Special Activities Center

The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the  responsible for s and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2016. Within SAC there are two separate groups: SAC/SOG (Special Operations Group) for tactical operations and SAC/PAG (Political Action Group) for covert political action.

The Special Operations Group (SOG) is a department within SAC responsible for operations that include high-threat or  operations with which the U.S. government cannot be overtly associated. As such, unit members, called Paramilitary Operations Officers and Specialized Skills Officers, do not typically carry any objects or clothing, e.g., military uniforms, that would associate them with the federal government.

If they are compromised during a mission, the government may. SOG is considered the most secretive special operations force with less than a hundred operatives. The group often selects former service members from the such as, , , and ,  and , as well as other  forces.

SOG Paramilitary Operations Officers account for a majority of and  recipients during conflicts or incidents which elicited  involvement. These are the highest and second highest valor awards in the. An award bestowing either of these citations represents the highest honors awarded within the CIA in recognition of distinguished valor and excellence in the line of duty. SAC/SOG operatives also account for the majority of the stars displayed on the indicating that the officer died while on active duty. The motto of SAC is Tertia Optio, which means Third Option, as covert action represents a third option within the realm of national security when diplomacy and military action are not feasible.

The Political Action Group (PAG) is responsible for covert activities related to political influence,, and. The rapid development of technology has added to their mission. Tactical units within SAC are also capable of carrying out covert political action while deployed in hostile and austere environments. A large covert operation typically has components that involve many or all of these categories as well as paramilitary operations.

Political and "influence" covert operations are used to support. Overt support for one element of an insurgency would often be counterproductive due to the impression it would potentially exert on the local population. In such cases covert assistance allows the to assist without damaging these elements in the process.

Overview
SAC provides the with alternative options when overt military and/or diplomatic actions are not viable or politically feasible. SAC can be directly tasked by the president or the at the president's direction, unlike other U.S. special mission forces. SAC/SOG has far fewer members than most of the other special missions units, such as the 's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta or  (DEVGRU).

As the action arm of the Directorate of Operations, SAC/SOG conducts  missions such as, es, , s and  (e.g., training and leading  and military units of other countries in combat). SAC/SOG also conducts that can be either military or  driven and is carried out by Paramilitary Officers (also called Paramilitary Operatives or Paramilitary Operations Officers) when in "". Paramilitary Operations Officers are also fully trained s (i.e., "spy handlers") and as such conduct clandestine human intelligence operations throughout the world.

The political action group within SAC conducts the deniable, also known as , as well as "covert influence" to effect political change in other countries as part of. Covert intervention in foreign elections is the most significant form of SAC's political action. This involves financial support for favored candidates, media guidance, technical support for, get-out-the-vote or political organizing efforts, legal expertise, advertising campaigns, assistance with poll-watching, and other means of direct action. Policy decisions are influenced by agents, such as subverted officials of the country, to make decisions in their official capacity that are in the furtherance of U.S. policy aims. In addition, mechanisms for forming and developing opinions involve the covert use of.

Propaganda includes leaflets, newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and television, all of which are geared to convey the U.S. message appropriate to the region. These techniques have expanded to cover the internet as well. They may employ officers to work as journalists, recruit agents of influence, operate media platforms, plant certain stories or information in places it is hoped it will come to public attention, or seek to deny and/or discredit information that is public knowledge. In all such propaganda efforts, "black" operations denote those in which the audience is to be kept ignorant of the source; "white" efforts are those in which the originator openly acknowledges themselves; and "gray" operations are those in which the source is partly but not fully acknowledged.

Some examples of political action programs were the prevention of the (PCI) from winning elections between 1948 and the late 1960s; overthrowing the governments of  and ; arming rebels in Indonesia in 1957; and providing funds and support to the  federation  following the imposition of  after 1981.

SAC's existence became better known as a result of the "". Beginning in autumn of 2001, SAC/SOG paramilitary teams arrived in to hunt down  leaders, facilitate the entry of  and lead the  against the ruling. SAC/SOG units also defeated in  prior to the  in 2003 and trained, equipped, organized and led the ish  forces to defeat the  in northern Iraq. Despite being the most covert unit in U.S. Special Operations, numerous books have been published on the exploits of CIA paramilitary officers, including Conboy and Morrison's Feet to the Fire: CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957-1958, and Warner's Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos. Most experts consider SAC/SOG the premier force for (UW), whether that warfare consists of either creating or combating an insurgency in a foreign country.

There remains some conflict between the and the more clandestine parts of the  (USSOCOM), such as the. This is usually confined to the civilian/political heads of the respective Department/Agency. The combination of SAC and USSOCOM units has resulted in some of the more prominent actions of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the locating and. SAC/SOG has several missions. One of these missions is the recruiting, training, and leading of indigenous forces in combat operations. SAC/SOG and its successors have been used when it was considered desirable to have about U.S. support (this is called a  or "covert action"). Unlike other special missions units, SAC/SOG operatives combine special operations and clandestine intelligence capabilities in one individual. These individuals can operate in any environment (sea, air or ground) with limited to no support.

Covert action
Under U.S. law, the CIA is authorized to collect intelligence, conduct counterintelligence and to conduct by the. President issued  titled "United States Intelligence Activities" in 1984. This order defined covert action as "special activities," both political and military, that the U.S. government would deny, granting such operations exclusively to the CIA. The CIA was also designated as the sole authority under the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act and mirrored in Section 413(e). The CIA must have a issued by the President of the United States in order to conduct these activities under the Hughes-Ryan amendment to the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act. These findings are then monitored by the oversight committees in both the, called the (SSCI) and the , called the  (HPSCI).

The Pentagon commissioned a study to determine whether the CIA or the (DoD) should conduct covert action paramilitary operations. Their study determined that the CIA should maintain this capability and be the "sole government agency conducting covert action." The DoD found that, even under U.S. law, it does not have the legal authority to conduct covert action, nor the operational agility to carry out these types of missions.

Selection and training
Special Activities Center has several hundred officers, mostly former members of (SOF) and a majority from the  (JSOC). The CIA has also recruited individuals from within the agency. The CIA's formal position for these individuals is "Paramilitary Operations Officers" and "Specialized Skills Officers." Paramilitary Operations Officers often attend the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program, which trains them as clandestine intelligence operatives and an internal paramilitary training course. The primary strengths of SAC Paramilitary Officers are operational agility, adaptability, and deniability. They often operate in small teams, typically made up of two to ten operatives (with some operations being carried out by a single officer), all usually with extensive military tactical experience and a set of specialized skills that does not exist in any other unit. As fully trained intelligence case officers, Paramilitary Operations Officers possess all the clandestine skills to collect human intelligence – and most importantly – to recruit assets from among the indigenous troops receiving their training. These officers often operate in remote locations behind enemy lines to carry out (including  and ),, /, , and  missions, in addition to being able to conduct espionage via  assets.

There are four principal elements within SAC's Special Operations Group: the Air Branch, the Maritime Branch, the Ground Branch, and the Armor and Special Programs Branch. The Armor and Special Programs Branch is charged with development, testing, and covert procurement of new personnel and vehicular armor and maintenance of stockpiles of ordnance and weapons systems used by SOG, almost all of which must be obtained from clandestine sources abroad, in order to provide SOG operatives and their foreign trainees with plausible deniability in accordance with U.S. Congressional directives.

