The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is a joint component command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and is charged with studying special operations requirements and techniques to ensure interoperability and equipment standardization, to plan and conduct special operations exercises and training, to develop joint special operations tactics, and to execute special operations missions worldwide. It was established in 1980 on recommendation of Colonel Charlie Beckwith, in the aftermath of the failure of Operation Eagle Claw. It is headquartered at Pope Field (Fort Bragg, North Carolina).
Overview The JSOC is the "joint headquarters designed to study special operations requirements and techniques; ensure interoperability and equipment standardization; plan and conduct joint special operations exercises and training; develop joint special operations tactics." For this task, the Joint Communications Unit is tasked to ensure compatibility of communications systems and standard operating procedures of the different special operations units.
Special Mission Units
The Joint Special Operations Command also oversees the special mission units of U.S. Special Operations Command. These are elite special operations forces units that conduct highly classified and complex operations. So far, the following five JSOC units are known, each with an internal task force color code: Task Force Green: The Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), commonly known as Delta Force. Task Force Blue: The Navy's Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), commonly known as SEAL Team Six. Task Force White: The Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron (24th STS) Task Force Orange: The Army's Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), also known as The Activity and a number of other nicknames and special access program codenames. Task Force Red: The 75th Ranger Regiment's subunit the Regimental Reconnaissance Company was placed under the direct command of JSOC in 2004 becoming a special mission unit. The entire regiment is known as Task Force Red when operating under JSOC.
The Intelligence Support Activity's primary role is to act as a deep reconnaissance, intelligence-gathering special mission unit, in support of other combat oriented units within JSOC. Delta Force and DEVGRU are the military's primary counter-terrorism units, eliminating high-value targets and performing hostage rescues are their main roles, along with special reconnaissance and direct action assignments. The 24th Special Tactics Squadron attaches personnel as enablers to these two units such as Combat Controllers to provide air traffic control and fire support, Pararescuemen to provide combat medicine and combat search and rescue, and Tactical Air Control Party specialists to co-ordinate close air support. The Joint Communications Unit provides communications capabilities. Units from the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Task Force Brown) are controlled by JSOC when deployed as part of JSOC Task Forces such as Task Force 121 and Task Force 145.Priest, Dana, and William M. Arkin, "‘Top Secret America’: A look at the military’s Joint Special Operations Command ", Washington Post, 4 September 2011.
JSOC has an operational relationship with the CIA's Special Activities Center (SAC). SAC's Special Operations Group (SOG) often recruits from JSOC SMU personnel.
3rd Operational Support Group JSOC's Security Operations Training Facility is maintained by the 3rd Operational Support Group (3 OSG), which is based at Ft. Bragg. According to Rolling Stone contributing editor Seth Harp, 3 OSG is the same unit commonly referred to as "Delta Force"; however, this was contradicted by a 2016 evaluation of foreign officer involvement at USSOCOM by the DOD Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence and Special Program Assessments which lists 3 OSG and the Combat Applications Group ("CAG", a known identifier for Delta Force) as two separate entities under JSOC.
Advanced Force Operations Advanced Force Operations are defined by JP 3–05 as "Operations conducted to refine the location of specific, identified targets and further develop the operational environment for near-term missions." According to Gen. Michael Repass, who conducted it in the Iraq War and was very familiar with its use in Afghanistan, "AFO consists of U.S. Secretary of Defense–approved military operations such as clandestine operations". It is logically part of the Operational Preparation of the Battlespace (OPB), which follows the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace, a concept well known in the U.S. and NATO doctrine, OPB is seldom used outside of SOF channels. OPB is defined by the U.S. Special Operations Command as "Non-intelligence activities conducted prior to D-Day, H-Hour, in likely or potential areas of deployment, to train and prepare for follow-on military operations".
In the Iraq War, Gen. Repass, who first commanded the 10th Special Forces Group, took control of a Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force, which used the 5th and 10th Groups to conduct AFO.
Security support JSOC has provided domestic law enforcement agencies support during high-profile or high-risk events such as the Olympics, the World Cup, political party conventions, and Presidential inaugurations. Although the use of the military for Local law enforcement purposes in the U.S. is generally prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act, Title 10 of the U.S. Code expressly allows the Secretary of Defense to make military personnel available to train Federal, State, and local civilian public safety officials in the operation and maintenance of equipment; and to provide such officials with expert advice. Additionally, civilian and military lawyers said provisions in several federal statutes, including the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Department Authorization Act, Public Law 106-65, permits the secretary of defense to authorize military forces to support civilian agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the event of a national emergency, especially any involving nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.
