Wired's JSOTF-GCC Reveal
Earlier in the month, Wired.com's "Danger Room" announced the existence of Joint Special Operations Task Force - Gulf Cooperation Council (JSOTF-GCC), a unit assigned to Special Operations Command, Central (SOCCENT). I'll definitely admit that Wired brought it to my attention and that they were probably the first to highlight it, but when they said that "The U.S. military has not previously acknowledged the existence of the team...", that's just false.
On 8 February 2011, Colonel Joe Osborne, US Army, who was at least at the time the Director of the Irregular Warfare Directorate at SOCCENT made a presentation to the 22nd Annual Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict Symposium & Exhibition put on by the National Defense Industrial Association. Though the presentations to the unclassified conferences, of which this was one, are not posted immediately, its safe to assume this had been posted prior to January 2012. One of Colonel Osborne's backup slides notes the acronym JSOTF-GCC (the entire presentation can be downloaded here). A lot of the time these things aren't "acknowledged" to the press, because no one knows to ask. Not being acknowledged and no one asking about it are two completely different things.
