missile strike in south Waziristan, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border where al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri were believed to be hiding. In addition, CIA Paramilitary Officers were responsible for the Dalai Lama's clandestine escape to India along with Indian intelligence, narrowly escaping capture by the People's Liberation Army. [95], In June 2006, the Islamic Courts Union seized control of southern Somalia, including the country's capital Mogadishu, prompting the Ethiopian government to send in troops to try to protect the transitional government. Until December 2006, Somalia's government had no power outside of the town of Baidoa, 150 miles (240km) from the capital. [152][153] Former Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called it "a very successful tactical operation" and said "such strikes are useful not only in killing terrorists but in forcing al-Qaeda to change its tactics". [58] Shortly thereafter, the five men were covertly returned to Tibet "to assess and organize the resistance" and selected another 300 Tibetans for training. 's covert campaign in Pakistan using Predator and Reaper drones. He explained that a senior Taliban official had taken her as a wife and had sharply restricted the time she could spend with her family. [164] Sargat was also the only facility that had traces of chemical weapons discovered in the Iraq war.[31][165][167]. Some experts assess that the CIA Director at that time Leon Panetta has been more aggressive in conducting paramilitary operations in Pakistan than his predecessor. [17], On September 26, 2001, a CIA team code-named "Jawbreaker" led by Gary Schroen, a case officer, with several members from Special Activities Division including Schroen's deputy Philip Reilly, a paramilitary officer, were the first U.S. forces inserted into Afghanistan. [266] Many believe the president chose "to replace U.S. ground forces in Syria with personnel from the CIA's Special Activities Division and that the process has been underway for months. It was planned and carried out by JSOC's Delta Force and SAD/SOG teams (together called Task Force 121). One component of the Phoenix Program was involved in the capture and killing of suspected Viet Cong (VC) members. Publications. Building Expertise and Analytical Readiness (BEAR) Training Program. "Secret U.S. Unit Trains Commandos in Pakistan," Eric Schmit and Jane Perlez. They got stuck in Bangkok and so another crew Bevan, Eubanks, and Lewis flew that mission on August 13, 1961. [143] SOG/CTPT are also key to any exit strategy for the U.S. government to leave Afghanistan, while still being able to deny al-Qaeda and other trans-national extremists groups a safe haven both in Afghanistan and in the FATA of Pakistan. [84] In the 1985 edition of "Studies in Intelligence", the CIA's in-house journal that outsiders rarely get to see, the CIA describes the "staggering expense and improbable engineering feats" that culminated in the August 1974 mission. [40], In an article for ABC News, former Deputy Secretary of Defense and retired CIA paramilitary officer Mick Mulroy explained that the term "covert action" is derived from Presidential Findings authorizing the CIA to conduct specific special activities to support U.S. national security objectives. Intelligence Analyst Chief Analyst Forensic Examiner Secretary of Internal Affairs (Secretary of Int. The list also includes principal leaders of groups affiliated with al-Qaeda. [294], The Fulton surface-to-air recovery system (STARS) is a system developed in the early 1950s by CIA paramilitary officers for retrieving persons from the ground with a MC-130E Combat Talon I aircraft. SAC can be directly tasked by the U.S. president or the National Security Council at the president's direction, unlike other U.S. special mission forces. On October 17, 2001, the eight members of the CIA's Team Alpha[116] became the first Americans behind enemy lines when they were inserted into the Darya Suf Valley in two Black Hawk helicopters. [291] SAC officers have operated covertly since 1947 in places such as North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Pakistan. SAD teams then combined with U.S. Army special forces (on a team called the Northern Iraq Liaison Element or NILE). [198] On July 22, 2009, National Public Radio reported that U.S. officials believe Saad bin Laden, a son of Osama bin Laden, was killed by a CIA strike in Pakistan. Waugh also led the last combat special reconnaissance parachute insertion into enemy territory occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops on June 22, 1971. This fight crossed borders between Iraq and Syria. [127] The SAC team was unsuccessful, and "Bin Laden and bodyguards walked uncontested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area. [71] The ethnic minority forces numbered in the tens of thousands. [235], In the early 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service were ordered to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Iran, Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq, and re-install deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The operation was a result of years of intelligence work that included the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the CIA, the DSS, and the Delta Force's apprehension and interrogation of Khalid Sheik Mohammad (KSM),[226][227][228] the discovery of the real name of the courier disclosed by KSM, the tracking, via signal intelligence, of the courier to the Abbottobad compound by paramilitary operatives and the establishment of a CIA safe house that provided critical advance intelligence for the operation. "[128] At Bin Laden's abandoned encampment, the team uncovered evidence that bin Laden's ultimate aim was to obtain and detonate a nuclear device in the United States. [30] This team organized the Kurdish Peshmerga for the subsequent U.S. led invasion. 2002. Strikes at Leader of Qaeda in Yemen", "Trump appears to confirm killing of al Qaeda leader in Yemen via retweet", "A firefight in the mountains: Operation Viking Hammer was one for the record books", "Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq", "Militants' crude camp casts doubt on U.S. claims", "An interview on public radio with the author", "Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says", "New U.S. A U.S. intelligence source stated that CIA paramilitary teams are directly embedded with Ethiopian forces in Somalia, allowing for the tactical intelligence to launch these operations. . Amazon.com: CIA Licensed Decal Sticker 3x5 inches Laptop Decor (CIA NCS SAD SOG Special Operations Group Ghecko Firebase Kandahar Afghanistan) : Electronics "Let's use this again." He was also a lawyer and former classmate of FDR at Columbia Law School. Within SAD there are two separate groups, SAD/SOG for tactical paramilitary operations and SAD/PAG for covert political action. There are four principal elements within SAC's Special Operations Group, formerly called branches, now organized as departments: the Air Department, the Maritime Department, the Ground Department, and the Armor and Special Programs Department. SAD is responsible for covert operations that fall within the CIA branch of the United States government. "[200] The biggest loss may be to "Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida." [152], "It's an important step that has been taken in that it has eliminated another level of experienced leadership from al-Qaeda," said Vince Cannistraro, former head of counter-terrorism for the CIA and current ABC News consultant. [149], The New York Times reported in March 2020 that during the Trump Administration's negotiations with the Taliban on the peace agreement, several advocated for an increase in CIA paramilitary capability as the U.S. Military reduced its capability to compensate for that reduction. The Contra war ended when the Sandinistas were voted out of power by a war-weary populace in 1990. According to interviews with several senior officials, this officer "was uniformly well-liked and admired. The Political Action Group is responsible for covert activities related to political influence, psychological operations, economic warfare, and cyberwarfare. These are the highest two awards for valor within the CIA in recognition of distinguished valor and excellence in the line of duty. The team gave the man a small hand-held tracking device to pass along to his sister, with instructions for her to activate it when the Taliban leader returned home. "[300], Unit of the American Central Intelligence Agency, Maritime activities against the Soviet Union. Vickers was a young Paramilitary Operations Officer from SAD/SOG. MyLINK Submission All applicants must be: U.S. citizens (dual U.S. citizens also eligible) At least 18 years of age Willing to move to the Washington, DC area Able to complete security and medical evaluations From 1943 to 1945, the OSS also played a major role in training Kuomintang troops in China and Burma, and recruited other indigenous irregular forces for sabotage as well as guides for Allied forces in Burma fighting the Japanese army. [162], SAD paramilitary teams entered Northern Iraq before the 2003 invasion. The mission of training and leading guerrillas in due course went to the United States Army Special Forces, but those missions required to remain covert were performed by the (Deputy) Directorate of Plans and its successor the Directorate of Operations of the CIA. In December, the Islamic Courts warned Ethiopia they would declare war if Ethiopia did not remove all its troops from Somalia. [288][289] Ronald Kessler states in his book The CIA at War: Inside the Secret War Against Terror, that although paramilitary operations are a strain on resources, they are winning the war against terrorism. "[151], On July 14, 2009, several newspapers reported that DCIA Leon Panetta was briefed on a CIA program that had not been briefed to the oversight committees in Congress. They did this without the use of conventional U.S. military ground forces.