"Operating in the Gray Zone requires SOCAFRICA to act in a supporting role to a host of other organizations," he told the CTC Sentinel, the publication of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. "One must understand, in Africa we are not the kinetic solution. If required, partner nations should do those sorts of operations. We do, however, build this capability, share information, provide advice and assistance, and accompany and support with enablers."
Officially, the Joint Combined Exchange Training program isn't so much about advice and assistance, support, or training partners, as it is about providing Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and other special operators with unique opportunities to hone their craft -- specifically, unconventional warfare and foreign internal defense -- overseas. "The purpose of JCETs is to foster the training of U.S. SOF in mission-critical skills by training with partner-nation forces in their home countries," according to SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw. "The program enables U.S. SOF to build their capability to conduct operations with partner-nation military forces in an unfamiliar environment while developing their language skills, and familiarity with local geography and culture."
Authorization for the JCET program does, however, allow for "incidental-training benefits" to "accrue to the foreign friendly forces at no cost." In reality, say experts, this is an overarching goal of JCETs.
Mission Impossible
U.S. Special Operations forces conducted 20 JCETs in Africa during 2014, according to the documents obtained from SOCOM. These missions were carried out in 10 countries, up from eight a year earlier. Four took place in both Kenya and Uganda; three in Chad; two in both Morocco and Tunisia; and one each in Djibouti, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. "These events were invaluable training platforms that allowed U.S. SOF to train and sustain in both core and specialized skills, while working hand-in-hand with host nation forces," say the files. African forces involved numbered 2,770, up from 2,017 in 2013. The number of U.S. special operators increased from 308 to 417.
Impressive as these figures are, the actual numbers may prove higher still. AFRICOM claims it carried out not 20 but 26 JCETs in 2014, according to figures provided last year by spokesman Chuck Prichard. Similar discrepancies can be found in official figures for previous years as well. According to Prichard, special operators conducted "approximately nine JCETs across Africa in Fiscal Year 2012" and 18 in 2013. Documents obtained by TomDispatch through the Freedom of Information Act from the office of the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs indicate, however, that there were 19 JCETs in 2012 and 20 in 2013.
AFRICOM ignored repeated requests for clarification about the discrepancies among these figures. Multiple emails with subject lines indicating questions about JCETs sent to spokesperson Anthony Falvo, were "deleted without being read," according to automatic return receipts. Asked for an explanation of why AFRICOM and SOCOM can't agree on the number of JCETs on the continent or if anyone actually knows the real number, Ken McGraw of Special Operations Command demurred. "I don't know the source of AFRICOM's information," he told TomDispatch. "To the best of my knowledge, the information our office provided you was from official reporting."
In fact, effective oversight of even some relatively pedestrian training efforts is often hard to come by, thanks to the military's general lack of transparency and the opaque nature of assistance programs, says Colby Goodman, the director of the Security Assistance Monitor at the Center for International Policy. "And for JCETs and other Special Operations programs," he says, "it's even more difficult."
Given that the two commands involved with the JCET program can't even come to a consensus on the number of missions involved raises a simple but sweeping question: Does anyone really know what America's most elite forces are doing in Africa?
Under the circumstances, it should surprise no one that a military that can't keep a simple count of one type of mission on one continent would encounter difficulties with larger, more difficult tasks.
More Missions, More Problems
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March, the incoming commander of SOCOM, General Raymond Thomas III, laid out a sweeping vision of the "U.S. strategy in Africa." It included "neutralizing Al-Shabaab in East Africa" and empowering Somalia's government to do the same; "working with our African partners in North and West Africa to ensure they are willing and capable of containing the instability in Libya, degrading VEOs [Violent Extremist Organizations] in the Sahel-Maghreb region, and interdicting the flow of illicit material," as well as working with African allies to contain Boko Haram and empowering Nigeria to suppress the terror group.
"SOF implements this strategy by being a part of [a] global team of national and international partners that conduct persistent, networked, and distributed full spectrum special operations in support of AFRICOM to promote stability and prosperity in Africa," said Thomas. "The SOCAFRICA end states are to neutralize Al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda Affiliates and Adherents in East Africa, contain Libyan instability and Violent Extremist Organizations and other Terrorist organizations in North and West Africa, and degrade Boko Haram."
Bolduc, SOCAFRICA's commander, suggested that the U.S. is well on its way toward achieving those goals. "Our security assistance and advise-and-assist efforts in Africa have been effective as we continue to see gradual improvements in the overall security capabilities of African partner nations across the continent," he said earlier this year. "Clearly, there's been more progress in certain areas versus others, but the trends I see with these forces are positive."
Independent assessments suggest just the opposite. Data from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland show, for example, that terror attacks have spiked over the last decade, roughly coinciding with AFRICOM's establishment. Before it became an independent command in 2007, there were fewer than 400 such incidents annually in sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, the number reached nearly 2,000.
Similarly, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which uses media reports to monitor violence, shows that "conflict events" have jumped precipitously, from less than 4,000 to more than 15,000 per year, over the same span.
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