AFRICOM

Mattis, Thomas Trying to Set The Record Straight on Niger

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is calling out the senior leadership of the Pentagon and Africa Command for placing all of the burden of the ill-fated Niger mission where four Special Operations soldiers were killed on the team leader and the most junior officers and NCOs while absolving the higher command of any blame, despite the evidence to the contrary.

The Special Forces A-Team from the 3rd SFG was ambushed by numerically superior Al-Shabab terrorists who are loyal to the Islamic State. ODA-3312 fought valiantly for five hours but lost four soldiers. Two Green Berets and two support soldiers who were accompanying the A-Team on the mission.

Now, Mattis is ensuring that unlike most goings-on at the Pentagon, that senior leaders are going to be made to pay for the gaffes, regardless of how much they sanitized their own after-action report.

Africa Command (AFRICOM) initially tried to place all of the blame on the Special Forces ODA commander, Captain Michael Perozeni, despite evidence to the contrary. The CYA version of events from Africa Command didn’t stand up to the smell test.

In the largest loss of life for the U.S. military in Africa since the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” mission in Somalia — top military leaders continue to battle over who should be held accountable while continuing to cover their own actions.

Jack Murphy for NEWSREP posted a piece nine months ago that was both highly critical of the sanitized after-action review that changed the story of what exactly the Special Forces team was doing in Niger on the day in question and how the senior officers were totally absolving themselves of any responsibility.

At first, the mission ODA 3212 was conducting was described as a recon mission, then a training mission, and finally they conceded that it was a capture/kill high-value target raid. It seems inevitable that they would be out of touch — the headquarters for Africa Command (AFRICOM) isn’t even in Africa, it is in Germany. For senior military officers, the lesson here will be to institute a deeper level of micromanagement, contrary to the de-centralized manner in which Special Forces is designed to operate. The potential political risk of an unconventional warfare campaign does not level out in the minds of senior officers and politicians. None of them wants another Benghazi on their hands.

The Special Forces team was ambushed in the southwest region of Tongo Tongo, along the Niger-Mali border and 130 miles north of the capital city of Niamey. Tongo Tongo is a hot zone of jihadist activity. Many with ties to al-Qaeda have created the bulk of what is known as al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM).

The Special Operations Command commanded by Army Gen. Tony Thomas, which includes Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and other American Special Operations troops has complained that the SOCOM warriors have been singled out for fault. He has also leveled criticism that Pentagon leaders are protecting United States Africa Command, which oversees missions across the continent.

Thomas sent a memo to Mattis back on October 1st and blamed a bad relations climate between Africa Command and the last commander of American Special Operations in Africa, BG Donald C. Bolduc, as one reason for the failed mission. This was published by the NY Times which said that the internal tensions had “hindered the ability of commanders, at both levels, to understand, communicate, assess and mitigate risk as events transpired” in October 2017.

We highlighted the mitigate risk comment since one of the things that Africa Command put in the initial report was that they blamed the mission failure on “risk-taking, a culture that is deliberately cultivated in Special Operations.” Which is patently ridiculous. Special Operations troops routinely conduct highly sensitive and dangerous missions. The commanders of the SOF teams know the risk that is involved. They are the ones at the tip of the spear.

And yet, CPT Perozeni, the ODA commander, was singled out for having “mischaracterized” the mission to superiors as a trip to meet with tribal leaders, not a counterterrorism effort. Which was completely untrue. Perozeni correctly reported that he did not have the necessary equipment, air support or intelligence to safely and successfully conduct the mission.

But his Battalion Commander LTC David Painter ordered him to continue even though he was in Chad and not even in Niger. Perozeni by all accounts performed very bravely during the five-hour long firefight. He tried to hold things together despite having some totally unreliable host nation troops who mostly cut and ran during the action, leaving the Green Berets alone to slug it out with much heavily armed troops.

Perozeni was wounded in thrown from the back of the truck that he was riding in. His driver SFC Brent Bartels was also wounded in the fighting but still turned around and picked up his commander.

Senior Army officers in a video conference with Mattis last week were incensed at Africa Command and some with Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., for allowing Africa Command, whose leader, Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, is also a Marine, to conduct the investigation on itself by appointing General Waldhauser’s own chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier Jr., to conduct the probe.

Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Army chief of staff who has been appointed by the President to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; Mark Esper, the Army secretary; Owen West, the military’s top civilian Special Operations policy official; and Paul C. Ney Jr., the Pentagon general counsel all were present. General Thomas called in from his headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

Mattis has listened so far and the letter of reprimand for Perozeni has been rescinded. The only senior officer to receive a letter of reprimand thus far is MG Marcus Hicks, the head of Special Operations forces in Africa, who was already planning to retire. LTC Painter was told by General Deedrick that he would be receiving a letter of reprimand.

MAJ Alan Van Saun, Captain Perozeni’s company commander, wasn’t in the country at the time of the ambush, he was home on paternity leave, but was reprimanded by AFRICOM. His reprimand cited insufficient training of his unit, this week received a permanent letter of reprimand which essentially ends his career.