[17][119][120][121]. [204] The article also cites a Pakistani official who stated that about 80 missile attacks in less than two years have killed "more than 400" enemy fighters, a number lower than most estimates but in the same range. [182] This is a testament to SAD being the preeminent force for unconventional warfare and their long-standing relationship with the most effective fighting force in the region, the Kurdish Peshmerga. SAC/SOG has far fewer members than most of the other special missions units, such as the U.S. Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (Delta Force) or Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU). Tactical units within SAC can also carry out covert political action while deployed in hostile and austere environments. Jones, the only contractor with the CIA's paramilitary Global Response Staff (GRS) who has come out publicly as gay, said that what had him so terrified was a disturbing pattern of harassment he . [213], On February 20, Muhammad Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, was one of four people killed in the drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region in North Waziristan, according to two Pakistani intelligence sources. War in Syria", "How Trump can withdraw US military forces, and salvage US interests in Syria", "ISIS leader al-Baghdadi believed to have been killed in a US military raid, sources say | CNN Politics", "ISIS leader killed in daring U.S. raid in Syria, Trump says", "Tip from disaffected militant set in motion operation that killed ISIS leader al-Baghdadi", "Isis Leader al Baghdadi Dead After US Special Forces Raid Hideout in Syria: Sources", "Trump says Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi blew himself up as U.S. [90] In fact, when a similar counter-insurgency program was proposed in Iraq, it was referred to as "the Salvador Option". It was the first known helicopter takedown of suspects in a moving car. [283], In 2002, the George W. Bush Administration prepared a list of "terrorist leaders" the CIA is authorized to kill in a targeted killing if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be kept to an acceptable number. [93], President Bill Clinton withdrew U.S. forces on May 4, 1994. [159], On January 31, 2020, The New York Times reported that three U.S. officials "expressed confidence" that Qasim al-Raymi, the emir of AQAP was killed by the CIA on January 25,[160] in Al Abdiyah District, Ma'rib Governorate, Yemen. The list includes key al-Qaeda leaders like Ayman al-Zawahiri and formerly included its deceased previous leader, Osama bin Laden. [229][230][231], The material discovered in the raid indicated that bin Laden was still in charge of his Al-Qaeda organization and was developing plans and issuing orders at the time of his death. They were drip-feeding opposition groups just enough to survive but never enough to become dominant actors. This list is called the "high value target list". [123], Small and highly agile paramilitary mobile teams spread out over the countryside to meet with locals and gather information about the Taliban and al-Qa'ida. This initiative included inserting South Korean commandos and CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers prior to the two major amphibious assaults on North Korea, including the landing at Inchon.[11]. [285] Per senior intelligence officers, this program was an attempt to avoid the civilian casualties that can occur during Predator drone strikes using Hellfire missiles. CIA Pakistan Campaign is Working Director Say. Strikes In Somalia Reportedly Kill 31", "Commando raid in Somalia is latest in covert operations across the globe", "Senior al Qaeda leader killed in Somalia", "U.S. Gunship fires on al Qaeda Leader and Operative in Somalia", "Somalia's NISA and CIA: An Effective Partnership Against AlQaeda", Somalia: Over 25 Dead and 40 Injured in Mogadishu Courthouse Siege, "British 'al-Qaida member' killed in US drone attack in Somalia", "Moroccan jihadist killed in Somalia airstrike", "Navy SEALs rescue kidnapped aid workers Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted in Somalia", "U.S. Somalia raid is shape of war to come", "Senior CIA Officer Killed During Combat in Somalia", "CIA Contractor Dies in Secret U.S. War in Somalia", "First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan", "Jawbreaker CIA Special Activities Division", National Clandestine Service (NCS) Central Intelligence Agency, "Senate Report Explores 2001 Escape by bin Laden From Afghan Mountains", "Bush administration could've captured terrorist Osama Bin Laden in December 2001: Senate report", "C.I.A. [31], The mission that captured Saddam Hussein was called "Operation Red Dawn." [191], In a National Public Radio (NPR) report dated February 3, 2008, a senior official stated that al-Qaeda has been "decimated" by SAD/SOG's air and ground operations. [257] An unnamed U.S. military source, however, alleges that the target was a network of foreign fighters who planned to travel through Syria to join the Iraqi insurgency against the United States-led Coalition in Iraq and the Iraqi government. CIA GRS SAD SERE Coin. Political and "influence" covert operations are used to support US foreign policy. "When they told me that, I teared up," Oehlerich recalled. Agent