Special forces scent No 1 target

[Geezah]

The hunt for leading members of al-Qa'eda is being led by Task Force 121, a team of American and British special forces that also includes military and CIA intelligence operatives.

Task Force 121, set up with the aim of seizing America's two main enemies, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, has already succeeded in tracking down Saddam.

Now it is making a concerted effort to find bin Laden, pulling troops out of Iraq to take part in Operation Mountain Storm, a concentrated effort to capture leading elements of al-Qa'eda and the Taliban before the US presidential elections.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2004/03/20/walq120big.gif

The task force, based at Bagram airfield north of Kabul but now gathered on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, is made up of teams from the US Delta Force, US Navy Seals - now more properly known as DevGru - the British and Australian SAS, the UK's Special Boat Service, now virtually indistinguishable from their SAS colleagues, supported by troops from the US 10th Mountain Division.

Intelligence on the ground is supplied by the CIA's Special Activities Division, set up to give the CIA an active presence on the ground inside areas of conflict, and a highly secret Pentagon special operations unit known as the Intelligence Support Activity. Originally set up in 1981 in the wake of the failed attempt by US special forces to rescue the US hostages from Teheran, the ISA goes under a number of different codenames, changing them for every new deployment.

The most recently publicised of the many codenames used by "the Activity", as it became known to outsiders, is Gray Fox. But that was at least two years ago and it now uses a different codename.

Its charter specifically states that it should be "directed to undertake activities only when other intelligence or operational support elements and resources are unavailable or inappropriate".

The ISA's members are all volunteers picked for their specific physical or mental abilities. They include officers skilled in running agents in hostile countries, linguists, communications intelligence experts, and "the shooters", special forces soldiers trained to carry out "direct action" on the basis of the intelligence their colleagues produce.

• Yemen has recaptured two escaped al-Qa'eda suspects believed to have been behind the 2000 bomb attack that killed 17 sailors aboard the USS Cole in Aden.

Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd al-Qusaa were the last of 10 suspects detained in connection with the attack on the USS Cole to be rearrested by Yemeni police since escaping from jail last year.

They were arrested after a shoot-out with security forces who tried to stop their car on the Abyan-Shabwa road in the southern province of Abyan.

[Geezah]

Britain has sent 100 SAS soldiers to Afghanistan and the Americans have asked it to send hundreds more elite troops to support an intensified push to capture Osama bin Laden, defence sources said yesterday.

The SAS force was seen passing through Bagram air base, north of Kabul.

An official at the base, the headquarters of allied special forces in Afghanistan, said it was on its way to the mountainous border with Pakistan to take part in Operation Mountain Storm against al-Qa'eda and Taliban militants.

Defence chiefs are considering the request to send paratroops or commandos to reinforce the American and British special forces hunting bin Laden, the head of al-Qa'eda, and his lieutenants, the defence sources said.

President George W Bush has launched an all-out attempt to capture him by May, partly motivated by a desire to ensure that the election campaign is not dominated by the failure to avenge September 11.

He said yesterday that there could be "no neutral ground" in the war on terrorism. He urged the international community to forget differences over the war in Iraq and unite against terrorism.

News of the British deployment was given as 7,000 Pakistani troops on the other side of the border launched a fresh offensive to close in on a suspected senior al-Qa'eda leader, reported to be Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's deputy. They were backed by helicopter gunships and US intelligence teams.

Major-Gen Shaukat Sultan, of the Pakistan army, said that as many as 400 militants could be holed up in a cluster of tribal villages around Wana, the capital of the South Waziristan province, and he intended to capture them "dead or alive".

Both sides used heavy artillery and some reports suggested that 30,000 civilians had fled the area.

American reconnaissance aircraft, including Predator unmanned craft and U2 spy planes, have been helping Pakistani troops.

British intelligence officials were unable to confirm that Zawahri was among the trapped al-Qa'eda fighters.

"It certainly looks as if there is someone important there," one said. "But no one knows for sure who it is."

America has offered a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Zawahri, who is regarded as the architect of the al-Qa'eda terrorist ideology. This week Congress doubled the award for bin Laden to $50 million.

The American and British special forces teams, part of Task Force 121 that captured Saddam Hussein, are deployed along the Afghan side of the border.

Their task is to root out militants and to capture those fleeing the Pakistani operation.

They are backed by American and Afghan infantry. Gen Atiqullah Ludin, a senior Afghan commander, said the US and Afghan troops were enforcing tight security.

"Al-Qa'eda cannot escape or enter Afghan soil," he said.

Other Afghan commanders said that a major offensive in the south of the country had resulted in the capture of a number of "semi-senior" terrorist leaders. "In recent days, there have been arrests," one said.

