AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
WASHINGTON: The US military will take an expanded role in the US global “war on terror” under new plans which the Washington Post said Sunday have been approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The plans call for a significantly expanded role for Special Operations troops in operations to combat terrorism outside of war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the report said quoting unnamed officials.
A Defense Department spokesman refused to comment on the report Sunday.
The plan, developed over three years by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, Florida, increases military involvement in areas traditionally handled by the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department, the report said.
SOCOM has dispatched small teams of Army Green Berets and other Special Operations troops to US embassies in about 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, where they do operational planning and intelligence gathering, the paper said.
The plan reportedly gives the military leadership leeway to inform — rather than win the approval of — the US ambassador in a country before conducting military operations in that country.
The Washington Post said the military had drawn up a general campaign plan and two subordinate plans, each running to more than 100 pages.
The main campaign plan sets priorities, allocates resources such as manpower and funding, and coordinates operations among regional military commands, the paper said.
A second plan is focused specifically on Al-Qaeda and associated movements, including more than a dozen groups spread across the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, according to the report.
These groups include the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Ansar al-Islam in the Middle East, Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Saharan Africa.
The third plan sets out how the military can both disrupt and respond to another major terrorist strike on the United States, The Post said.
It includes annexes that offer options for the military to retaliate quickly against specific groups, individuals or state sponsors depending on who is believed to be behind an attack.
SOCOM has since 2003 been in charge of military planning for the war on terror, declared after the September 11, 2001 strikes. Its annual budget has grown 60 percent to eight billion dollars.