Who Vanished on C.I.A. HALO and HAHO (High Altitude-High Opening) are also known as Military Free Fall (MFF). U.S. forces responded by blowing a large hole into the side of the compound. They did this by killing or capturing many of the key al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq. The countryside and the capital were run by warlords and militia groups who could be paid to protect terrorist groups. As a result, the idea was shelved. [175], On October 26, 2008, SAD/SOG and JSOC conducted an operation in Syria targeting the "foreign fighter logistics network" bringing al-Qaeda operatives into Iraq (See 2008 Abu Kamal raid). [8] The Latin motto of SAC is Tertia Optio, which means "Third Option," as covert action represents an additional option within the realm of national security when diplomacy and military action are not feasible.[9]. These were just two of the over 50 caught by SAC/SOG just between 1983 and 1995. [186][187] The CIA Director authorized the continuation of these operations and on January 23, SAD/SOG performed killings of 20 individuals in northwestern Pakistan that were terrorists. It has also fueled the ambitions and anxieties of local and regional actors vying over the future shape of Syria. [175][176] Reports from fellow paramilitary officers stated that the flash radio report sent was "five wounded and one martyred". The GRS has gained recognition recently due to the role they played in mounting a rescue operation of U.S. diplomats and staff during the Benghazi attack in 2012. [256] The Syrian government called the event a "criminal and terrorist" attack on its sovereignty, alleging all of the reported eight fatalities were civilians. [205][206] On December 31, 2009, senior Taliban leader and strong Haqqani ally Haji Omar Khan, brother of Arif Khan, was killed in the strike along with the son of local tribal leader Karim Khan. At the time of the attack, the U.S. had around 700 troops in Somalia, assisting local forces to defeat al-Shabaab, the burgeoning al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group with an estimated 9,000 fighters throughout the region. Other functions of the OSS included the use of propaganda, espionage, subversion, and post-war planning. The sea-borne invasion force landed on April 17, and fighting lasted until April 19, 1961. [295] Project COLDFEET was a very successful mission in 1962 in which two military officers parachuted into a remote abandoned Soviet site in the Arctic. This program was considered too limited to have the desired outcome. In 1970, for example, communist officials near Da Nang in northern South Vietnam instructed their agents to "kill 400 persons" deemed to be government "tyrant[s]" and to "annihilate" anyone involved with the "pacification" program. Several SAC/SOG teams infiltrated into Tehran to support this operation. [214], On May 31, 2010, The New York Times reported that Mustafa Abu al Yazid (AKA Saeed al Masri), a senior operational leader for Al Qaeda, was killed in an American missile strike in Pakistan's tribal areas. [118], In September 2009, the CIA planned on "deploying teams of spies, analysts and paramilitary operatives to Afghanistan, part of a broad intelligence 'surge' ordered by President Obama. During that time, one of the teams was approached in a village and asked by a young man for help in retrieving his teenage sister. The shift to a bigger role by the CIA was adamantly opposed by the Taliban, who threatened to withdraw from the talks. Manager Executive Manager Assistant Head Manager [17][30] Despite (or because of) SAC/SOG being the most covert unit in U.S. special operations, numerous books have been published on the exploits of CIA paramilitary officers, including Conboy and Morrison's Feet to the Fire: CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 19571958,[32] and Warner's Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos. "[140] This covert war includes being a hub for these CTPT operations, with Firebase Lilley being just one in a constellation of CIA bases across Afghanistan. Missile Strike May Have Killed Pakistan's Taliban Leader, Officials Say", "Airstrike forces Taliban to cancel meeting", "C.I.A. Their efforts, working under extremely dangerous conditions with little to no support, led to several very successful joint JSOC/CIA operations. "[15] There is some question as to whether former Vice President Dick Cheney instructed the CIA not to inform Congress. [33] Most experts consider SAC/SOG the premier force for unconventional warfare (UW), whether that warfare consists of either creating or combating an insurgency in a foreign country. [96] On January 9, 2007, a U.S. official said that ten militants were killed in one airstrike. The DoD found that it does not have the legal authority to conduct covert action or the operational agility to carry out these types of missions. A large covert operation typically has components that involve many or all of these categories as well as paramilitary operations. [163] This combined U.S. special operations and Kurdish force defeated the Iraqi Army. [188] A Pakistani security official