Together, the SAC/SOG comprises a complete covert paramilitary force. Paramilitary Operations Officers are the core of each branch and routinely move between the branches to gain expertise in all aspects of SOG. As such, Paramilitary Operations Officers are trained to operate in a multitude of environments. Because these officers are taken from the most highly trained units in the U.S. military and then provided with extensive additional training to become CIA clandestine intelligence officers, many U.S. security experts assess them as the most elite of the U.S. special missions units.

Paramilitary Operations Officers require a to be considered for employment. Many have advanced degrees such as Master's and Law degrees. SAC officers are trained at, Virginia (also known as "The Farm") and at privately owned training centers around the United States. They also train its personnel at "The Point", a facility outside of , North Carolina. In addition to the eighteen months of training in the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) Program required to become a clandestine, Paramilitary Operations Officers are trained to a high level of proficiency in the use and tactical employment of an unusually wide degree of modern weaponry, and s (foreign and domestic), , high performance/tactical driving (on and off road), apprehension avoidance (including  s and escaping from confinement), s, , , HAHO/HALO , combat and commercial  and , proficiency in foreign languages, surreptitious entry operations (picking or otherwise bypassing locks), vehicle ,  (SERE),  and wilderness training, combat  medical training, , and.

World War II
While the  (OSS) was technically a military agency under the, in practice it was fairly autonomous and enjoyed direct access to. Major General was the head of the OSS. Donovan was a soldier and recipient from. He was also a lawyer and former classmate of FDR at. Like its successor, the CIA, OSS included both and special operations paramilitary functions. Its Secret Intelligence division was responsible for espionage, while its teams, a joint U.S.-UK-French unit, were forerunners of groups that create guerrilla units, such as the U.S. Army Special Forces and the CIA. OSS' Operational Groups were larger U.S. units that carried out direct action behind enemy lines. Even during World War II, the idea of intelligence and special operations units not under strict military control was controversial. OSS operated primarily in the (ETO) and to some extent in the, while   was extremely reluctant to have any OSS personnel within his area of operations.

From 1943 to 1945, the OSS also played a major role in training troops in China and Burma, and recruited other indigenous irregular forces for sabotage as well as guides for  in  fighting the. OSS also helped arm, train and supply s, including 's in China and the  in, in areas  by the. Other functions of the OSS included the use of, espionage, , and post-war planning.

One of the OSS' greatest accomplishments during World War II was its penetration of by OSS operatives. The OSS was responsible for training German and commandos for missions inside Nazi Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists, socialist party members, s, s, and German and. At the height of its influence during World War II, the OSS employed almost 24,000 people.

OSS Paramilitary Officers parachuted into many countries that were behind enemy lines, including France, Norway, Greece, and the Netherlands. In Crete, OSS paramilitary officers linked up with, equipped and fought alongside forces against the.

OSS was disbanded shortly after, with its intelligence analysis functions moving temporarily into the U.S. . Espionage and counterintelligence went into military units, while paramilitary and other covert action functions went into the set up in 1948. Between the original creation of the CIA by the and various mergers and reorganizations through 1952, the wartime OSS functions generally ended up in CIA. The mission of training and leading guerrillas in due course went to the, but those missions required to remain covert were performed by the (Deputy) Directorate of Plans and its successor the of the CIA. In 1962, the paramilitary operations of CIA centralized in the Special Operations Division (SOD), the predecessor of SAC. The direct descendant of the OSS' Special Operations is the CIA's Special Activities Division.

Tibet
After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in October 1950, the CIA inserted paramilitary (PM) teams into Tibet to train and lead fighters against the  of China. These teams selected and then trained Tibetan soldiers in the of the United States; training occurred at. The PM teams then advised and led these s against the Chinese, both from Nepal and India. In addition, CIA Paramilitary Officers were responsible for the 's clandestine escape to India, narrowly escaping capture by the People's Liberation Army.

According to a book by retired CIA officer John Kenneth Knaus, entitled Orphans Of The Cold War: America And The Tibetan Struggle For Survival, Gyalo Thondup, the older brother of the 14th (and current) Dalai Lama, sent the CIA five Tibetan recruits. These recruits were trained in paramilitary tactics on the island of in the. Shortly thereafter, the five men were covertly returned to Tibet "to assess and organize the resistance" and selected another 300 Tibetans for training. U.S. assistance to the Tibetan resistance ceased after the, after which the United States and China normalized relations.

Korea
The CIA sponsored a variety of activities during the. These activities included maritime operations behind North Korean lines. Yong Do Island, connected by a rugged isthmus to, served as the base for those operations. These operations were carried out by well-trained Korean guerrillas. The four principal U.S. advisers responsible for the training and operational planning of those special missions were Dutch Kramer, Tom Curtis, George Atcheson and Joe Pagnella. All of these Paramilitary Operations Officers operated through a CIA front organization called the (JACK), headquartered at Tongnae, a village near Pusan, on the peninsula's southeast coast. These paramilitary teams were responsible for numerous maritime raids and ambushes behind North Korean lines, as well as rescue operations.

These were the first maritime units that trained indigenous forces as. They also provided a model, along with the other CIA-sponsored ground-based, paramilitary Korean operations, for the (MACV-SOG) activities conducted by the U.S. military and the CIA/SOD (now Special Activities Center) in Vietnam. In addition, CIA paramilitary ground-based teams worked directly for U.S. military commanders, specifically with the 8th Army, on the "White Tiger" initiative. This initiative included inserting South Korean commandos and CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers prior to the two major amphibious assaults on North Korea, including the landing at.

Cuba (1961)
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as "La Batalla de Girón", or "Playa Girón" in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of s to invade southern Cuba and overthrow the Cuban government of. The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after assumed the presidency of the United States. The, trained and equipped by nations, defeated the exile-combatants in three days.

The sea-borne invasion force landed on April 17, and fighting lasted until April 19, 1961. CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers and  led the first, and supervised the amphibious landings. Four American aircrew instructors from were killed while flying attack sorties. Various sources estimate Cuban Army casualties (killed or injured) to be in the thousands (between 2,000 and 5,000). This invasion followed the successful overthrow by the CIA of the  in Iran in 1953 and  government in Guatemala in 1954, but was a failure both militarily and politically. Deteriorating were made worse by the 1962.

Bolivia
The (ELN-Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia) was a communist  force that operated from the remote Ñancahuazú region against the pro-U.S. . They were joined by  in the mid-1960s. The ELN was well equipped and scored a number of early successes against the in the difficult terrain of the mountainous  region. In the late 1960s, the CIA deployed teams of Paramilitary Operations Officers to Bolivia to train the Bolivian army in order to counter the ELN. These teams linked up with U.S. Army Special Forces and Bolivian Special Forces to track down and capture Guevara, who was a special prize because of his leading role in the. On October 9, 1967, Guevara was executed by Bolivian soldiers on the orders of CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer shortly after being captured, according to CIA documents.

Vietnam and Laos
The original OSS mission in Vietnam under  was to work with  in order to prepare his forces to assist the United States and their  in fighting the. After the end of World War II, the U.S. agreed at to turn Vietnam back to their previous French rulers and in 1950 the U.S. began providing military aid to the French.

CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers trained and led tribesmen in  and Vietnam, and the actions of these officers were not known for several years. was the air component of the CIA's paramilitary mission in Southeast Asia and was responsible for all combat, logistics and search and rescue operations in Laos and certain sections of Vietnam. The ethnic minority forces numbered in the tens of thousands. They conducted direct actions mission, led by Paramilitary Operations Officers, against the communist forces and their North Vietnamese allies.

