Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) have participated in hundreds of nighttime raids in Iraq and Afghanistan as forefront in the Bureau’s evolution from a domestic crime fighting organization to an international anti-terrorism force, according to a Washington Post article published Thursday.
Reporting on the “little known alliance” between the Bureau and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the Post details how, since early 2003, the FBI’s military role grew from shepherding other FBI officials outside of the Green Zone to fighting side by side with JSOC officers on nightly raids.
The Washington Post reports:
According to former FBI deputy director Sean Joyce, in 2010 after JSOC “shifted priorities” in Afghanistan—now targeting “local insurgents who were not necessarily plotting against the United States”—the FBI “drew down” their presence there and FBI-JSOC operations moved to “other parts of the world.”
The implications of the reporting, according to independent journalist Kevin Gosztola, are far reaching. “This is the effect of the war on terrorism,” he writes, “which has put America on a permanent war footing.”
Gosztola continues:
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