stated that other strikes killed at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly "a high-value target" such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official. The GRS mission calls for the. [47] The Armor and Special Programs Department is charged with the development, testing, and covert procurement of new personnel and vehicular armor and maintenance of stockpiles of ordnance and weapons systems used by SOG, almost all of which must be obtained from clandestine sources abroad, in order to provide SOG operatives and their foreign trainees with plausible deniability in accordance with U.S. Congressional directives. and in July 2010, Director Panetta chose a former chief of SAC as the new NCS Director. Once in power, the Sandinistas disbanded the Nicaraguan National Guard, who had committed many human rights abuses, and arrested and executed some of its members. [66][67] The ELN was well equipped and scored a number of early successes against the Bolivian army in the difficult terrain of the mountainous Camiri region. Southworth, Samuel A.; Tanner, Stephen. The most successful combination in both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been the linking up of SAD and military special forces to fight alongside highly trained indigenous units. to Kill Terrorists", CIA Had Plan To Assassinate Qaeda Leaders, "CIA Plan Envisioned Hit Teams Killing al Qaeda Leaders", "Obama's National-Security Picks Cross the Line Between Spy and Soldier Daily Intel", "Trump's CIA Has Set up Teams to Kill Terrorists", "Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assa", "Surprise, Kill, Vanish with Fred Burton and Annie Jacobsen", "Remembering CIA's Heroes: Nels "Benny" Benson", Star Agents: The anonymous stars in the CIA's Book of Honor memorialize covert operatives lost in the field, Review of Hotel California: The Clandestine War inside Iraq, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom Triumph and Tragedy", Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, DEA Office of National Security Intelligence, Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, National Counterintelligence and Security Center, Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special_Activities_Center&oldid=1134257407, Non-military counterterrorist organizations, Paramilitary organizations based in the United States, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from September 2022, Articles with dead external links from June 2016, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from April 2022, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 2016present (as Special Activities Center), the use and tactical employment of an unusually wide degree of modern weaponry, high performance / tactical driving (on and off-road), surreptitious entry operations (picking or otherwise bypassing locks). [130] In December 2009, The New York Times reported that President Obama ordered an expansion of the drone program with senior officials describing the program as "a resounding success, eliminating key terrorists and throwing their operations into disarray". A fifth, Mark Rausenberger, later became a paramilitary officer; he died on CIA duty in the Philippines in 2016. SAC/SOG units also defeated Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003,[30][31] and trained, equipped, organized and led the Kurdish peshmerga forces to defeat the Iraqi Army in northern Iraq. He was Mustafa al-Jaziri, an Algerian national described as an "important and effective" leader and senior military commander for al-Qaida. [267], On October 26, 2019, U.S. Joint Special Operations Command's (JSOC) Delta Force conducted a raid into the Idlib province of Syria on the border with Turkey that resulted in the death of Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai also known as Ab Bakr al-Baghdadi. U.S. assistance to the Tibetan resistance ceased after the 1972 Nixon visit to China, after which the United States and China normalized relations.[59]. [130] The majority of the CIA's workforce was located among secret bases and military special operations posts throughout the country. Direct military aid by the United States was eventually forbidden by the Boland Amendment of the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983. [297], Third Option Foundation (TOF) is a national non-profit organization set up to support the families of fallen paramilitary officers. Mehsud had claimed responsibility in a video he made with the suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. They had come from a wide variety of Middle Eastern and North African countries, including Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Tunisia, Morocco, and Iran. They conducted direct actions missions, led by Paramilitary Operations Officers, against the communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese allies. It provides information and guidance on adding safety specific management . [297][299][298] The other names remain secret, even in death. The car ground to a halt as commandos roped down from hovering Blackhawks [sic], surrounded the car, and handcuffed Ato.