Saturday 31 July 2010

US Assistant Secretary of Defense in Lebanon: Any Mission?

US Assistant Secretary of Defense in Lebanon: Any Mission?

30/07/2010 US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Michael Vickers is in Beirut.

His "suspicious" visit is enough to raise tens of question marks about the "mission" the US Defense official is seeking to accomplish in Lebanon as well as the timing of his visit.

The visit comes after another tour made by US Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow in South Lebanon and his meeting with the UNIFIL leadership, given that there is no American unit within the international forces.

Yet, most Lebanese don't know a lot about their latest American guest whose "suspicious visit" to their country is "calmly" taking place without serious media coverage.

Actually, Vickers' main "mission" is that no body knows anything about his mission. He's an ambiguous man, believed to be the expert in Special Operation that determines the course of any crisis or war.

Vickers served as a Special Forces NCO, later as a commissioned officer, and CIA paramilitary operations officer. In the mid-1980s, Vickers became involved with Operation Cyclone, the CIA program during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. He was the head military strategist for the US, coordinating an effort that involved ten countries and providing direction to forces made up of over 500,000 Afghan fighters.

Later he was Senior Vice President, Strategic Studies, at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), during which he provided advice on Iraq strategy to US President George H.W. Bush and his war cabinet. In July 2007 he was confirmed by the United States Senate as Assistant Secretary of Defense, where he is the senior civilian advisor to the US Secretary of Defense on such matters as "counter-terrorism" strategy and operational employment of special operations forces, strategic forces, and conventional forces.

Vickers, who's believed to favor noisy wars such as those launched by Bush, believes in the theory stating that using a much smaller force is better in wars to accurately fight targets.

Before visiting Beirut, the US guest got the green light from the Pentagon. He formed since 2007 trained groups with the mission of ending organization classified by his administrations as terrorist, with the cooperation of local security authorities in a number of countries, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Philippines.

Finally, it might not be a "coincident" the concurrence of the visit of the "mafia man," as labeled by one of those who worked with him for years, with the predictions of new assassinations in the upcoming stage.

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