Elements of the Special Operations Division were seen in the CIA's. One component of the Phoenix Program was involved in the capture and killing of suspected (National Liberation Front – NLF) members. Between 1968 and 1972, the Phoenix Program captured 81,740 National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF or Viet Cong) members, of whom 26,369 were killed. This was a large proportion of U.S. killings between 1969 and 1971. The program was also successful in destroying their infrastructure. By 1970, communist plans repeatedly emphasized attacking the government's "pacification" program and specifically targeted Phoenix agents. The NLF also imposed quotas. In 1970, for example, communist officials near in northern South Vietnam instructed their agents to "kill 400 persons" deemed to be government "tyrant[s]" and to "annihilate" anyone involved with the "pacification" program. Several North Vietnamese officials have made statements about the effectiveness of Phoenix.

MAC-V SOG (, which was originally named the Special Operations Group, but was changed for cover purposes) was created and active during the. While the CIA was just one part of MAC-V SOG, it did have operational control of some of the programs. Many of the military members of MAC-V SOG joined the CIA after their military service. The legacy of MAC-V SOG continues within SAC's Special Operations Group.

On May 22, 2016, the CIA honored three paramilitary officers with stars on the memorial wall 56 years after their deaths. They were David W. Bevan, Darrell A. Eubanks and John S. Lewis, all young men, killed on a mission to resupply anti-Communist forces in Laos. They were all recruited from the famous from Montana. One former smokejumper and paramilitary officer, Mike Oehlerich, believed he should have been on that flight, but they accidentally missed their pickup to the airport. They got stuck in Bangkok and so another crew – Bevan, Eubanks, and Lewis – flew that mission on August 13, 1961. "We had no idea anything happened until we got back the next day, and that's when they told us that they went into a canyon and tried to turn around and got into bad air", he said. CIA officials told him days after the crash that Lewis had jumped out of the plane, rather than remain inside. "When they told me that, I teared up," Oehlerich recalled. "It was something John and I had talked about – 'Don't go down with the airplane, your chances are better if you get out."

Maritime activities against the U.S.S.R.
In 1973, SAD and the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology built and deployed the, a large deep-sea salvage ship, on a secret operation. This operation was called (erroneously called  by the press). Her mission was to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, SOVIET SUBMARINE K-129, which had been lost in April 1968. A mechanical failure caused two-thirds of the submarine to break off during recovery, but SAC recovered two nuclear-tipped torpedoes, cryptographic machines and the bodies of six Soviet submariners. An alternative theory claims that all of K-129 was recovered and that the official account was an "elaborate cover-up".

Also in the 1970s, the, the (NSA) and SAD  conducted  and a series of other missions to place wiretaps on Soviet underwater communications cables. These operations were covered in detail in the 1998 book . In the 1985 edition of "Studies in Intelligence", the CIA's in-house journal that outsiders rarely get to see, the CIA describes the "staggering expense and improbable engineering feats" that culminated in the August 1974 mission.

Nicaragua
In 1979, the U.S.-backed dictatorship in Nicaragua fell to the socialist. Once in power, the Sandinistas disbanded the, who had committed many human rights abuses, and arrested and executed some of its members. Other former National Guard members helped to form the backbone of the Nicaraguan Counterrevolution or. CIA paramilitary teams from Special Activities Division were deployed to train and lead these rebel forces against the Sandinista government. These paramilitary activities were based in Honduras and Costa Rica. Direct military aid by the United States was eventually forbidden by the of the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983. The Boland Amendment was extended in October 1984 to forbid action by not only the Defense Department, but also to include the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Boland Amendment was a compromise because the did not have enough votes for a comprehensive ban on military aid. It covered only appropriated funds spent by intelligence agencies. Some of Reagan's national security officials used non-appropriated money of the National Security Council (NSC) to circumvent the Amendment. NSC officials sought to arrange funding by third parties. These efforts resulted in the of 1987, which concerned Contra funding through the proceeds of arms sales to the. No court ever made a determination whether Boland covered the NSC and on the grounds that it was a prohibition rather than a criminal statute, no one was indicted for violating it. Congress later resumed aid to the Contras, totaling over $300 million. The Contra war ended when the Sandinistas were voted out of power by a war-weary populace in 1990. leader was re-elected as President of  in 2006 and took office again on January 10, 2007.

El Salvador
CIA personnel were also involved in the. Some allege that the techniques used to interrogate prisoners in El Salvador foreshadowed those later used in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, when a similar counter-insurgency program was proposed in Iraq, it was referred to as "the Salvador Option".

Somalia
CIA sent in teams of Paramilitary Operations Officers into Somalia prior to the in 1992. On December 23, 1992, Paramilitary Operations Officer became the first casualty of the conflict in Somalia. Freedman was a former Army operator who had served in every conflict that the U.S. was involved in, both officially and unofficially, since Vietnam. Freedman was killed while conducting special reconnaissance in advance of the entry of U.S. military forces. His mission was completely voluntary, but it required entry into a very hostile area without any support. Freedman was posthumously awarded the on January 5, 1993 for his "extraordinary heroism".

SAD/SOG teams were key in working with JSOC and tracking s (HVT), known as "Tier One Personalities". Their efforts, working under extremely dangerous conditions with little to no support, led to several very successful joint JSOC/CIA operations. In one specific operation, a CIA case officer, Michael Shanklin and codenamed "Condor", working with a CIA Technical Operations Officer from the Directorate of Science and Technology, managed to get a cane with a beacon in it to Osman Ato, a wealthy businessman, arms importer, and Mohammed Aideed, a money man whose name was right below 's on the Tier One list.

Once Condor confirmed that Ato was in a vehicle, 's launched a capture operation.

"a helicopter dropped out of the sky and a sniper leaned out and fired three shots into the car's engine block. The car ground to a halt as commandos roped down from hovering  [sic], surrounded the car and handcuffed Ato. It was the first known helicopter takedown of suspects in a moving car. The next time Jones saw the magic cane, an hour later, Garrison had it in his hand. 'I like this cane,' Jones remembers the general exclaiming, a big grin on his face. 'Let's use this again.' Finally, a tier one personality was in custody."

President Bill Clinton withdrew U.S. forces on May 4, 1994.

In June 2006, the seized control of southern Somalia, including the country's capital, prompting the  to send in troops to try to protect the transitional government. In December, the Islamic Courts warned Ethiopia they would declare war if Ethiopia did not remove all its troops from Somalia. , leader of the Islamic Courts, called for a, or holy war, against Ethiopia and encouraged foreign Muslim fighters to come to Somalia. At that time, the United States accused the group of being controlled by, but the Islamic Courts denied that charge.

In 2009, reported that al-Qaeda had been training terrorists in Somalia for years. Until December 2006, Somalia's government had no power outside of the town of, 150 mi from the capital. The countryside and the capital were run by warlords and militia groups who could be paid to protect terrorist groups.

CIA officers kept close tabs on the country and paid a group of Somali warlords to help hunt down members of al-Qaeda according to . Meanwhile,, the deputy to al-Qaeda leader , issued a message calling for all Muslims to go to Somalia. On January 9, 2007, a U.S. official said that ten militants were killed in one airstrike.

