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Team America: World Police

Don’t assume they’re not thinking about it. In fact they are. Seriously. Noah Shachtman at Wired found this scoop at Inside Defense (subscription only). One retired Lt. Col. George Crawford has written a report for the U.S Military’s Joint Special Operations University calling for a “National Manhunting Agency,” to train elite units of global terror-trackers […]

Don’t assume they’re not thinking about it. In fact they are. Seriously. Noah Shachtman at Wired found this scoop at Inside Defense (subscription only). One retired Lt. Col. George Crawford has written a report for the U.S Military’s Joint Special Operations University calling for a “National Manhunting Agency,” to train elite units of global terror-trackers (picture Dog The Bounty Hunter meets Starship Troopers).

From Shachtman’s report:

…Sometimes, that will mean operating “in uncooperative countries.” In those cases, the teams must be prepared “to act unilaterally, with no support or coordination with local authorities, in a manner similar to that employed by Israel’s Avner team in response to the Munich Olympics massacre.” (That was the controversial unit, fictionalized in Steven Spielberg’s movie, that allegedly roamed the world, assassinating Palestinian militants in response to the 1972 Olympic attack.)

The hit squads would only be one part of the manhunting agency, according to the Joint Special Operations University monograph, uncovered by Inside Defense. “Dedicated teams must be assembled, able to respond ‘on-call’ in the event of a raid on a suspect site or to conduct independent ‘break-in and search’ operations without leaving evidence of their intrusion,” Crawford notes.

Manhunting will also “require personnel who are experts at conducting surveillance of particular facilities, personnel, or activities without arousing suspicion or being detected,” he adds. “Picture in your mind a typical city street scene, with a little old lady walking her dog, the phone repair crew descending into a manhole, two little old men playing an innocent game of checkers, or the homeless person sleeping on the park bench, and you are on the right track.”

Such a group wouldn’t just go after terrorists. “Human networks are behind narcotics trafficking, arms proliferation, piracy, hiding war criminals from authorities, human trafficking, or other smuggling activities,” Crawford writes. “Human networks also lie at the core of national governments, offering an increased potential to nonlethally influence state actors with precision. A robust manhunting capability would allow the United States to interdict these human networks.”

This is frightening on so many levels. I mean, slow down pal, we already have the most famous al Qaeda hunter, Gen. Stan McChrystal, running things in Afghanistan. Plus, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, Team America is already on the job:

“The only thing standing between order and chaos — is us”

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