Original subtitles

>> NARRATOR: They operate in the

shadows.

>> STEVEN HARTOV: The Army

public affairs officials do not

talk about them by name.

>> NARRATOR: Men trained to

kill...

>> MARC AMBINDER: You just

didn't hear about those missions

because they were operated

extremely discretely.

>> NARRATOR: ...without leaving

a trace.

>> MARK ZAID: These teams never

have anyone coming to rescue

them if they are ever captured.

>> SOLDIER: Let's go, let's go!

Move, move!

>> NARRATOR: But who are these

secret forces?

>> PAUL SPRINGER: Well, they

might very well win the the

Congressional Medal of Honor,

but you won't know why.

>> NARRATOR: And what are

their covert methods?

>> MICHAEL RIVERO: They operate

outside of the code of military

justice.

>> MICHAEL SMITH: They don't

talk about that unit, which is

why we don't really know what

its current name is.

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret missions?

Secret technology?

Secret agendas?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

>> NARRATOR: October 5, 2013.

Two counter-terrorism offensives

are launched simultaneously in

Africa.

In southern Somalia, a team of

U.S. Navy SEALs hunts for a

terrorist leader known as

Ikrima, a man responsible for

massacring 67 people at a Kenyan

mall, one month earlier.

But during a fierce gun battle,

Ikrima escapes.

Meanwhile, 3,000 miles northwest

in Tripoli, Libya, a band of

masked men drives through the

city streets, trying to locate

Abu Anas Al-Libi, an Al-Qaeda

leader indicted for taking part

in the bombings of two

United States embassies.

>> MARC AMBINDER: Al-Libi is

returning, according to his

wife, from prayers, close to his

home, when suddenly a bunch of

cars surround him.

A bunch of masked men with guns

get out.

They yell at him in his own

language to get into their car.

Wife is all watching this.

And he does, and he

disappears.

And he's taken, presumably,

somewhere far away, outside the

country.

>> NARRATOR: The Navy SEALs

quickly acknowledge their failed

attempt to detain Ikrima in

Somalia, but take no credit for

capturing Al-Libi in Libya.

But just who was the mysterious

group of soldiers that

successfully pulled off a brazen

kidnapping right out in the

open?

>> AMBINDER: There really are

only a handful of organizations

in the entire world that can

snatch somebody off a street

like that.

Delta Force is one.

Delta Force is the popular name

for an Army special missions

unit that goes by the cover

term of the Combat

Application Group.

Essentially the most highly

trained, highly sophisticated,

incredibly smart group of men,

usually knowing two or more

languages, capable of

performing the most sensitive,

most dangerous missions that an

army can be called upon to

perform.

Technically, they're not allowed

to admit that Delta Force

exists.

>> NARRATOR: Anonymous military

sources later confirm that Delta

Force was the unit behind the

kidnapping.

The incident marks one of the

few times that the United States

has admitted using secret forces

in the global war on terror.

According to insider reports,

Delta Force, like the Navy

SEALs, is a top-tier military

unit, designed to be ready for

action at any time.

And like the SEALs, Delta Force

is purposely designed to be so

undercover, they're practically

invisible.

>> MARK ZAID: These are military

members who are often designed

to blend in so they don't have

to necessarily wear uniforms.

They're often times in civilian

clothes.

>> PAUL J. SPRINGER: Well, they

might very well win the

Congressional Medal of Honor,

but you won't know why, they

won't tell you why, and you take

it on faith that, in fact, they

they did something very heroic.

>> NARRATOR: Many believe Delta

Force is one of the most

prestigious and clandestine

units in all the armed forces.

And while the maneuvers of the

Navy's SEAL Team Six have made

headlines around the world, the

missions Delta Force performs

are just as deadly...

but even more covert.

>> AMBINDER: Everyone is

familiar with the exploits of

SEAL Team Six and the capture

of Osama bin Laden.

But what was Delta Force doing

during the war on terror?

Well, they were actually doing

quite a bit.

They were doing an enormous

number of counter-terrorism

raids in Africa.

Delta Force had the

responsibility for everything

the U.S. needed to do

in South America.

