Behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy, US President Barack Obama has secretly sanctioned the deployment of US special forces to 75 countries as part of a largely “secret war” against Al Qaeda and other radical groups, a news report said on Sunday.
It has come to light that Mr Obama, who has been recognised for giving greater role to multilateral diplomacy unlike the previous Bush administration, has approved a huge increase in the number of US special forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against radical groups, particularly Al Qaeda.
American troops are now operating in 75 countries compared with about 60 at the beginning of 2009, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
In the past 18 months he has ordered a big expansion in Yemen and the Horn of Africa — known areas of strong Al Qaeda activity — and elsewhere in the West Asia, central Asia and Africa.
Mr Obama has asked for a 5.7 per cent increase in the Special Operations budget for fiscal 2011, for a total of $6.3 billion, plus an additional $3.5 billion in 2010 contingency funding, the report said.
It said Mr Obama has also approved pre-emptive special forces strikes to disrupt terror plots, and has given the units powers and authority that was not granted by George Bush when he occupied the White House.
Commanders are now planning greater use of these special forces for preemptive or retaliatory strikes around the globe when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group.
Former Bush officials, still smarting from accusations that their administration overextended the President’s authority to conduct lethal activities around the world at will, have asked similar questions. —PTI