On September 14, 2009,, a senior al-Qaeda leader in East Africa as well as a senior leader in Shabaab, al Qaeda's surrogate in Somalia, was killed by elements of U.S. Special Operations. According to a witness, at least two AH-6 Little Bird attack helicopters strafed a two-car convoy. then seized the body of Nabhan and took two other wounded fighters captive. JSOC and the CIA had been trying to kill Nabhan for some time including back in January 2007, when an Gunship was called in on one attempt. A U.S. intelligence source stated that CIA paramilitary teams are directly embedded with Ethiopian forces in Somalia, allowing for the tactical intelligence to launch these operations. Nabhan was wanted for his involvement in the, as well as leading the cell behind the.

From 2010 to 2013, the CIA set up the Somalia (NISA) by providing training, funding and diplomatic access. In the same time period, the EU and UN has spent millions of dollars for the military training of the Somali National Army (SNA). NISA is considered a professional Somali security force that can be relied upon to neutralize the terrorist threat. This force responded to the complex al-Shabaab attack on the Banadir Regional Courthouse in Mogadishu which killed 25 civilians. NISA's response however saved hundreds of people and resulted in the death of all the al-Shabaab guerrillas involved.

Significant events during this time frame included the targeted drone strikes against British al-Qaida operative and Moroccan al-Qaida operative Abu Ibrahim. It also included the rescue of U.S. citizen Jessica Buchanan by U.S. Navy SEALs. All likely aided by intelligence collection efforts in Somalia.

Afghanistan
During the in the 1980s, Paramilitary Operations Officers were instrumental in equipping  forces against the. Although the CIA in general, and a Texas congressman named in particular, have received most of the attention, the key architect of this strategy was. Vickers was a young Paramilitary Operations Officer from SAD/SOG. The CIA's efforts have been given credit for assisting in ending the involvement in  and bringing Taliban to power.

SAD paramilitary teams were active in Afghanistan in the 1990s in clandestine operations to locate and kill or capture. These teams planned several operations, but did not receive the order to execute from President because the available intelligence did not guarantee a successful outcome weighed against the extraordinary risk to the SAD/SOG teams that would execute the mission. These efforts did however build many of the relationships that would prove essential in the 2001.

On September 26, 2001, a CIA team code named "JAWBREAKER" led by with several members from Special Activities Division including Scroen's deputy  Philip Reilly, a Paramilitary Operations Officer, were the first U.S. forces inserted into Afghanistan. The team entered the country nine days after the 9/11 attack and linked up with the as part of Task Force Dagger.

They provided the Northern Alliance with resources including millions of dollars in cash to buy weapons and pay local fighters and prepared for the arrival of forces. The plan for the invasion of Afghanistan was developed by the CIA, the first time in United States history that such a large-scale military operation was planned by the CIA. SAD, U.S. Army Special Forces, and the combined to overthrow the  in Afghanistan with minimal loss of U.S. lives. They did this without the use of conventional U.S. military ground forces.

 stated in an editorial by in 2006:

"What made the Afghan campaign a landmark in the U.S. Military's history is that it was prosecuted by Special Operations forces from all the services, along with Navy and Air Force tactical power, operations by the Afghan Northern Alliance and the CIA were equally important and fully integrated. No large Army or Marine force was employed."

In a 2008  book review of Horse Soldiers, a book by about the invasion of Afghanistan,  wrote:

"The valor exhibited by Afghan and American soldiers, fighting to free Afghanistan from a horribly cruel regime, will inspire even the most jaded reader. The stunning victory of the horse soldiers – 350 Special Forces soldiers, 100 C.I.A. officers and 15,000 Northern Alliance fighters routing a Taliban army 50,000 strong – deserves a hallowed place in American military history."

Small and highly agile paramilitary mobile teams spread out over the countryside to meet with locals and gather information about the Taliban and al-Qa'ida. During that time, one of the teams was approached in a village and asked by a young man for help in retrieving his teenage sister. He explained that a senior Taliban official had taken her as a wife and had sharply restricted the time she could spend with her family. The team gave the man a small hand-held tracking device to pass along to his sister, with instructions for her to activate it when the Taliban leader returned home. As a result, the team captured the senior Taliban official and rescued the sister.

Tora Bora
In December 2001, Special Activities Division and the Army's tracked down  in the rugged mountains near the  in Afghanistan. Former CIA station chief as well as a subsequent Senate investigation claimed that the combined American special operations task force was largely outnumbered by al-Qaeda forces and that they were denied additional U.S. troops by higher command. The task force also requested munitions to block the avenues of egress of bin Laden, but that request was also denied. The SAC team was unsuccessful and "Bin Laden and bodyguards walked uncontested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area." At Bin Laden's abandoned encampment, the team uncovered evidence that bin Laden's ultimate aim was to obtain and detonate a nuclear device in the United States.

Surge
In September 2009, the CIA planned on "deploying teams of spies, analysts and paramilitary operatives to Afghanistan, part of a broad intelligence 'surge' ordered by President Obama. This will make its station there among the largest in the agency's history." This presence is expected to surpass the size of the stations in Iraq and Vietnam at the height of those wars. The station is located at the U.S. Embassy in and is led "by a veteran with an extensive background in paramilitary operations". The majority of the CIA's workforce is located among secret bases and military special operations posts throughout the country.

Also in 2009, General, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, planned to request an increase in teams of CIA operatives, including their elite paramilitary officers, to join with U.S. military special operations forces. This combination worked well in Iraq and is largely credited with the success of that surge. There have been basically three options described in the media: McChrystal's increased counter-insurgency campaign; a counter-terror campaign using special operations raids and ; and withdrawal. The most successful combination in both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been the linking up of SAD and military special forces to fight alongside highly trained indigenous units. One thing all of these options have in common is a requirement for greater CIA participation.

The End Game
According to the current and former intelligence officials, General McChrystal also had his own preferred candidate for the Chief of Station (COS) job, a good friend and decorated CIA paramilitary officer. The officer had extensive experience in war zones, including two previous tours in Afghanistan with one as the Chief of Station, as well as tours in the Balkans, Baghdad and Yemen. He is well known in CIA lore as "the man who saved 's life when the CIA led the effort to oust the Taliban from power in 2001". President Karzai is said to be greatly indebted to this officer and was pleased when the officer was named chief of station again. According to interviews with several senior officials, this officer "was uniformly well-liked and admired. A career paramilitary officer, he came to the CIA after several years in an elite Marine unit".

General McChrystal's strategy included the lash up of special operations forces from the U.S. Military and from SAC/SOG to duplicate the initial success and the defeat of the Taliban in 2001 and the success of the "Surge" in Iraq in 2007. This strategy proved highly successful and worked very well in Afghanistan with SAC/SOG and JSOC forces conducting raids nearly every night having "superb results" against the enemy.

In 2001, the CIA's SAD/SOG began creating what would come to be called Counter-terrorism Pursuit Teams (CTPT). These units grew to include over 3,000 operatives by 2010 and have been involved in sustained heavy fighting against the enemy. It is considered the "best Afghan fighting force".

Located at 7800 ft above sea level, Firebase Lilley in serves as a "nerve center for the covert war". This covert war includes being a hub for these CTPT operations with Firebase Lilley being just one in a constellation of CIA bases across Afghanistan. These units have not only been highly effective in combat operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, but have also been used to engage with the tribes in areas with no other official government presence.