Delta Force was operating

in Beirut.

You just didn't hear about those

missions because they were

operated extremely discretely

and-and usually successfully.

>> ZAID: They could be involved

in assassinations of terrorists,

of renditions, of capture,

of seizing or rescuing hostages.

>> NARRATOR: Special teams like

the Navy SEALs and Delta Force

appear to operate as a first

strike against terrorist groups,

trying to take them down before

they can hatch their deadly

plots.

While their missions remain top

secret, Delta Force is suspected

of participating in

Operation Enduring Freedom,

Operation Iraqi Freedom, and

Objective Medford, a raid that

saved foreign workers in Ramadi.

But why do these missions really

need to be so hidden, and with

absolutely no public oversight,

even after they've been

completed?

>> ZAID: They have to operate

in intense secrecy, because if

their identities become known,

they and their families may be

subject to danger by our

enemies.

If members of SEAL Team Six, who

was part of the raid that led to

the death of Bin Laden, if their

identities are known, well,

members of Al-Qaeda may design

an attempt to go after them and

their families.

>> NARRATOR: Could a terrorist

like Ikrima in southern Somalia,

or one of his many followers,

already be plotting revenge...

perhaps even making a list of

retaliation against the forces

that tried to capture him?

Some believe that list would

include another secret unit,

one that carried American forces

to northern Africa.

They're called the Night

Stalkers.

>> STEVE HARTOV: The Night

Stalkers is the name of the U.S.

Army's Special Operations

Aviation Regiment.

They are probably the best

special-operations-type pilots

in the world, and they fly

secret, clandestine, long-range,

very difficult missions.

Essentially the Night Stalkers

will deliver Delta Force, the

SEALs, other special operators

to clandestine top-secret

missions, under very difficult

conditions.

>> ZAID: They were involved

with Grenada, with Panama, with

Operation Desert Storm and most

recently, with the raid on Bin

Laden's compound in Pakistan.

>> HARTOV: The Army public

affairs officials do not talk

about them by name.

You might only hear about them

by accident.

>> NARRATOR: Believed to have

been founded in 1981, the Night

Stalkers received their name

specifically because their

operations were kept so secret.

>> HARTOV: They were functioning

only at night, training only

at night, and a lot of their

equipment had to be hid from

overflights of Russian

satellites, so even the

equipment only came out at

night.

They operated from dusk to dawn,

and not during the day.

And they started calling

themselves the Night Stalkers.

>> SOLDIER: Let's go, let's go!

Move, move!

>> NARRATOR: May 2, 2011.

The Night Stalkers carry the

Navy's secret SEAL Team Six to

Osama bin Laden's compound in

Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Stalkers have been training

for this mission for months,

but as they try to land their

choppers, something goes

terribly wrong.

>> HARTOV: What happened in the

raid, uh, that was the most

unexpected was that one of the

Black Hawks crashed.

>> NARRATOR: What the Night

Stalkers did next was

extraordinary.

They set their disabled chopper

on fire...

>> SOLDIER: In three, two...

>> NARRATOR: ...and blew it up.

But why?

Could there have been

a strategic or even

a secret reason?

Some suspect the Night Stalkers

were trying to hide evidence of

a top secret Black Hawk craft.

>> HARTOV: What made that

particular helicopter in

the Bin Laden raid, or the pair

of them secret, was that they

had been turned into stealth

helicopters using technology

that's much like the F-117

stealth fighter.

Radar technology, night

vision technology, mapping and

navigation technology--

so they had to destroy

everything, inasmuch as

they could.

>> AMBINDER: Had that helicopter

not crashed during the bin Laden

raid, it's quite possible that

we would have never known that

it was one of the two most

highly sensitive secret

helicopters that the military

had built.

Pakistan took custody

of the helicopter, and the U.S.

government believes that

Pakistan shared it with a very,

very, very, very eager Chinese

government, which wanted to see

the latest in U.S.

stealth technology.

>> NARRATOR: But while an enemy

gaining access to a piece of top

secret technology could result

in a national security breach,

what if one of the nameless

soldiers had been injured

or captured?

Would the mission be

so secret that no one could

even get in to rescue them?

