Building Partnerships

By Dialogo
January 01, 2012

Rear Admiral Thomas L. Brown II has worked in and studied Latin America for
the last few decades. He learned Spanish in the ’80s, attended the Johns Hopkins
University School of Advanced International Studies to pursue a master’s degree in
Latin American studies, and was subsequently assigned to the U.S. Military Advisory
in El Salvador. Later, he commanded Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Unit Four in Puerto
Rico, which serves as the Special Operations Command South (SOCSOUTH) NSW Component
Command.
“Latin America is a fascinating place,” he observed. Now, as the commander of
SOCSOUTH in Homestead, Florida, he has the opportunity to work with the U.S.
hemispheric partners to tackle problems such as illicit trafficking, violent
extremists and other irregular challenges.
In an interview with Diálogo, RDML Brown talks about the mission of SOCSOUTH,
and the importance of understanding the language and the culture of the region.
DIÁLOGO: What is the mission of SOCSOUTH and how does it relate to U.S.
Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)?


Rear Admiral Thomas L. Brown II: SOCSOUTH is a special operations
headquarters assigned to General Fraser [SOUTHCOM Commander]. Gen. Fraser has a
service component commander for each service, for example Commander U.S. Navy South,
Commander Marine Forces South, and SOCSOUTH is his Special Operations Forces
component command for planning and conducting special operations. One difference
between SOCSOUTH and the service component commands is that we are a subunified
joint command, with members in all services.
DIÁLOGO: What are the core tasks of SOCSOUTH?
RDML Brown: The mission of Theater Special Operations Command is to plan and
execute special operations, in our case in Latin America and the Caribbean. So that
means everything from conducting Civil Affairs [CA] operations to the possibility of
special operations in direct support of or in partnership with our friends in the
region, like we did with Operation Willing Spirit, the operation to rescue the U.S.
hostages being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC] in Colombia
[2003-2008]. What falls under the rubric of special operations is often a surprise
to people, the “soft power” tools we possess, from Information Operations to Civil
Affairs. The U.S. Special Operations Command [SOCOM] has a CA brigade that provides
civil-military support elements that SOCSOUTH employs in support of our partner
nations and country teams’ efforts in the region. We routinely employ our Special
Forces from 7th and 20th Special Forces Group, special warfare combat craft crewmen,
and SEALs, principally from Special Boat Team 22 and SEAL Team 18, Air Force
commandos and SOF aircrew instructors. All these capabilities help us build the
capacity of our partners for combating dangerous nonstate actors, or using the term
coined from John Arquilla [a Ph.D. in International Relations from Stanford who has
written many articles and books on the future of warfare], “dark networks.”

