Since becoming Secretary of State, Condi Rice has announced a new Department philosophy, so-called
"transformational diplomacy." Up to now, this had seemingly amounted to simply a more
ugly American, we-know-best, Christianity uber alles interventionalist, "results-based" strategy.  . However, from the
Washington Post, we learn just how these "interventions" and "results" will happen: Don Rumsfeld's DoD Death Details.
The military is placing small teams of Special Operations troops in a growing number of American embassies to gather intelligence on terrorists in unstable parts of the world and to prepare for potential missions to disrupt, capture or kill them.
I don't really know where this genius plan for
violating the basic rules of international relations and diplomacy spreading democracy originated, but I suspect it probably came from those who view
shooting a man in the face as a routine occurrence. * MORE BELOW
Here is some of Condi's
blather, euphemisms, obfuscation, propaganda, smokescreen patter:
Almost a year ago today in his second Inaugural Address, The Project for the New American Century President Bush laid out a hallucinatory vision that now leads America into the world. "It is the policy of the United States," the President said, "to seek and support the rapture growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation with any natural resources and culture with the ultimate goal of enriching multinational corporations ending tyranny in my our world." To achieve this illegal bold mission, America needs equally bold diplomacy, a diplomacy that not only reports about the world chauvenistically as it is, but seeks to take over change the world itself. I and Doug Feith, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfwitz, Dick Cheney others have humorously cynically euphemistically called this pig mission "transformational diplomacy."
The new Department of Defense program inserts little death squads into embassies to make sure that we "end tyranny" with
death squads, homicide, murder, 28 gauge shotguns, illegal extraterritorial acts, kidnapping, rendition, torture, mayhem extreme prejudice:
Officials said small groups of Special Operations personnel, sometimes just one or two at a time, have been sent to more than a dozen embassies in New Orleans, Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. These are regions where impoverished brown people with funny clothes terrorists are thought to be opposing US imperialism operating, planning attacks, raising money or avoiding incindiary munitions seeking safe haven.
Their assignment is to have a beer at lunch gather information to assist in planning counterterrorism missions, and to help local militaries conduct "Salvadoran" counterterrorism missions of their own, officials said.....
Special Operations forces include the Army Green Berets and Rangers, the Navy Seals, the Marines and special Air Force crews that carry out the most specialized or secret transformational diplomacy military missions. Their skills range from quick strikes to long-range spying reconnaissance in violation of national sovereignty hostile territory, military training and leg pulping medical care.
Of course, the WaPo includes a peek into the downside of this:
John O. Brennan, a 25-year C.I.A. officer who headed the National Counterterrorism Center before retiring last year. "Quite unfortunately, the C.I.A.'s important lead role in many of these areas is being outed by members of the Bush administration steadily eroded, and the current militarization of many of the nation's intelligence functions and responsibilities will be viewed as a colossal international fuckup, cause of riots in third world countries major mistake in the very near future."
Defense Department and Special Ops functions, of course, unlike State Department and even CIA, are secret and not reviewed by any real oversight committee in Congress. And don't think for a minute that these young bucks/Seals are gonna be slowed down by any
elementary rules of bird hunting safety, hick sheriffs, game wardens old fogey diplomats, or even by their superior officers:
One former Special Operations team member said the trick to making the program work is to operate as a rogue unit navigate the bureaucratic rivalries within embassies -- and back at the command's headquarters. "All you have to do is make the ambassador, the station chief and Socom all think you are working just for them," he said ..
The plans are all laid out, and reduced to a slogan:
General Brown and the Special Operations Command now work according to a concept that has become the newest Pentagon catchphrase: "find, fix, finish and fuckup follow-up" -- shorthand for locating loudmouthed populists terrorist leaders, tracking them to their homes precisely, capturing or killing them and their families, and then using the questionable information gathered through torture to plan another outrage operation.
So run along, kids, nothing to see here, and, by the way, could you delete the word "diplomacy" from your dictionaries? or at least edit it severely? Thanks...
oh, and I almost forgot to ask, do we NOT expect our embassies to be blown up? our people to be kidnapped and killed? Will the Secretary "disavow all knowledge" when these guys get nailed as spies and/or killers?Could we just remind ourselves that
the world is not a South Texas game ranch? hmmm?
I wonder who leaked this story? It doesn't seem like a great PR piece for the new plan (even before my snarky editorializing). My educated guess is that the CIA is edging closer to outright revolt....popcorn is always a good item to keep on hand.....
*
Cheney shot Whittington in the face and
in the heart as well.