This covert war also includes a large SOG/CTPT expansion into Pakistan to target senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). CTPT units are the main effort in both the "Counter-terrorism plus" and the full "Counterinsurgency" options being discussed by the Obama administration in the December 2010 review. SOG/CTPT are also key to any exit strategy for the U.S. government to leave Afghanistan, while still being able to deny al-Qaeda and other trans-national extremists groups a safe haven both in Afghanistan and in the FATA of Pakistan.

In January 2013, a CIA drone strike killed Mullah Nazir a senior Taliban commander in the South Waziristan area of Pakistan believed responsible for carrying out the insurgent effort against the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Nazir's death degraded the Taliban.

The U.S. has decided to lean heavily on CIA in general and SAC specifically in their efforts to withdraw from Afghanistan as it did in Iraq. There are plans being considered to have several U.S .Military special operations elements assigned to CIA after the withdrawal. If so, there would still be a chance to rebuild and assist and coordinate (with Afghan ANSF commandos) and continue to keep a small footprint while allowing free elections and pushing back the Taliban/AQ forces that have failed but continue to attempt their taking back parts of the country, as they have had between 2015 through 2016.

The Trump administration doubled down on the covert war in Afghanistan by increasing the number of paramilitary officers from SAD fighting alongside and leading the Afghan CTPT's, supported by Omega Teams from JSOC. Combined they are considered the most effective units in Afghanistan and the linchpin of the counter insurgency and counter-terrorism effort. The war has been largely turned over to SAC. On October 21, 2016, two senior paramilitary officers, Brian Hoke and Nate Delemarre, were killed during a CTPT operation in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The two longtime friends were killed fighting side-by-side against the Taliban and buried next to each other at.

Yemen
On November 5, 2002, a missile launched from a CIA-controlled drone killed  members traveling in a remote area in Yemen. SAD/SOG paramilitary teams had been on the ground tracking their movements for months and called in this air strike. One of those in the car was Ali Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, al-Qaeda's chief operative in Yemen and a suspect in the October 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole (DDG-67). Five other people, believed to be low-level al-Qaeda members, were also killed including an American named. Former Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary called it "a very successful tactical operation" and said "such strikes are useful not only in killing terrorists but in forcing al-Qaeda to change its tactics".

"It's an important step that has been taken in that it has eliminated another level of experienced leadership from al-Qaeda," said, former head of counter-terrorism for the CIA and current consultant. "It will help weaken the organization and make it much less effective." Harithi was on the run, pursued by several security forces who were looking for him and Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, another suspect in the case.

In 2009, the Obama administration authorized continued lethal operations in Yemen by the CIA. As a result, the SAD/SOG and JSOC joined together to aggressively target al-Qaeda operatives in that country, both through leading Yemenese special forces and intelligence driven drone strikes. A major target of these operations was, an American citizen with ties to both , the convicted Fort Hood attacker, and , the Christmas 2009 attempted bomber of Northwest Airline flight 253. Imam al-Awlaki was killed on September 30, 2011 by an air attack carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command.

Iraq
SAD paramilitary teams entered Northern Iraq before the. Once on the ground they prepared the battle space for the subsequent arrival of U.S. military forces. SAD teams then combined with U.S. Army special forces (on a team called the Northern Iraq Liaison Element or NILE). This team organized the  for the subsequent U.S. led invasion. This joint team combined in to defeat, an  group allied to al-Qaeda, which several battle-hardened fighters from Afghanistan had joined after the fall of the Taliban, in a battle for control over the northeast of Iraq – a battle that turned out being one of the "most intense battles of Special Forces since Vietnam". This battle was for an entire territory that was completely occupied by Ansar al-Islam and was executed prior to the invasion in February 2003. If this battle had not been as successful as it was, there would have been a considerable hostile force in the rear of the U.S./secular Kurdish force in the subsequent assault on the to the south. The U.S. side was represented by paramilitary operations officers from SAD/SOG and the Army's (10th SFG). 10th SFG soldiers were awarded three Silver Stars and six Bronze Stars with V for valor for this battle alone and several paramilitary officers were awarded the  for valor in combat. This battle was a significant direct attack and victory on a key U.S. opponent. It resulted in the deaths of a substantial number of militants and the uncovering of a crude laboratory that had traces of poisons and information on at Sargat. The team found foreign identity cards, visas, and passports on the enemy bodies. They had come from a wide variety of Middle Eastern and north African countries including Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Tunisia, Morocco, and Iran. Sargat was also the only facility that had traces of chemical weapons discovered in the Iraq war.

In a 2004 U.S. News & World Report article, "A firefight in the mountains", the author states:

"Viking Hammer would go down in the annals of Special Forces history – a battle fought on foot, under sustained fire from an enemy lodged in the mountains, and with minimal artillery and air support."

SAD/SOG teams also conducted high risk special reconnaissance missions behind Iraqi lines to identify senior leadership targets. These missions led to the initial assassination attempts against  and his key generals. Although the initial against Hussein was unsuccessful in killing the dictator, it was successful in effectively ending his ability to command and control his forces. Other strikes against key generals were successful and significantly degraded the command's ability to react to and maneuver against the U.S.-led invasion force. SAD operations officers were also successful in convincing key Iraqi army officers to surrender their units once the fighting started and/or not to oppose the invasion force.

NATO member Turkey refused to allow its territory to be used by the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division for the invasion. As a result, the SAD/SOG, U.S. Army special forces joint teams, the Kurdish Peshmerga and the were the entire northern force against the Iraqi army during the invasion. Their efforts kept the 13 divisions of the Iraqi Army in place to defend against the Kurds rather allowing them to contest the coalition force coming from the south. This combined U.S. special operations and Kurdish force defeated the Iraqi Army. Four members of the SAD/SOG team received CIA's rare for "extraordinary heroism".

The mission that captured Saddam Hussein was called "". It was planned and carried out by JSOC's Delta Force and SAD/SOG teams (together called ). The operation eventually included around 600 soldiers from the 1st Brigade of the. Special operations troops probably numbered around 40. Much of the publicity and credit for the capture went to the 4th Infantry Division soldiers, but CIA and JSOC were the driving force. "Task Force 121 were actually the ones who pulled Saddam out of the hole" said Robert Andrews, former deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. "They can't be denied a role anymore."

CIA paramilitary teams continued to assist JSOC in Iraq and in 2007 the combination created a lethal force many credit with having a major impact in the success of "". They did this by killing or capturing many of the key al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq. In a  interview, -winning journalist  described a new special operations capability that allowed for this success. This capability was developed by the joint teams of CIA and JSOC. Several senior U.S. officials stated that the "joint efforts of JSOC and CIA paramilitary units was the most significant contributor to the defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq".

In May 2007, Marine Major was serving in SAD/SOG Ground Branch in Iraq when he was killed by small arms fire while leading a raid with Iraq Special Forces. Reports from fellow paramilitary officers stated that the flash radio report sent was "five wounded and one martyred" Major Zembiec was killed while saving his soldiers, Iraqi soldiers. He was honored with an intelligence star for his valor in combat.

On October 26, 2008, SAD/SOG and conducted an operation in Syria targeting the "foreign fighter  network" bringing al-Qaeda operatives into Iraq (See ). A U.S. source told that "the leader of the foreign fighters, an  officer, was the target of Sunday's cross-border raid." He said the attack was successful, but did not say whether or not the al-Qaeda officer was killed. later reported that Abu Ghadiya, "al-Qa'ida's senior coordinator operating in Syria", was killed in the attack.  reported that during the raid U.S. forces killed several armed males who "posed a threat".