>> NARRATOR: Abbottabad,

Pakistan, May 2, 2011.

After the raid on Osama bin

Laden's compound exposes the

involvement of a top secret

Black Hawk chopper, many begin

to ask questions about the

flying army known as the

Night Stalkers.

But given the covert nature of

their activities, just how far

would the U.S. government go

in order to keep the actions,

and even the identities,

of its secret soldiers

strictly under wraps?

>> SPRINGER: Under certain

circumstances, those personnel

may be operating without

uniforms.

And under certain circumstances,

the United States government

may be put in an

embarrassing position should

members of special forces be

captured or killed.

>> ZAID: The secret armies

that the U.S. government has--

like the Navy SEALS, Delta

Force-- if they are ever

captured by the enemy, it may be

that their mission requires that

the U.S. government disavow any

knowledge of these individuals,

because to acknowledge the

captured member of this team,

which is now operating on

foreign territory, that could

create the possibility of war.

So these members of these teams

may never have anyone coming

to rescue them if they are

ever captured.

>> NARRATOR: But if soldiers

with no identities are fighting

America's most secret battles,

who do they ultimately

answer to?

According to some reports, the

Navy SEALS, Delta Force, and

Night Stalkers are all secret

armies quietly taking orders

from the Joint Special

Operations Command, or JSOC.

>> AMBINDER: JSOC is the cover

command for the special missions

units in the standing joint task

forces that do some of the most

sensitive and difficult and,

in some ways, most kinetic work

of the U.S. military.

The secret army is JSOC.

>> NARRATOR: Although insiders

have revealed very little about

JSOC...

>> SOLDIERS: Ooh-rah, 2-2-4!

>> NARRATOR: ...some say that

after the 9/11 attacks, the

White House grew the command

from fewer than 2,000 troops

to as many as 25,000.

And JSOC has secretly destroyed

more terrorist training camps

than the rest of the

United States' forces combined.

>> JOHN ASHCROFT: Historically,

it took a nation-state to attack

a nation-state.

It took vast armies, it took

navies, but with what's

called "asymmetrical warfare,"

a very small group of people can

launch an attack against a very

large nation.

So the Joint Special Operation

Command, JSOC, may deploy

a kind of resource that's

necessary to have a targeted

response to what is a limited

threat when it comes to the size

of the operation.

>> NARRATOR: In 2008, President

George W. Bush approved a secret

order authorizing special ops

forces to conduct clandestine

military strikes in Pakistan

without the public's knowledge,

and requiring the utmost level

of covertness.

In fact, JSOC operates with such

confidentiality, their missions

are kept hidden from virtually

all other entities

of the government.

But why?

>> ZAID: One of the big

reasons for secrecy is that

these secret missions, for the

most part, are not necessarily

legal under international law,

from our standpoint.

>> NARRATOR: But just how could

an organization like JSOC even

gather information about

Pakistani targets without

exposing the entire operation?

Many suspect it was through the

most top secret unit within

JSOC, called "The Activity."

>> SMITH: The government

doesn't talk about The Activity.

It doesn't acknowledge their

presence.

They are perhaps the most

secretive of all those

organizations within Joint

Special Operations Command...

which is why we don't really

know what its current name is.

>> AMBINDER: The best way to

think of what The Activity is,

is kind of a mini CIA within the

Joint Special Operations

Command.

Their goal is to prepare

the battlefield, gather

intelligence ahead of the

special operations raid.

Sometimes, weeks and months

on end, they'll establish

themselves in the city and

they'll just listen, and they'll

track targets.

They're linguists,

communication experts, pilots,

and their goal is to make sure

that SEAL Team Six,

Delta Force, other units, have

absolutely the best real-time

intelligence picture.

>> NARRATOR: But while the goal

of the so-called Activity is to

simply gather information on

high-value targets, these men

are also well-trained killer

commandos.

>> SMITH: They all have to be

special operations trained,

they all have to be very fit,

they all have to be able to do

every aspect of special

operations, just as any special

operations soldier would have

to do.

>> NARRATOR: So exactly what do

these elite undercover soldiers

go through to gather

intelligence for other tier-one

units?