DIÁLOGO: What do U.S. troops take away from participating in multinational
exercises?
RDML Brown: A fundamental value of special operation forces is that they’re
culturally attuned, work in small numbers, and deploy for extended periods of time
outside fixed or traditional bases, which allows us to get to know and understand
the environment and the people we work with. We bring back from our exercises an
improved cultural knowledge, a better understanding of the capabilities of our
partner nations, and solidify relationships that allow us to better synchronize the
capabilities and effects of our partners against illicit trafficking, terrorists and
other such threats. Relationships are vital in this business. Knowing people and
their views, while understanding our partners’ strengths, weaknesses and needs,
assists us to reinforce their strengths and help out on their weaknesses.
DIÁLOGO: What is the importance of understanding the culture and language of
the region?
RDML Brown: From my experience working in different parts of the world,
SOUTHCOM is unique in that in working with Latin America, it’s kind of expected that
one speak the language. In order to achieve desired effects, it’s important to have
a degree of language capability and understanding of cultural nuances. Some people
may have more skills in communicating than others and may be able to communicate or
learn without knowing the language, but it’s a lot more challenging. So I’d say that
language skills and cultural awareness are mission essential here. U.S. Special
Operations Command’s leadership has been consistent in emphasizing the importance of
language competency as well as regional expertise and culture in its investment
strategy, and SOUTHCOM benefits from that in terms of the skills our Special
Operations Forces bring to the theater.
DIÁLOGO: How does new technology used by narcotraf- fickers, such as
semisubmersibles, affect your mission?
RDML Brown: We work hard to stay abreast of new technologies or techniques
the traffickers and transnational criminal organizations, and narcoterrorists like
the FARC use to move drugs and other illicit goods. We take this into account in the
way we are training and building partnership capacity. We keep our eyes on it as we
work with the U.S. country teams, and in close collaboration with the countries, to
tailor our training and other capacity building efforts against the threat as these
“dark networks” adopt new communications, transportation and other technology.
DIÁLOGO: Can you talk about Special Forces in SOCSOUTH?
RDML Brown: The generic term for what you are referring to is Special
Operations Forces or SOF, which includes the Army Special Forces, Navy Special
Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, U.S. Marine Special Operations Teams and SEAL
platoons, as well as the Air Force special operations with its 6th SOS [Special
Operations Squadron] for building partnership aviation capacity, Combat Control Team
and Pararescue personnel. However, we have a much broader range of capabilities,
different from those I just mentioned above and beyond the traditional understanding
people have of SOF from the movies. Just as important, if not more so, is that
SOCSOUTH is on the leading edge of employing Civil Affairs, Information Operations,
and intellectual capital from academia to solve complex irregular warfare problems.
Our core culture is built around the commando and the bias for action that comes
with that territory. But, it is important to mention that we count on Civil Affairs
and Information Operations to complement the hard power of direct action, or
traditional commando raids, and the warriors and the officers, and the enlisted men
and women at SOCOM have got to be those people that understand how to employ all
those tools to solve complex problems. This is job No. 1 in irregular warfare, with
which we have a competitive advantage over traditional military forces and
capabilities.
DIÁLOGO: What kind of participation does SOCSOUTH have in Humanitarian
Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR)?
RDML Brown: After the earthquake in Haiti, Special Operations Forces were
among the first on the ground. Even though it’s not a primary special ops mission,
and it’s not the thing that I have my forces looking at every day, we can move very
quickly to operate in small numbers in austere environments, particularly with our
Information Operations and Civil Affairs forces to contribute significantly to HA/DR
in the event of a crisis.



Well, to begin, only people uninformed about the Latin American political process over the last decades could believe in what this terrorist Yankee mercenary is saying, the guy is nothing more than a puppet, peon, a lackey serving the corrupt and sanguinary oligarchies of his country, which interfere and finance, directly and indirectly, mercenary groups that defend these capitalist scobs' interests in Latin America and in the world, legitimizing government leaders, oppressing entire populations, who live outside of society, deprived of the most basic conditions for a dignified life.There are several examples of this criminal behavior, if we check in recent History, I mean XX century up to now.to check that it is an unquestionable fact.These vultures, finance and live on the war, so they can extract (better say, pillage riches,(Iraq-oil) or their interests(Yankees). In other words, we can consider them like a C A N C E R in its terminal phase, which devastates us. Their terrorist actions, are legitimized by one of their tentacles that dominate the oppressed people, which are the media, TV, Radio, Movies, Newspapers, which are nothing more than some elements of their domination. These lackeys, slaughtered their natives, during the colonization process, if we can say that, imposing a fake religion to the natives, stealing their lands, massacring their spirit, and bringing fake Christian sweet talks that they should be thankful to G O D, for being saved. Today what we see is not different, the appearance changed, but the cheap, fake rhetoric is the same. I believe that, if Latin America, Africa, Asia and the world in general want to emancipate socially, economically, free, we should free ourselves from the ties that overmaster and oppress us, fighting them.
It is interesting to very briefly get to know the activities that deploys the Southcom in Central and South America,besides the humanitarian work with situations of natural disasters and medical care in recondite places. It also covers the part of regional security that is threatened by the transnational narco-terrorism, which has a geopolitical vision beyond its borders. This is a worrying and complex situation because it spite of this deployment of security, many times it achieves the planned objective, which is to flood the markets of narcotics in exchange for weapons, chemicals, and high sums of money that contributes to maintain their criminal groupings and to buy loyalties from some corrupt authorities here. There is no technology that is worth this. This is very unfortunate but the sad reality is that the dark forces penetrate the armor, regardless of its thickness. This is a game of chameleons, they adapt according to the situation. You cannot trust anyone because the most naïve looking person is working for the enemy at any level. Nobody is an exception, anyone can be grasped if this actor is playing a role in the stage that interests the conductor. excellent summary of activities