In January 2005, a small group of commandos were deployed to support security at the Presidential inauguration. They were allegedly deployed under a secret counter-terrorism program named Power Geyser. The New York Times quoted a senior military official as saying, "They bring unique military and technical capabilities that often are centered around potential WMD events".
Operational history Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan JSOC carried out raids in Afghanistan. The number is not publicly known, but is estimated to be in the hundreds. Several have been documented in the 2013 documentary Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill and by other reporting. In one 2010 raid in Gardez, JSOC troops killed one U.S.-trained Police commander and another man, and three women, two of whom were pregnant, who went to the men's aid. Then-JSOC commander William McRaven visited the affected family, offered them a sheep in restitution, and apologized.
Operation Iraqi Freedom
In May 2003, elements of Task Force 20 (TF 20) remained in Iraq following the invasion and shifted to hunting down high-value former Ba'athist insurgents under direct JSOC command. In July 2003, Task Force 5 (formerly Task Force 11) and Task Force 20 were merged to form Task Force 21, later renamed Task Force 121.Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015 , p. 168, p. 188Gal Perl Finkel, A NEW STRATEGY AGAINST ISIS , The Jerusalem Post, 7 March 2017.
On 11 January 2007, President Bush pledged in a major speech to "seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq." Sometime in 2007, JSOC started conducting cross-border operations into Iran from southern Iraq with the CIA. These operations included seizing members of Al-Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, as well as the pursuit, capture or killing of high-value targets in the war on terror. The Bush administration allegedly combined the CIA's intelligence operations and covert action with JSOC clandestine military operations so that Congress would only partially see how the money was spent.
Operations in Pakistan According to The Washington Post, JSOC's commander Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal operated in 2006 on the understanding with Pakistan that US units will not enter Pakistan except under extreme circumstances, and that Pakistan would deny giving them permission if exposed.
According to a November 2009 report in The Nation, JSOC, in tandem with Blackwater/Xe, had a drone program, along with snatch/grab/assassination operations, based in Karachi and conducted in and outside of Pakistan.
In October 2009, leaked diplomatic cables from the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, states the Pakistani Army approved the embedding of U.S. Special Operations Forces, including elements from the Joint Special Operations Command, with the Pakistani military to provide support for operations in the country. This goes beyond the original claims of the U.S. that the only role of the Special Forces was in training the Pakistani military. The leak further revealed that JSOC elements involved in intelligence gathering and surveillance and use of drone UAV technology.
JSOC is credited with coordinating Operation Neptune Spear that killed Osama bin Laden on 2 May 2011.
Horn of Africa and Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen Operations against al-Qaeda linked terrorists continued in 2009 when on 14 September several U.S. Navy helicopters launched a a raid in Baraawe, Lower Shabelle, Operation Celestial Balance, against Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, killing him as well as five other militants. Also in 2009, British Army soldiers from the Special Air Service and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment were deployed to Djibouti as part of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa to conduct operations against Islamist terrorists in Somalia. They carried out missions focusing on surveillance and targeting of terrorists, alongside their US counterparts, they have also been carrying out this role in Yemen.
JSOC directed a 30 September 2011 air attack that killed Anwar al-Awlaki,Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015 , p. 282-284, p. 302 an al-Qaeda cleric and Yemeni-American U.S. citizen. After several days of surveillance of Awlaki by the Central Intelligence Agency, armed drones took off from a new, secret American base in the Arabian Peninsula, crossed into northern Yemen and unleashed a barrage of Hellfire missiles at al-Awlaki's vehicle. Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American al-Qaeda member and editor of the jihadist Inspire magazine, also reportedly died in the attack. The combined CIA/JSOC drone strike was the first in Yemen since 2002—there have been others by the military's Special Operations forces—and was part of an effort by the spy agency to duplicate in Yemen the covert war which has been running in Afghanistan and Pakistan.Mark Mazzetti, Eric Schmitt and Robert F. Worth, "Two-Year Manhunt Led to Killing of Awlaki in Yemen", New York Times (30 September 2011)