President Obama plans to expand the reach of Joint Special Operations Command, the super-secret force behind the daring raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in 2011, according to a report.
The missions will be expected to take part beyond Iraq and Syria and other familiar terror hot spots, according to sources who spoke to the Washington Post. The new missions will be launched as Islamic State fighters are being driven from their geographical strongholds in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, and are widely expected to begin a new phase of dispersed, targeted terror attacks in the West.
The command, the Post reported, will be elevated from a collection of special operations teams used by regional commanders to a “new multiagency intelligence and action force.”
The move immediately raises questions as to whether it will survive the incoming Trump administration and its designated national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn. Before running the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn was director of intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command, which is includes operators such as Delta Force and Navy SEALs.
