WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's administration is giving the elite Joint Special Operations Command -- the same organization that helped kill Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid by Navy SEALs -- expanded power to track, plan and potentially launch attacks on terrorist cells around the globe, a move driven by concerns of a dispersed terrorist threat as Islamic State militants are driven from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials said.
The missions could occur well beyond the battlefields of places like Iraq, Syria and Libya where Joint Special Operations Command has carried out clandestine operations in the past. When finalized, it will elevate Joint Special Operations Command from being a highly valued strike tool used by regional military commands to leading a new multi-agency intelligence and action force.
Known as the "Counter-External Operations Task Force," the group will be designed to take Joint Special Operations Command's targeting model -- honed over the last 15 years of conflict -- and export it globally to go after terrorist networks plotting attacks against the West.
The creation of a new Joint Special Operations Command entity this late in Obama's tenure is the "codification" of best practices in targeting terrorists outside of conventional conflict zones, according to the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss administration deliberations. It is unclear, however, if the administration of President-elect Donald Trump will keep this and other structures set up by Obama. They include guidelines for counterterrorism operations such as approval by several agencies before a drone strike and "near certainty" that no civilians will be killed. This series of presidential orders is known as the "playbook."
The new Joint Special Operations Command task force could also offer intelligence, strike recommendations and advice to the militaries and security forces of traditional Western allies, or conduct joint operations, officials said. In other parts of the world, with weak or no governments, Joint Special Operations Command could act unilaterally.
The global focus is reminiscent of when U.S. forces first went after al-Qaida in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. As approaching U.S. troops forced militants to flee their safe havens in Afghanistan and scatter across the globe, the United States followed in pursuit, using CIA assets to grab suspected al-Qaida operatives in dozens of countries, sometimes capturing, imprisoning and torturing them under murky legal authorities.
Some in the Pentagon hope to see the new task force working in tandem with the CIA, elevating a sometimes distant relationship to one of constant coordination to track and go after suspected terrorists outside of traditional war zones.
In recent years the agency's involvement in global paramilitary operations has waned -- with fewer strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, and its armed drones in Syria transferred to the Pentagon. It's still unclear how much the CIA may be willing to cooperate with Joint Special Operations Command and more broadly with the Pentagon following the White House's decision.
The agency, with its broad contacts overseas, espionage networks and long experience in covert operations still has much greater reach than Joint Special Operations Command.
The CIA declined to comment.
The new Joint Special Operations Command task force will report to the Pentagon through the U.S. Special Operations Command, according to U.S. military officials, creating a hybrid command system that can circumvent regional commanders for the sake of speed.
Joint Special Operations Command -- rarely mentioned by name by U.S. officials due to the clandestine nature of its work -- was cited specifically by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last month in Paris after he and Thomas met with defense ministers involved in the fight against the Islamic State. The command "has been put in the lead" of countering the Islamic State's external operations outside conflict zones, Carter said, surprising some defense officials in Washington.
The White House, asked to comment on the plan, issued a statement that did not use Joint Special Operations Command's name, but acknowledged the role Special Operations forces play in tracking foreign fighters away from the battlefield.
"These forces on the ground, operating in close concert with our partners, have gathered critical intelligence off the battlefield, and have shared that information with our coalition partners and allies," the statement said.
"This information is helping us ramp up actions against [Islamic State] leaders and operatives planning attacks, track foreign fighters returning to their home countries and improve law enforcement actions aimed at interdicting potential plotters."
Information for this article was contributed by Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Dana Priest and Wesley Morgan of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/26/2016