In September 2014 with the rise of the, the U.S. government began aggressive military operations against them in both Iraq and Syria. SAD Ground Branch was placed in charge of the ground war. This is a testament to SAD being the preeminent force for unconventional warfare and their long-standing relationship with the most effective fighting force in the region, the Kurdish.

Pakistan
SAD/SOG has been very active "on the ground" inside Pakistan targeting al-Qaeda operatives for (UAV)  strikes and along with USSOCOM elements they have been training Pakistani paramilitary troops and regular Army troops, they have also done HVT target missions alongside Pakistani special forces. Before leaving office, President authorized SAD's successful killing of eight senior al-Qaeda operatives via targeted air strikes. Among those killed were the mastermind of a 2006 plot to detonate explosives aboard planes flying across the Atlantic and the man thought to have planned the  on September 20, 2008 that killed 53 people. The CIA Director authorized the continuation of these operations and on January 23, SAD/SOG performed killings of 20 individuals in northwestern Pakistan that were terrorists. Some experts assess that the CIA Director – at that time – has been more aggressive in conducting paramilitary operations in Pakistan than his predecessor. A Pakistani security official stated that other strikes killed at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly "a high-value target" such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official. On February 14, the CIA drone killed 27 taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in a missile strike in south, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border where al-Qaeda leaders and  were believed to be hiding.

According to the documentary film Drone, by Tonje Schei, since 2002 the  has been working for the CIA as "customer", carrying out at least some of the armed missions in Pakistan.

In a (NPR) report dated February 3, 2008, a senior official stated that al-Qaeda has been "decimated" by SAD/SOG's air and ground operations. This senior U.S. counter-terrorism official goes on to say, "The enemy is really, really struggling. These attacks have produced the broadest, deepest and most rapid reduction in al-Qaida senior leadership that we've seen in several years." President Obama's CIA Director stated that SAD/SOG's efforts in Pakistan have been "the most effective weapon" against senior al-Qaeda leadership.

These covert attacks have increased significantly under President Obama, with as many at 50 al-Qaeda militants being killed in the month of May 2009 alone. In June 2009, sixty Taliban fighters were killed while at a funeral to bury fighters that had been killed in previous CIA attacks. On July 22, 2009, reported that U.S. officials believe, a son of Osama bin Laden, was killed by a CIA strike in Pakistan. Saad bin Laden spent years under house arrest in Iran before traveling last year to, according to former National Intelligence Director. It's believed he was killed sometime in 2009. A senior U.S. counter-terrorism said U.S. intelligence agencies are "80 to 85 percent" certain that Saad bin Laden is dead.

On August 6, 2009, the CIA announced that was killed by a SAD/SOG drone strike in Pakistan.  said, "Although has distanced himself from many of the Bush administration's counter-terrorism policies, he has embraced and even expanded the C.I.A.'s covert campaign in Pakistan using Predator and Reaper drones". The biggest loss may be to "Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida". For the past eight years, al-Qaeda had depended on Mehsud for protection after Mullah fled Afghanistan in late 2001. "Mehsud's death means the tent sheltering Al Qaeda has collapsed," an Afghan Taliban intelligence officer who had met Mehsud many times told. "Without a doubt he was Al Qaeda's No. 1 guy in Pakistan," adds Mahmood Shah, a retired Pakistani Army brigadier and a former chief of the Federally Administered Tribal Area, or, Mehsud's base.

Airstrikes from CIA drones struck targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan on September 8, 2009. Reports stated that seven to ten militants were killed to include one top al-Qaida leader. He was Mustafa al-Jaziri, an Algerian national described as an "important and effective" leader and senior military commander for al-Qaida. The success of these operations are believed to have caused senior Taliban leaders to significantly alter their operations and cancel key planning meetings.

The CIA is also increasing its campaign using Predator missile strikes on in Pakistan. The number of strikes in 2009 exceeded the 2008 total, according to data compiled by the Long War Journal, which tracks strikes in Pakistan. In December 2009, the New York Times reported that President Obama ordered an expansion of the drone program with senior officials describing the program as "a resounding success, eliminating key terrorists and throwing their operations into disarray". The article also cites a Pakistani official who stated that about 80 missile attacks in less than two years have killed "more than 400" enemy fighters, a number lower than most estimates but in the same range. His account of collateral damage was strikingly lower than many unofficial counts: "We believe the number of civilian casualties is just over 20, and those were people who were either at the side of major terrorists or were at facilities used by terrorists."

On December 6, 2009, a senior operative, Saleh al-Somali, was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan. He was responsible for their operations outside of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and formed part of the senior leadership. Al-Somali was engaged in plotting terrorist acts around the world and "given his central role, this probably included plotting attacks against the United States and Europe". On December 31, 2009, senior Taliban leader and strong Haqqani ally Haji Omar Khan, brother of, was killed in the strike along with the son of local tribal leader Karim Khan.

In January 2010, al-Qaeda in Pakistan announced that leader Abdullah Said al Libi was killed in a drone missile strike. Neither al-Qaeda nor the U.S. has revealed the date of the attack that killed Libi. On January 14, 2010, subsequent to the suicide attack at, the CIA located and killed the senior Taliban leader in Pakistan,. Mehsud had claimed responsibility in a video he made with the suicide bomber.

On February 5, 2010, the Pakistani (ISI) and CIA's SAD/SOG conducted a joint raid and apprehended. Baradar was the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the beginning of the more than eight years ago until that date. He ranked second to, the Taliban's founder and was known to be a close associate of. Mullah Baradar was interrogated by CIA and ISI officers for several days before news of his capture was released. This capture sent the message that the Taliban leadership is not safe in Afghanistan or Pakistan. "The seizure of the Afghan Taliban's top military leader in Pakistan represents a turning point in the U.S.-led war against the militants", U.S. officials and analysts said. Per Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, several raids in in early February netted dozens of suspected Afghan militants. In other joint raids that occurred around the same time, Afghan officials said that the Taliban "shadow governors" for two provinces in northern Afghanistan had also been detained. Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban's leader in, and Mullah Mir Mohammed of Baghlan were captured in Akora Khattack.

On February 20, Muhammad Haqqani, son of, was one of four people killed in the drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region in North , according to two Pakistani intelligence sources.

On May 31, 2010, the New York Times reported that Mustafa Abu al Yazid (AKA Saeed al Masri), a senior operational leader for Al Qaeda, was killed in an American missile strike in Pakistan's tribal areas.

From July to December 2010, predator strikes killed 535 suspected militants in the to include Sheikh Fateh Al Misri, Al-Qaeda's new third in command on September 25. Al Misri was planning a major terrorist attack in Europe by recruiting British Muslims who would then go on a shooting rampage similar to what transpired in Mumbai in November 2008.

Operation Neptune Spear
On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that had been  in, Pakistan by "a small team of Americans" acting under his direct orders during a CIA operation under Director. The helicopter raid was executed from a CIA forward operating base in Afghanistan by the elements of the U.S. (assigned to the CIA) and CIA paramilitary operatives.

The operation in the military cantonment area in the city of  resulted in the acquisition of extensive intelligence on the future attack plans of al-Qaeda. Bin Laden's body was flown to Afghanistan to be identified and then forwarded to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) for a burial at sea. Results from the DNA samples taken Afghanistan were compared with those of a known relative of bin Laden's and confirmed the identity.