Although the Pentagon will continue their investigation now, General Thomas has decided to set the record straight on the battle. In recent weeks General Thomas flew to Fort Bragg, N.C., where ODA-3312 is stationed, to ensure that the award citations were being prepared for the team members.

While at Fort Bragg, General Thomas asked if SSG Dustin Wright, who was killed trying to rescue a wounded comrade who eventually died, was eligible for the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award. He has personally interviewed some of the participants, read thru their statements in the after action review and watched the helmet cam video that the soldiers were wearing during the ambush.

Photo: DVIDS

Pentagon Looking to Cut SOF in Africa to Focus on China, Russia

Special Operations Forces in Africa could be slashed heavily under sweeping Pentagon proposals to retask and reorganize SOF towards more pressing needs facing the rising threats of Russia and China.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had ordered a review of all Special Operations Forces missions as Mattis, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford are worried about SOF capabilities being spread too thin. That has been an ongoing issue for several years.

The review was also part of the ongoing assessment of Special Operations Forces after the ambush and death of four American servicemen in Niger last year.

Mattis and Dunford have given the Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the Africa Command (AFRICOM) until mid-June on how they plan to meet the existing challenges as well as the new directives concerning China, Russia as well as Iran and North Korea, despite the planned summit meeting.

Mattis has ordered the new priorities and told the commands to focus on the transition period of growing threats from both China and the Russians, as part of the Pentagon’s new strategic defense plan.

“We face growing threats from revisionist powers as different as China and Russia, nations that seek to create a world consistent with their authoritarian models,” Mattis said earlier this year.

“Our military is still strong, yet our competitive edge has eroded in every domain of warfare — air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace — and is continually eroding,” he added.

The Pentagon’s report on the Niger operation was sharply critical of “risk-taking culture” of Special Operations which is exactly what the nature of the operations are. Were mistakes made in Niger? Of course, but to place the blame only on the soldiers involved in the operation was short-sighted and self-serving.

Lately, in an effort to ease the burden on SOF troops operating in Syria, and Afghanistan, the U.S. has been increasingly utilizing conventional force soldiers and/or Marines to bolster the capability and security of the Special Operations troops. They’ve called this the “Uplift” program.

The US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) currently has close to 7300 troops deployed in about 92 countries. That is significantly down from a decade ago when there were almost 13,000 troops deployed. Despite this the command is still dealing with an operational slate (OpTempo) that is unsustainable in the long run and the cracks are already showing themselves in the force. By adding additional requirements on them for the new strategy against China and Russia where some troops will see an added emphasis in countries such as the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to counter the Russian threat will place a heavier burden on an already stretched razor thin force.

The Army tried to ease the burden on Special Forces troops by creating Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFAB) to take over the conventional training requirements of host nation forces. The first 1000 troops which comprise the brigade are right now in Afghanistan. The Army plans to field six of these SFABs in the coming years.

They are taking NCOs and Officers from conventional units that will quickly be short enough leaders to fill their own ranks. It won’t be long until the “Big Army” raises questions about these SFABs bleeding their conventional units dry.

The SFAB is running into the same issues in Afghanistan the conventional military has always had when trying to train foreign soldiers. They’re re-inventing the wheel that Special Forces has mastered since the days of the OSS in World War II. They don’t have the experience of training foreign troops and their cross-cultural communications and rapport building skills are in the neophyte stage.

AFRICOM was asked how they would conduct their operations with a 25 percent reduction in SOF troops in 18 months and by a whopping 50 percent in the next three years. Advertising this fact wasn’t perhaps the best move on the Pentagon’s part.

Of the troops currently deployed, about 1200-1300 are currently doing operations in Africa. That number, already not enough to handle the workload there, will be slashed down to the 600 range by 2021.

There are other hot spots in the globe with shadow wars being fought in Yemen, Libya, Somalia as well as others that will require attention as well. Of course, unless there is an uptick in conventional deployments to Africa, one can probably expect the insurgents in the continent, the al-Qaeda offshoots, and the Islamic State to increase their efforts to gain traction with the population and carve out a bigger foothold.

Since the ambush in Niger, missions considered “risky” with host-nation troops have been curtailed. Those that are approved must first be approved by senior officers up the chain of command who are required to take a tougher, more cautious approach when weighing the risks involved. Yes, the dreaded “risk assessment” has made its way into SOF planning requirements.

American SOF in Africa are now sent only on missions with local forces that are determined to have a significant strategic effect, much like the operation that the Special Forces troops were on in Niger. However, now, armed drones or other armed aircraft must accompany such missions, which should have been made available to the troops back then, which would have possibly prevented the loss of life then.

The Green Berets who are responsible for conducting the missions told former SOFREP journalist Derek Gannon in the Fusion Cell blog that, “We are put there [in Africa] to ensure the success of our Host Nation counterparts. When we are not able to operate with the local forces we cannot teach and coach them for future contact with the enemy. Can a football coach effectively coach his players without watching them perform under pressure in a real game? Plus how are we supposed to accurately assess how the threat forces operate without seeing them in action? That’s like preparing for a game without ever seeing game film.”

