Black Ops and "Black List One"

In Micheal Smith's book, The Killer Elite, he talks about the United States Special Operation's missions. The last chapter, "A Real Killer Elite" is dedicated to Operation Iraqi Freedom's main Special Operations (SpecOps) mission. Hunting down former Iraqi Ba'athists (officials from Saddam's political party) and "Black List One" himself, Saddam Hussein.

The main problem with capturing the elusive "Black List One" was the fact that he avoided the use of electronic communication that the U.S. is so good at tracking. This left the Special Operations Troops or Operators with only Human Intelligence (HumInt) to guide them. In other words, the only way that they could get to Saddam was through the interrogation of people close to him. The Operators got their first taste of how HumInt can be used to track a target when they cornered Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusay in a villa in Mosul, Iraq. As smith puts it, " With a $15-million reward on each of their heads, it had only been a matter of time before someone decided to sell them out" (235). Due to the high premium for American lives, the commanding officer there decided that the best way to avoid losing any troops while "neutralizing" Uday and Qusay was to fire 18 anti-tank missiles into the building. This is how the Coalition would learn to avoid casualties through out the war. Minutes later, the mission was declared a success when operators stormed the building to find Uday and Qusay "neutralized".

Operators on the ground received praise for the mission and more importantly, more attention which can lead to more funding. The Operators had already made a good name for themselves in Afghanistan and were beginning to convince the White house that they were essential to the "War on Terror". In order to cement this image they had only to capture Osama bin Laden and in Iraq, "Black List One". They hustled for more HumInt that would lead them to Saddam. They raided his hometown of Tikrit and questioned detainees there, as well as capturing detainees linked to the dictator politically. Saddam carried a $25-million price tag on his head and was as doomed as his sons before him. Finally, the Operators got reliable intelligence (intel) on Saddam hiding out on a farm ten miles south of Tikrit, Iraq. There they found a frail old man hiding in a hole with his hand up in surrender saying "I am Saddam Hussein, I am the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate." Upon hearing this, one of the Operators replied " President Bush sends his regards."

Needless to say, the capture of "Black List One" was a huge boost to the image of Special Operations. Then Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld made sure that Special Operations Command (SOCOM) was given more autonomy from the armed forces in seeing what they were capable of. This also meant more funding. More importantly though, it made SOCOM the centerpiece of America's "War on Terror".

I personally agree with Rumsfeld in that Operators should lead the charge in current security operations against Terrorist and other "High Value Targets". They even have their own counter-terrorism units, such as Delta Force, and the Navy Seal's DevGru. The only reason that SOCOM's battlefield ability has been questioned is due to their failure to capture Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders. In Iraq though, their talent is unquestionable. After the capture of Saddam, their next number one target in Iraq was an al-Qaeda commander named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man responsible for trying to start an Iraqi civil war through sectarian violence. With HumInt, this man was stopped. A properly funded SOCOM seems incapable of failure. The only thing that can stand in their way is the number of zeroes on their check, which is no problem for the richest country in the world, but may become one in the future.