The operation was a result of years of intelligence work that included the (ISI), the CIA, the, and the 's apprehension and interrogation of , the discovery of the real name of the courier disclosed by , the tracking, via signal intelligence, of the courier to the Abbottobad compound by paramilitary operatives and the establishment of a  safe house that provided critical advance intelligence for the operation.

The material discovered in the raid indicated that was still in charge of his  organization and was developing plans and issuing orders at the time of his death. There is considerable controversy over claims that elements of the Pakistani government, particularly the ISI, may have been concealing the presence of in. has been labeled a "game changer" and a fatal blow to, by senior U.S. officials.

Iran
In the early 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's were ordered to overthrow the government of Iran, Prime Minister, and re-install deposed. This event was called. The senior CIA officer was, the grandson of American president. The operation utilized all of SAC's components to include political action, covert influence and paramilitary operations. The paramilitary component included training anti-Communist guerrillas to fight the if they seized power in the chaos of Operation Ajax. Although a significant tactical/operational success, Operation Ajax is considered very controversial with many critics.

In November 1979, a group of students and militants took over the American embassy in support of the. was the unsuccessful  that attempted to rescue the  from the U.S. Embassy in, Iran on April 24, 1980. Several SAC/SOG teams infiltrated into Tehran to support this operation.

On March 9, 2007 alleged CIA officer was kidnapped from Iran's. On July 7, 2008, winning investigative journalist and author  wrote an article in the  stating that the Bush Administration had signed a  authorizing the CIA to begin cross border paramilitary operations from Iraq and Afghanistan into Iran. These operations would be against, the commando arm of the , public and private sector strategic targets, and "high-value targets" in the war on terror. Also enrolled to support CIA objectives were the, known in the West as the M.E.K., and the insurgents. "The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," a person familiar with its contents said, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money." Any significant effort against Iran by the Obama Administration would likely come directly from SAC. and in July 2010, Director Panetta chose a former chief of SAC as the new NCS Director.

Libya
After the movements overthrew the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt, its neighbors to the west and east respectively, Libya had a major revolt beginning in February 2011. In response, the Obama administration sent in SAC paramilitary operatives to assess the situation and gather information on the opposition forces. Experts speculated that these teams could have been determining the capability of these forces to defeat the regime and whether Al-Qaeda had a presence in these rebel elements.

U.S. officials had made it clear that no U.S. troops would be "on the ground", making the use of covert paramilitary operatives the only alternative. During the early phases of the Libyan offensive of U.S.-led air strikes, paramilitary operatives assisted in the recovery of a U.S. Air Force pilot who had crashed due to mechanical problems. There was speculation that President Obama issued a covert action finding in March 2011 that authorizes the CIA to carry out a clandestine effort to provide arms and support to the Libyan opposition.

Syria
CIA paramilitary teams have been deployed to Syria to report on the uprising, to access the rebel groups, leadership and to potentially one of those rebel groups against the Bashar al-Assad regime. In early September 2013, President Obama told U.S. Senators that the CIA had trained the first 50-man insurgent element and that they had been inserted into Syria. The deployment of this unit and the supplying of weapons may be the first tangible measure of support since the U.S. stated they would begin providing assistance to the opposition. In October 2013, SAC was tasked with supporting moderate Syrian rebels to help engineer a stalemate and political settlement in the Syrian civil war. This program was considered too limited to have the desired outcome. However, with the rise of the, SAC was given the overall command and control of the ground fight against them. This fight crossed borders between Iraq and Syria.

Again in 2015, the combination of the U.S. Military's and the CIA's Special Activities Center became the force of choice for fighting this conflict. SAC stood up and ran a robust covert action program to overthrown the Assad regime. The program was successful, including in 2015 when rebels using tank-destroying missiles, routed government forces in northern Syria. But by late 2015 the Russian came to Assad aid and their focus was focusing squarely on the C.I.A.-backed fighters battling Syrian government troops. Many of the fighters were killed, and the fortunes of the rebel army reversed. According to the. the program was never given the level of political support - “They never gave it the necessary resources or space to determine the dynamics of the battlefield. They were drip-feeding opposition groups just enough to survive but never enough to become dominant actors.”

In December 2018, US President announced that US troops involved in the fight against the  (ISIS) in northeast Syria would be withdrawn imminently. Trump’s surprise decision overturned Washington’s policy in the Middle East. It has also fueled the ambitions and anxieties of local and regional actors vying over the future shape of Syria. Many experts proposed that President Trump could mitigate the damage of his withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Syria by using SAC. Many believe the president chose "to replace U.S. ground forces in Syria with personnel from the CIA's Special Activities Division" and that the process has been underway for months. Already experienced in operations in Syria, the CIA has numerous paramilitary officers who have the skills to operate independently in harms way. And while the CIA lacks the numbers to replace all 2,000 U.S. military personnel currently in Syria and work alongside the (these CIA personnel are spread cross the world), but their model is based on fewer enablers and support.

Operation Kayla Mueller
On October 26, 2019 U.S. 's (JSOC) conducted a raid into the Idlib province of Syria on the border with Turkey that resulted in the death of brahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai also known as. The raid was launched based on a Special Activities Division's intelligence collection and close target reconnaissance effort that located the leader of ISIS. Launched after midnight local, the eight helicopters carrying the teams along with support aircraft crossed hundreds of miles of airspace controlled by Iraq, Turkey and Russia. Upon arrival, efforts were made for Baghdadi to surrender, with those efforts unsuccessful U.S. forces responded by blowing a large hole into the side of the compound. After entering, the compound was cleared, with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. The two hour raid culminated with Baghdadi fleeing from U.S. forces into a dead-end tunnel and detonating a suicide vest, killing himself and three of his children. The complex operation was conducted during the withdrawal of U.S. forces northeast Syria, adding to the complexity.

Worldwide mission
The has always had a Special Activities Center, which secretly carries out special operations missions. However, since September 11, 2001 the U.S. government has relied much more on SAC/SOG because fighting terrorists does not usually involve fighting other armies. Rather, it involves secretly moving in and out of countries like Pakistan, Iran and Somalia where the American military is not legally allowed to operate. If there are missions in these countries that are to U.S. military, SAC/SOG units are the primary national special missions units to execute those operations.

In the, SAC has the lead in the covert war being waged against al Qaeda. SAC/SOG paramilitary teams have apprehended many of the senior leaders. These include:, the chief of operations for al-Qaeda; , the so-called "20th hijacker"; , the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.; , alleged to be the mastermind of the and leader of al Qaeda operations in the  prior to his capture in November 2002; , al Qaeda's "field general" believed to have taken the role of No. 3 in al Qaeda following the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan; and , the number two Taliban commander and the highest level Taliban commander apprehended in the Afghan War. Prior to the beginning of the "War on Terror", SAC/SOG located and captured many notable militants and international criminals, including and. These were just three of the over 50 caught by SAC/SOG just between 1983 and 1995.

In 2002, the prepared a list of "terrorist leaders" the CIA is authorized to kill in a, if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be kept to an acceptable number. The list includes key al Qaeda leaders like (deceased) and his chief deputy,, as well as other principal figures from al Qaeda and affiliated groups. This list is called the "high value target list". The U.S. president is not legally required to approve each name added to the list, nor is the CIA required to obtain presidential approval for specific attacks, although the president is kept well informed about operations.