According to some reports,

it's a lengthy process

known as "taking down the

mountain," a strategy first

developed by The Activity when

they first apprehended Colombian

drug runner Pablo Escobar,

in 1993.

Since then, officials won't

acknowledge when the strategy

has been used, but according

to anonymous sources,

the most recently acknowledged

case of The Activity "taking

down the mountain" was the

capture of Saddam Hussein during

Operation Red Dawn,

in December 2003.

>> SMITH: You've got a very

secretive network protecting

him, hiding him, moving him on

from place to place.

But once you've got onto one,

then you can start tracking.

You start at the bottom of the

mountain, and you grab the lower

level guys, and you find

information from him that gives

you information about other

guys.

And you get to the people at the

top who know where Saddam

Hussein is.

And that's precisely how they

did it.

>> NARRATOR: Based on their

previous track record of search

and capture, most experts agree

that The Activity has been

successful with their covert

missions.

But these offensives cost money.

Tracking suspects, setting up

spy cells, and having access to

the highest level of equipment

must be paid for somehow.

So just how does a secret unit

like The Activity receive

funding for its clandestine

assignments?

>> NARRATOR: As America enters

a new era of unconventional

warfare, secret armies such as

Delta Force...

the Night Stalkers...

and the aptly named Intelligence

Support Activity become more and

more vital to national security.

By definition, these top-secret

forces require the best in

trained manpower and high-tech

weaponry.

But how can these operations be

funded if no one can even admit

knowing about them?

Some say the answer is simple:

America's black budgets.

>> KESSLER: Black budgets are

simply budgets for secret

operations that are not made

public.

These budgets are overseen by

Congress and these budgets are

used for very advanced weapons

systems, very advanced

surveillance systems.

>> AMBINDER: There's no question

that even with some

Congressional oversight, it's

much harder to hold these

programs accountable and people

who operate them accountable,

simply because they operate

in... in shadows.

>> NARRATOR: March 5, 2014.

President Barak Obama proposes a

$495 billion defense budget for

2015, almost half a billion

dollars less than the year

before.

But on close examination, there

is one category that shows a

meteoric rise: the clandestine

black budgets.

>> PRESIDENT OBAMA: Some will no

doubt say that the spending

reductions are too big.

Others will say that they're too

small.

>> NARRATOR: But with

allocations so large-- and with

so little accountability-- many

in Congress argue there is

virtually no way to measure

whether goals are being met,

either financially or

tactically.

>> AMBINDER: A unit that

technically doesn't even exist,

you can get away with a lot

more.

And in this condition lies some

of the big difficulties that

people have with America's

secret armies.

>> RIVERO: It's basically the

government telling us, "It's

none of your business.

Just give us the money and shut

up."

>> NARRATOR: But why are

America's black budgets so

secret?

Is it really to safeguard

national security?

Or is it to hide the

government's reckless

overspending from the public?

>> MULLER: Oversight?

There is no oversight.

It's secret upon secret, wrapped

in an enigma, and some fortune

cookie of B.S.

This black budget spending has

gone on unquestioned since

World War II.

It's been non-stop.

I think it's time we start

asking some questions.

>> NARRATOR: But to begin asking

questions about potential abuses

embedded in the black budget,

where would one even start to

look?

There are those who believe the

answer is simple and hiding in

plain sight.

>> AMBINDER: When you look at

the line item on the budget, it

simply says "Classified

Programs."

It doesn't spell out what the

programs are for, who's

operating them.

The budgets are secret because

the units are secret, what they

do is secret, the technology is

secret, the procurement is

secret.

>> NARRATOR: Given the

top-secret nature of the

government's covert military

operations-- and its huge cost--

just who, or what, has

oversight?

Is it the President of the

United States?

The commander-in-chief?

Shockingly, the answer may be

"no."

>> RICHARD M. DOLAN: U.S.

Presidents cannot and must not

know all of the black budget

operations that go on in this

country.

They're not able to.

And then you have plausible

deniability.

This is absolutely essential for

any president.

You've got all of these

illegal-- yeah, sure--

unconstitutional activities, or

shady activities.

