Marc Ambinder > Quotes

“the National Missions Force, a title that was suggested by a Pentagon consultant to give people an unclassified way”
― Marc Ambinder, The Command: Deep Inside the President's Secret Army

“Forward intelligence cells in Pakistan are staffed by JSOC-contracted security personnel from obscure firms with insider names such as Triple Canopy and”
― Marc Ambinder, The Command: Deep Inside The President's Secret Army

“the Soviets used Marxist rhetoric the way that Americans used religious rhetoric, and that Soviet leaders wanted stability above all else.”
― Marc Ambinder, The Brink: President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983

“A board game called Nuclear Escalation, about when “missiles start flying” after diplomacy fails, was among the highest-grossing of the year.4 Not to be outdone, Milton Bradley released a sequel to its popular Apocalypse: The Game of Nuclear Devastation.5 Also that year, the game Gulf Strike, about a war in the Middle East that went global, was seen as so realistic that the Pentagon would ask its author, Mark Herman, to become a consultant.”
― Marc Ambinder, The Brink: President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983

“Notably, Flynn is rendered in the piece as “General Brown,” and the authors were not permitted to mention that his team was actually JSOC. Such is the nature of the Defense Cover Program—Flynn himself was (and is) a target for terrorists and many nation-states.”
― Marc Ambinder, The Command: Deep Inside The President's Secret Army

“A number of secretive and advanced units have been op-conned (or, assigned) to JSOC since 2003. How they directly interact with the command is unclear, but they spend most of their time helping JSOC with its special missions. These units report directly to the Office of the Commander and his chief of staff. They include a unit known by the abbreviation BI, consisting solely of highly trained female intelligence collectors and interrogators operating undercover;”
― Marc Ambinder, The Command: Deep Inside The President's Secret Army

“In November 2003, an underwater “SEAL delivery vehicle” deployed from the submarine USS Dallas (SSN-700) and entered Somali waters. The clandestine SEAL mission was the first of a dozen to install specialized cameras called Cardinals, which would monitor the coastline.”
― Marc Ambinder, The Command: Deep Inside The President's Secret Army

“JSOC personnel seemed to be flouting their harsh techniques with impunity. It got so bad that by late 2003, the DIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and British interrogation teams stopped all cooperation with JSOC.”
― Marc Ambinder, The Command: Deep Inside The President's Secret Army

“mission as overkill, which threatened to derail the entire operation. Just before the launch of the operation”
― Marc Ambinder, The Command: Deep Inside the President's Secret Army