And that is not the “culture of risk-taking”, but the beat goes on.

Photo: DOD

Congress Claims No Knowledge of US Troops in Niger Prior to Ambush

In a typical Washington dance known as the “Potomac Two-Step”, anything that goes right will have a hundred fathers, but if anything goes wrong, that operation is an orphan.

Several members of Congress are now claiming this week they had no idea the U.S. military had a presence in Niger after four troops from the 3rd Special Forces Group were killed there in an ambush on October 4.

The fact that Special Forces and other US troops were in Niger since 2013 wasn’t a black operation or a secret. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has been openly posting on Twitter about U.S. involvement in Niger for years. And thousands of troops serve across Africa every day. And the Senate Armed Services Committee has been briefed on their involvement in Niger since the deployments are not classified.

Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania told CNN Monday he was not aware of the U.S. military’s involvement in Niger. He’s not alone. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also said he didn’t know.
“When you consider what happened here—the four sergeants lost their lives—I think there’s a lot of work that both parties and both branches of government need to do. Not only to stay more informed, but to focus on why we’re there and what happened to get to the bottom of this,” Casey said.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Sunday he was unaware U.S. troops were in Niger and had only been given a “little insight” on the October 4 ambush. Graham said lawmakers would be briefed next week “as to why they were there and what they were doing.”
Senate documents, however, show Graham was in attendance at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in March when General Thomas D. Waldhauser, AFRICOM’s commander, specifically discussed the U.S. military’s presence in Niger.

SOFREP’s Jack Murphy was asked to be a guest on the BBC and put the presenters straight when asked about the deployment and the ridiculous notion that this is “Trump’s Benghazi.”

To read the entire article from Newsweek, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Army General’s Text to an Enlisted Soldier’s Wife Prompts Investigation

The Army is investigating Major General Joseph Harrington, the commander of US forces in Africa for reportedly sending dozens of messages to the wife of an enlisted soldier under his command.

Gen. Harrington’s alleged Facebook messages, many of whom are suggestive, range from flattering to flirty and include a request to the woman that she delete them. If in fact, he did send those messages it would be a serious breach of protocol and military law.

The woman initially met the general at the gym and soon after began receiving texts and messages from him related to business, but soon things began to change. The two were never physical and the woman, who refused to identify herself because she feared reprisals against her husband, became concerned when the messages got progressively more suggestive.

The messages, many sent late at night, veer from the mundane to the personal. Harrington oversees the Army’s activities in Africa from a post in northern Italy. In some texts, he complained about travel and getting sick on local food.
In others, he doted on the woman’s appearance, referring to her as “HOTTIE,” and “looking good for sure.” In another series he wrote: “You seem to have a great modeling resume! Truly! Though I hadn’t noticed! Where is your hubby tonight? Work?”
When she replied that she’d fought with her husband, and that he was asleep, Harrington responded: “I’m sorry! Make up se…x is fun”
Harrington suggested “U can be my nurse,” and added, “I’d enjoy being in a tent with U.”

The fact that Harrington asked the woman to delete his messages, is him admitting that what he’s doing is not only wrong but perhaps a violation of military law. And the military won’t take kindly to this since they’ve had other cases recently that have given the services a black eye.

To read the entire article from The USA Today click here:

Photo courtesy US Army

US Stepping Up Security Training Effort for Somalia

United States AFRICOM (Africa Command) Commander, Marine General Thomas Waldhauser stated via conference call in Germany that although the US is sending Somalia 40 personnel to help train the army there, it doesn’t signal a shift in strategy.

The US, along with other partner nations involved in helping the Somali army get off the ground all agree that it is time for the Somali army to stand on its own. However, the other organizations involved won’t be leaving for at least another year but will be there to help.

The US contingent will train the Somali logistical units to help create better supply networks for the fledgling military.

“Our goal from the United States’ perspective, in conjunction with our partners who are there doing the training, is that the Somali National Security Forces will be prepared to provide for their own security sometime in the 2020/21 timeframe when the next series of elections go,” Waldhauser said. “We all have to pull together to make sure that we’re very effective and efficient in the training now.”
Ambassador Francisco Madeira, the civilian head of AMISOM, said the AU intends to begin drawing down its forces in 2018.
“We were not intending to stay there forever,” he said. “Somalia is for the Somalis. We, like all other Africans, we have our own countries.”
“We are in solidarity with the Somali people, we need to support Somali people. We have interests to have a stable Somalia,” Madeira said. “But surely, the Somalis, the country, can only be best defended by the Somalis themselves, who understand better their dynamics, their reality and their priorities and their objectives.”
In early April, President Mohamed announced that he would offer amnesty to members of al-Shabab who renounce extremism and agree to undergo demobilization and reintegration training. Mohamed declared war on all extremists who rejected the offer.

The Somali military is trying to rid itself of the al-Shabab terrorist organization that hides in plain sight among the civilian populace. That makes their job more difficult but not impossible. They’ll use sophisticated means to identify them by intelligence gathering and aerial surveillance.

To read the entire article from the Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy Voice of America