The President's got to be able

to say that he doesn't know

about them, and he's got to be

able to do it in a way that's

believable, and if he knows

about it, it's gonna be a little

harder to do that.

>> SPRINGER: The goals of black

budget activities are things

that, if disclosed to the

American public, would

compromise the safety and the

missions of the individuals

involved.

Black budget activities are

absolutely necessary for the

safety and security of our

nation.

>> NARRATOR: But if the United

States government can fund

massive military programs with

virtually no oversight from the

American public, could there be

a danger of those forces getting

out of control?

Especially if those forces...

aren't even human?

>> NARRATOR: In the 2004 feature

film I, Robot, the fictional

company United States Robotics

creates anthropomorphic robots

to act as America's armed

forces.

While the scenario seems

fantastical, some experts

believe that this future

vision-- an army made up

entirely of robots-- is closer

than we think.

In fact, it could already be

happening.

>> PETER SINGER: Robotics is one

of those things that, like

flying machines back in the day,

was once science fiction and now

it's normal in war.

>> RONALD KESSLER: Robots are

being developed to attack, to

detonate explosives, to, uh,

conduct surveillance, uh... to

do anything that a soldier might

do, but much more safely.

>> NARRATOR: The armed forces'

development of robotic

technologies falls under the

Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency, or DARPA.

In recent years, DARPA has held

an annual robotics challenge: a

competition for universities and

private companies to create

semi-autonomous ground robots.

One of the most successful

robots to come out of the

challenge is Atlas, a six-foot-

two, 330-pound robot that

resembles the Terminator.

DARPA claims the robot will only

be used for disaster relief, and

that there are no plans to arm

the machine in the future.

>> SPRINGER: Atlas is a robot

that is capable of using

human tools.

Atlas could have weapons

attached to it in some fashion.

However, it would not be a

practical utilization of the

Atlas technology.

>> NARRATOR: But despite DARPA's

assurances, some wonder if

Atlas, and other robots like it,

could make future wars almost

entirely mechanical.

>> MULLER: They have these

things that look like Star Wars,

AT-AT walkers, these tanks with

legs.

They have those.

They have all these secret

programs-- robotic

hunter-killers are happening

right now.

They're keeping it secret,

but in the next five or

ten years, humans will have to

tell them to kill.

This is why all these kids are

playing video games all the

time.

They're getting them ready to be

good, uh, little soldiers to

control the robots.

This is already happening.

>> NARRATOR: Will it really be

possible to take human soldiers

out of the front lines of the

battlefield, changing warfare as

we know it?

>> SINGER: Robotics allows you

to carry out acts of force

without sending people

into harm's way.

One soldier put it to me:

we don't have to write a

condolence letter to someone's

mother.

That's powerful.

But it also means that the

politicians look at those

operations differently.

And they're more likely to

authorize operations and not

think about some of the

consequences, as they would when

there is a human going into

harm's way.

>> SOLIDER: Get up!

>> JONES: The elite have

always lusted after having

a military that will follow

any order.

Robots on the ground, on the

surface of the sea, under the

water and in the air, will

follow those orders.

>> NARRATOR: The Atlas robot is

still in its developmental stage

and needs a human being to

program it and make sure it

carries out its orders.

But could there someday be an

army of Atlas robots able to

think for themselves?

>> SINGER: The U.S. military

has gone from having literally

a handful of drones when we went

into Afghanistan-- none of

them armed-- to we now have

have more than 8,000 unmanned

aero systems in the inventory.

The current generation, they can

do things like take off and land

on their own; fly mission way

points on their own; make sense

of what they're seeing

on their own.

They're not the Terminator.

They're not making their own

decisions.

But they're certainly not

remotely piloted in the way

we traditionally think of it.

>> JONES: The rise of the

machines, a literal SkyNet,

is a real threat.

We already have autonomous

drones, that the United States

and England have launched, that

are picking their own targets,

deciding who to kill.

>> NARRATOR: The Atlas robot and

manned drones reveal how

soldiers can carry out their

orders from central command

stations instead of on an

overseas battlefield.

