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| Southeast Asia |
| U.S. phasing out Philippine counterterrorism unit |
| 2014-06-28 |
| The elite American military counterterrorism unit that has been operating in the southern Philippines for over a decade is being phased out, the Pentagon's Pacific Command said. The Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, formed after the 9/11 attacks, was established to help train and advise the Philippines in its struggle against militant groups linked to Al Qaeda. American Special Forces will continue to help Philippine security forces, but the size of the mission will drop in the coming months to a dozen or so advisers from its current 320 service members. Capt. Masato Itoh said, "Our partnership with the Philippine security forces has been successful in drastically reducing the capabilities of domestic and transnational terrorist groups in the Philippines - to the point where they have largely devolved into disorganized groups resorting to criminal undertakings to sustain their activities." The changing American counterterrorism role comes two months after the Philippines and the U.S. signed an agreement that would allow American ships, aircraft and military personnel to be stationed there - though officials have emphasized that permanent American bases would not be set up. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 BC, I have. Spooky, but whose spooks? |
| Posted by: Squinty 2014-06-28 14:47 |
| #2 Nothing says 'ignorance in action' quite like punishing success. If it works, stop doing it and do something else. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-06-28 13:50 |
| #1 Major Abu Sayaf atrocity in 10....9....8....7....6 Do you notice all of the "everything is beautiful" articles in the press all of a sudden? |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2014-06-28 11:49 |