SAC/SOG teams have been dispatched to the country of, where dozens of al Qaeda fugitives from Afghanistan are believed to have taken refuge with and thousands of refugees in the. Their efforts have already resulted in 15 Arab militants linked to al Qaeda being captured.

The SAC/SOG teams have also been active in the Philippines, where 1,200 U.S. military advisers helped to train local soldiers in "counter-terrorist operations" against, a radical Islamist group suspected of ties with al Qaeda. Little is known about this U.S. covert action program, but some analysts believe that "the CIA's paramilitary wing, the Special Activities Division (SAD) [referring to SAC's previous name], has been allowed to pursue terrorist suspects in the Philippines on the basis that its actions will never be acknowledged".

On July 14, 2009, several newspapers reported that DCIA was briefed on a CIA program that had not been briefed to the oversight committees in Congress. Panetta cancelled the initiative and reported its existence to Congress and the President. The program consisted of teams of SAC paramilitary officers organized to execute operations against al Qaeda operatives around the world in any country. According to the Los Angeles Times, DCIA Panetta "has not ruled out reviving the program". There is some question as to whether former Vice President instructed the CIA not to inform Congress. Per senior intelligence officers, this program was an attempt to avoid the civilian casualties that can occur during Predator drone strikes using s.

According to many experts, the Obama administration has relied on the CIA and their paramilitary capabilities, even more than they have on U.S. military forces, to maintain the fight against terrorists in the Afghanistan and Pakistan region, as well as places like Yemen, Somalia and North Africa. Ronald Kessler states in his book The CIA at War: Inside the Secret War Against Terror, that although paramilitary operations are a strain on resources, they are winning the war against terrorism.

SAC/SOG paramilitary officers executed the clandestine evacuation of U.S. citizens and diplomatic personnel in Somalia, Iraq (during the ) and Liberia during periods of hostility, as well as the insertion of Paramilitary Operations Officers prior to the entry of U.S. military forces in every conflict since World War II. SAC officers have operated covertly since 1947 in places such as North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the, SAC has begun deploying small units of paramilitary officers worldwide to track down terrorists and they have been given the primary lead for CT operations in Afghanistan.

In 2019, finalist Annie Jacobsen's book, "Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins" was released. The author refers to CIA's Special Activities Division as "a highly-classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, black operations force in the world." She further states that every American president since has asked the CIA to conduct sabotage, subversion and assassination.

Innovations in special operations
The (STARS) is a system developed in the early 1950s by CIA paramilitary officers for retrieving persons from the ground with a  aircraft. It uses a harness and a self-inflating balloon that carries an attached lift line. An MC-130E engages the line with its V-shaped yoke and the individual is reeled on board. was a very successful mission in 1962 in which two military officers parachuted into a remote abandoned Soviet site in the Arctic. The two were subsequently extracted by the Fulton sky hook. The team gathered evidence of advanced research on acoustical systems to detect under-ice U.S. submarines and efforts to develop Arctic anti-submarine warfare techniques.

(SgtMaj) was a Special Forces soldier attached to the CIA in the 1960s. During his time at in Vietnam, he developed and conducted the first combat. A practice combat infiltration was conducted in October 1970 into the North Vietnamese held "War Zone D", in South Vietnam, the first such drop into a combat zone. HALO is a method of delivering personnel, equipment, and supplies from a transport aircraft at a high altitude via free-fall parachute insertion. HALO and are also known as Military Free Fall (MFF). In the HALO technique, the parachutist opens his parachute at a low altitude after free-falling for a period of time to avoid detection by the enemy. Waugh also led the last combat parachute insertion into enemy territory occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops on June 22, 1971.

Notable paramilitary officers
•

•

•

•

•

•

•

• James "Jim" Glerum

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

• (a.k.a. Tony Poe)

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

• Leo Camilleri

• Gregory Vogle

•


 * Chris Mueller and William Carlson: On October 25, 2003, paramilitary officers Christopher Mueller and William "Chief" Carlson were killed while conducting an operation to kill/capture high level  leaders near, Afghanistan. Both these officers were honored with Stars on the  at their Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. "The bravery of these two men cannot be overstated," Director of Central Intelligence  told a gathering of several hundred Agency employees and family members. "Chris and Chief put the lives of others ahead of their own. That is heroism defined." Mueller, a former  and Carlson, a former Army Special Forces soldier,  operator, and member of the  in Montana, died while on this covert operation. Both officers saved the lives of others, including Afghan soldiers, during the engagement with al-Qa'ida forces. In Oliver North's book American Heroes in Special Operations, a chapter is devoted to their story.

Notable political action officers

 * (1906–1982) Goillot started as the only female paramilitary officer in the OSS. She shot herself in the leg while hunting in Turkey in 1932, which was then amputated below the knee. She parachuted into France to organize the resistance with her prosthesis strapped to her body. She was awarded the . She married an OSS officer named Paul Goillot and the two joined the CIA as paramilitary operations officers in SAD. Once aboard, Mrs. Goillot made her mark as a political action officer playing significant roles in the Guatemala and Guyana operations. These operations involved the covert removal of the governments of these two countries, as directed by the President of the United States.
 * (1918–2007) was an Ivy league educated Naval officer who joined the CIA in 1949 after serving with the OSS in World War II. Hunt was a political action officer in what came to be called their Special Activities Division. He became station chief in Mexico City in 1950, and supervised, (Not to be confused with a famous SAD Paramilitary Officer of the same name) who worked for the CIA in Mexico during the period 1951–1952. Buckley, another SAD political action specialist, only served briefly in the CIA and went on to be considered the father of the modern American conservative movement. Buckley and Hunt remained lifelong friends.  Hunt ran , which overthrew the government in Guatemala in 1954, was heavily involved in the  operation, frequently mentioned in the , and was one of the operatives in the .  Hunt was also a well-known author with over 50 books to his credit. These books were published under several alias names and several were made into motion pictures.
 * (1922–1988) Perhaps the most famous propaganda officer ever to serve in CIA, Phillips began his career as a journalist and amateur actor in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He joined the Agency in the 1950s and was one of the chief architects of the operation to overthrow Communist president Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. He was later heavily engaged as a principal member of the Bay of Pigs Task Force at Langley, and in subsequent anti-Castro operations throughout the 1960s. He founded the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) after successfully contesting a libel suit against him.
 * (1916–2000), was a political action officer in SAD who coordinated the CIA's, which orchestrated the coup d'état of Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister and returned monarchical rule to , the Shah of Iran, and Iran's  in August 1953. He was also the grandson of American president.

CIA Memorial Wall
The CIA Memorial Wall is located at CIA headquarters in. It honors CIA employees who died in the line of duty. There are 129 stars carved into the marble wall, each one representing an officer. A majority of these were paramilitary officers. A black book, called the "Book of Honor", lies beneath the stars and is encased in an inch-thick plate of glass. Inside this book are stars, arranged by year of death, and the names of 91 employees who died in CIA service alongside them. The other names remain secret, even in death.

Third Option Foundation (TOF) is a national non-profit organization set up to support the families of fallen paramilitary officers. The name refers to the motto of CIA's Special Activities Center: Tertia Optio, the President's third option when military force is inappropriate and diplomacy is inadequate. TOF provides comprehensive family resiliency programs, financial support for the families of paramilitary officers killed in action and it works behind the scenes to "quietly help those who quietly serve".