But as America's military

operations become more and more

high-tech, there are many who

worry that the enemy may no

longer be targeting us from

behind the barrel of a gun,

but sitting at a desk, armed

with only a keyboard.

>> NARRATOR: Fort Meade,

Maryland.

23 miles north of the

White House.

Described by some as its own

secret city, this military

installation houses the National

Security Agency and the United

States Cyber Command.

Many suspect the cyber war is

being carried out here behind

closed doors, and that it may

be a major threat in the not-so-

distant future.

>> SINGER: Fort Meade is the

home of the U.S.'s cyber

operations and intelligence

gathering.

What stands out about the

importance of Fort Meade is

illustrated by its scale.

There's over 57,000 military and

civilian workers there,

which means there's more people

working at Fort Meade than there

are in the Pentagon itself.

>> SAMY KAMKAR: Cyber warfare is

definitely the future of

warfare.

There's definitely a lot of

governments trying to build up

their essentially cyber armies.

They're trying to create hackers

in hacker labs.

We hear anonymous stories from

anonymous hackers that are

improving hacking, and learning

how to break into other

countries' and other nation's

systems.

>> NARRATOR: June 2010.

Minsk, Belarus.

A small malware-detection firm

called VirusBlokAda discovers a

strange virus on a client's

server.

>> SPRINGER: The Belarusian

cyber security firm detected it

as a different form of virus.

>> NARRATOR: Strangely, the

virus, or malware, is unlike any

the firm has ever seen.

They share the shocking find

with the cyber security

community, hoping to locate its

origins, and figure out how to

stop it from spreading.

But what the cyber community

unveils next is even more

surprising.

The secret malware, dubbed

Stuxnet, was first used in 2007

to attack Iran's nuclear

program.

>> SINGER: Stuxnet was a digital

weapon designed to sabotage

Iranian nuclear research by

damaging what the centrifuges

were working on.

It was made of zeroes and ones,

so it was both something,

but nothing.

>> NARRATOR: Experts say the

Stuxnet virus was able to

physically stop Iranian nuclear

centrifuges from spinning.

For the first time in the

history of cyber warfare, a

computer virus was able to spy

on and actually alter a SCADA,

or Supervisory Control And Data

Acquisition system, in real

time.

>> SINGER: Stuxnet was a game

changer.

It was a weapon that was like

any other weapon in history.

Whether it was the first stone

that someone picked up or

a spear or a bullet.

It caused kinetic change.

It caused physical damage.

>> NARRATOR: It wasn't until

2012 that anonymous sources in

the Obama administration took

credit for the secret attack

from five years earlier.

By many accounts, this secret

army of hackers at U.S.

Cyber Command is only growing

larger and larger.

In fact, the Pentagon has asked

Congress for $4.7 billion,

almost $1 billion more

than the 2013 allocation, for

increased cyberspace operations.

>> SINGER: Just as we've started

to use the Internet for

everything from our commerce to

our communication to our social

relationships, the same thing is

happening in conflict.

If the Internet is the future

for humanity, it's definitely

the future for war.

>> NARRATOR: Since the discovery

of Stuxnet, a number of other

malware emerged, including ones

named Duku and The Flame.

>> SINGER: Instead of causing

physical damage, they stole

information from the computers

that their targets were using.

So, they did things like

recorded the keystrokes of what

people were typing.

They weren't just downloading

information, they were tracking

what was going on.

>> KAMKAR: Those servers also

had the ability to control

those computers and, at any

time, also kill the Flame virus,

in case the Flame virus had been

found.

And at one point, um, the

authors did send a kill command

to all the computers which had

the Flame virus.

>> SINGER: Cyber war is a game

with really low barriers

to entry.

So, besides, for example,

the U.S., there's over 100

different nations out there that

have some kind of cyber military

operations.

>> ASHCROFT: If a nation-state

sponsors a cyber attack

against the United States

government and its

cyber network, I would expect

retaliation.

Our liberty and freedom and

the nature and character of our

culture is at stake.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible

there is a secret war being

waged over the Internet?

And if so, does the heightened

diplomacy of international law

require the use of an entirely

different secret army...

one that the United States can

use to deny any accountability

while secretly executing

America's international agenda?

