Chief of U.S. Commandos Warns Loose Lips Could Risk American Lives by Dan De Luce, Foreign Policy
The general overseeing U.S. special operations forces has written a memo to Defense Secretary Ash Carter demanding the Pentagon stop talking about what his elite troops are up to in Iraq or elsewhere, saying the commandos require a veil of secrecy to do their job, Foreign Policy has learned.
Gen. Joseph Votel, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) who has been nominated to take over U.S. Central Command, issued the complaint in a Dec. 8 memo — days after Carter and White House officials announced that a force of about 200 special operations forces (SOF) would be deployed to Iraq to target Islamic State militants.
“I am concerned with increased public exposure of SOF activities and operations, and I assess that it is time to get our forces back into the shadows,” Votel wrote, according to an excerpt newly provided to FP by a defense official…