"Some of the arrests have included semi-senior leadership within the terrorist elements on the Afghan side, possibly with strong links to al-Qa'eda."

It was unclear whether the terrorists were caught while fleeing the fighting in Pakistan. But a spokesman for the American forces who have poured into the region as part of Mountain Storm played down the seniority of those captured, suggesting that they were middle-ranking members of the Taliban.

Last night, in perhaps the first concrete sign that the Taliban were feeling the pressure of the offensive, they issued a defiant statement on the Arabic television station Al Jazeera.

"We will carry out more attacks against international coalition forces if they continue to chase us," a spokesman said - although the militants later denied making any threat.

The Ministry of Defence said it had no information on any reinforcements for Afghanistan.

The Army is already under great pressure. It has nearly 9,000 troops deployed in Iraq and is reinforcing its presence in Kosovo to try to put an end to the renewed fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

[WARPIG]

Now it is making a concerted effort to find bin Laden, pulling troops out of Iraq to take part in Operation Mountain Storm, a concentrated effort to capture leading elements of al-Qa'eda and the Taliban before the US presidential elections.
Haha!
Which is more likely.
US military tasked with finding Osama before the elections?
or
Mediahound taking a little creative liberty?

"You must willfully remove your face from the fat-laden breast of the media and strike out on your own to hunt knowledge for yourselves. Lest you will be cursed to suckle the nipple of anonimity, apathy, and ignorance." ~WARPIG

[shrek]

I'm going with the creative liberty.

I was with a "task force" that pounded those very mountains to dust looking for that ass-munch and that was WAY before any damn elections. And no, we did not need Presidential permission to go on any ops. We had fairly free rein, so, to all you conspiracy theorists out there. No, Bush could not have delayed his capture until closer to the elections (as rediculous as that even sounds people do believe it, my neighbor for one!)

DE OP

[WARPIG]

Well, let's just say.. if we could count on people to think for themselves... my lawnmower wouldn't have a sticker on it to tell people to not put their hand underneath it when it was running.

[cut]

Geezah, where did you find these?

cheers.

[Geezah]

Geezah, where did you find these?

cheers.

The Telegraph online, www.telegraph.co.uk just put in SAS, SBS or Royal Marines and so on and it brings up lots of goodies :D

[WARPIG]

So whos scent are we talking about. Special Forces scent or Osamas? I would say that both would probably be quite pungent. But, I am going to go out on a limb and say that Osama is probabably more rank than the SF guys. If he is hiding or on the run.. he probably doesn't have much time for bathing. Hmm.. maybe they can hunt for him that way. Just sniff him out.

[usa320]

This ISA or Grey Fox group sounds kinda like the teams that the game SplinterCell was based on. Small teams supported by runners and SIGINT resources.

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

This ISA or Grey Fox group sounds kinda like the teams that the game SplinterCell was based on. Small teams supported by runners and SIGINT resources.
Modern US counter terror group based on popular game it had to happen one day. :lol:

[usa320]

actually im betting its the other way around. game based on the group.

When the game was in development one question the developers asked the experts when creating the game is if such a group actually existed. They refused to comment...which in Dodspeak means yes.

[scm77]

So whos scent are we talking about. Special Forces scent or Osamas? I would say that both would probably be quite pungent. But, I am going to go out on a limb and say that Osama is probabably more rank than the SF guys. If he is hiding or on the run.. he probably doesn't have much time for bathing. Hmm.. maybe they can hunt for him that way. Just sniff him out.

Don't forget the goat humping. That can't help his smell very much. rofl

[Supes]

HUMINT is the key.....

[Tane Angle]

(Quietly eyeing the discussion.)

[Eviscerator]

No, Bush could not have delayed his capture until closer to the elections (as rediculous as that even sounds people do believe it, my neighbor for one!)


i think what they're intimating is that now the elections are in sight bush is stepping up his efforts to root them out, instead of just now starting attempting to catch them, so not really delaying but now that he's near the finish line he's putting every last drop of energy in a desperate bid to come in first. its probably true as well, i'm sure capturing Osama wouldn't hurt his election chances would it?

[California Joe]

(Quietly eyeing Tane eyeing the discussion)

[Falco]

(Quietly eyeing California Joe that is eyeing Tane that is eyeing the discussion)

Seriouly though I hope they get him.

[Tane Angle]

Not to be the OPSEC freak of the bunch, but here's a purely "just wondering" question: Does anybody actually gain from talking about ISA? I mean, are more newspapers sold? Does the public care at all? Of course, the opposite question is does anyone lose from it? Seems to me that if no one really gains and probably no one loses, just save the paper and ink, no? I don't know, maybe I'm just rambling. Have a good one all, and just some thoughts...