>> NARRATOR: Moyock, North

Carolina.

March 19, 2005.

King Abdullah of Jordan and his

brothers visit the private

security company Blackwater and

its founder Erik Prince.

At the day's end, Blackwater

executives present the king and

his entourage with some special

gifts: a Remington shotgun, a

modified Bushmaster AR-15 rifle,

and three Glock pistols.

The gesture lands Blackwater in

hot water with a federal charge

of improper gift giving.

But the security company has a

shocking defense against the

allegations: they were simply

acting under the direction

of the CIA.

>> RIVERO: These private armies

can and do get away with many

things our ordinary military

cannot.

I think this is one of the

reasons why governments and

corporations like to employ

these private armies because

they can evade rules of

diplomacy and international law.

>> JONES: In truth, Congress

and the executive branch use

them as plausible deniability to

carry out arms shipments to

Jordan and Sudan and other

countries, whereas Iran-Contra

was completely illegal and

caused investigations because

they used the Marine Corps for

the transfers; now they just use

contractors.

It creates another level

of secrecy for shadow

government to operate outside

of oversight.

>> NARRATOR: In 2013, the

Justice Department ultimately

dropped charges against

Blackwater for giving arms

to Jordan.

But this isn't the first time

a mercenary group has been

under fire.

In 2008, CIA director Michael

Hayden admitted to Congress that

secret contractors employed

by the CIA engaged in the

waterboarding of terrorist

suspects.

And in 2009, it was revealed

that Blackwater helped arm and

deploy CIA Predator drones to

attack targets in Pakistan.

>> RIVERO: They operate outside

the Code of Military Justice

and they commit atrocities

which harm the image of the

United States internationally.

But I think most of these

private armies are being

deployed not in defense of the

United States of America,

but in furtherance of American

corporate interests.

The desire to go into a country

and force them to organize and

operate their economy in a way

that benefits the American

corporations; to sell their

resources only for

the U.S. dollar.

>> NARRATOR: When troop

withdrawal in Iraq began in

June 2009, some believed

contractor-run private armies

like Blackwater-- now named

Academi-- would need to find

other ways to expand their

business model.

And one of the areas

mercenary armies have expanded

most is in the patrol

of the high seas.

October 2013.

Southeast India.

The Indian Coast Guard

intercepts the Seaman Guard

Ohio, a U.S. mercenary ship

owned by the private security

contractor Advanfort.

>> SPRINGER: That particular

corporation offers individual

vessels that will serve as

escorts to prohibit, or to

deter, pirate attacks.

>> ASHCROFT: I can anticipate

that a shipping company might

want to have a strategy for how

they would resist piracy.

Most of the people involved

in these institutions that are

privately contracted for

security purposes, most of

these people are people with

vast experience and training,

usually retired from the

military at one point

or another.

>> NARRATOR: Because the crew is

armed, but not part of any

recognized military, they are

imprisoned.

Some now wonder: are private

mercenaries replacing the role

of traditional armed forces,

but taking additional risk?

>> SPRINGER: The cost of hiring

a private military firm to

secure a cargo vessel tends to

be quite a bit smaller than the

cost associated with rescuing a

vessel, once it has been

captured by a pirate force.

Many corporations have been

forced to pay to get their

employees back from pirate

forces.

>> NARRATOR: The crew of the

Seaman Guard Ohio was

ultimately released

after two months.

But should Americans worry that

private secret armies-- like

their government counterparts--

may not be operating within

the law?

>> AMBINDER: My view is this:

there is no harm in being

paranoid.

In fact, paranoia in general is

a good thing, because it keeps

the government on its toes.

Americans are right to be

both concerned about the secret

army and also proud of what

the secret army does.

>> NARRATOR: Clandestine

soldiers...

covert control centers...

top-secret technology...

America's so-called "secret

armies" operate in the shadows,

ready to strike at any time.

But should we be concerned--

not about their training or

preparedness for combat--

but about the nature of their

mysterious missions...

and just who... or what...

is pulling the strings?

Captioning sponsored by

A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS

Captioned by

Media Access Group at WGBH

access.wgbh.org