Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh. This is Chuck over here and
Speaker 1: say hey, Chuck, Hey, Chuck. I should probably slow it down.
Speaker 1: Stop sounding so like morning talk show hosting. Um, have
Speaker 1: you heard about the bombing and Yemen of the US embassy?
Speaker 1: I haven't. Did that just happen? Yeah, it happened very recently.
Speaker 1: I think this sixteenth September sixteenth, feel like a heel now,
Speaker 1: but don't feel too bad. Um. For some reason, any
Speaker 1: bombing that happens in Yemen doesn't make you know, the
Speaker 1: biggest news. I don't know why, because this is an
Speaker 1: al Kada bombing. Uh. And actually it could have been
Speaker 1: a lot lot worse. Um. There was a group of
Speaker 1: guys who were loaded down with explosives. Their car was
Speaker 1: just laid down with explosives and they were making they
Speaker 1: were going to go through the first check point, blow
Speaker 1: up the gate after the first check and then the
Speaker 1: second car was going to come through and kill anybody
Speaker 1: and everybody. Well, the guards at the checkpoint didn't buy
Speaker 1: the first car's story, so they opened fire and that
Speaker 1: they blew up. So these guards were killed, but it
Speaker 1: alerted everybody what was going on. There's a firefight between
Speaker 1: the Yemeni security around the American embassy and the second
Speaker 1: car and UH. Eventually all the terrorists were killed, but
Speaker 1: I think sixteen sixteen people total died and most of
Speaker 1: those were UM American. Well no, there's one American, but
Speaker 1: most of them were working at the embassy. It was
Speaker 1: it was a big deal. It was the first major
Speaker 1: terrorist attack on a US target since September eleventh, two
Speaker 1: thousand one. But we haven't heard anything about it because
Speaker 1: Sarah Palin's eye eyeglasses are her up due is capturing.
Speaker 1: Um SO. I was reading an article in Time and
Speaker 1: they were saying, like, this is like the most recent
Speaker 1: clear indicator that we have a real problem with Alkada
Speaker 1: in Yemen. It's a hotbed like that. It's very you know,
Speaker 1: friendly to the West, and actually this attack was supposedly
Speaker 1: a retaliation for your many UH security forces staging like
Speaker 1: counter terrorist activities. Now Kada's like, what do you think
Speaker 1: you're doing. Um So, it is friendly to the United States,
Speaker 1: but at the same time it's still kind of a
Speaker 1: hotbed of Alkada activity. The thing is, we're pretty fairly
Speaker 1: entrenched in a rock right now. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've heard. Yeah, we invaded in two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: haven't left yet. Doesn't look like we're going to anytime soon. Um,
Speaker 1: and now Afghanistan's boiling over again. The last thing we
Speaker 1: need is another front. And Yemen doesn't sound like the
Speaker 1: kind of country we're just going to walk into and
Speaker 1: you know, invade basically, So what do you do? What
Speaker 1: do you? What do you do when you have a
Speaker 1: hotbed of alcade activity and you need surgical precision take
Speaker 1: out as much of the guy's possible. You know what?
Speaker 1: Two words Delta Force. Oh, I've heard of these guys.
Speaker 1: Actually I haven't heard of them. You know why, because
Speaker 1: they don't officially exist. That's kind of creepy, but kind
Speaker 1: of cool, it is. Yeah, there's We should probably warn
Speaker 1: the listeners right now. Chuck and I will most likely
Speaker 1: devolve into some sort of weird boyhood admiration of all
Speaker 1: the sick, sick stuff Delta Forces done over the years.
Speaker 1: So just before warn if we start tittering or get
Speaker 1: really excited or one of US takes our shirt off.
Speaker 1: Don't be offended. Okay, I know I did find myself
Speaker 1: when I was reading an article because I'm I would say,
Speaker 1: classify as anti war. I'm yeah, not not for this stuff.
Speaker 1: But when I was reading this stuff about the Delta Force,
Speaker 1: I just thought it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's what's so cool about Delta Force is
Speaker 1: you send them in. You don't need to go to war.
Speaker 1: They take care of business. Sure, maybe that's why I
Speaker 1: like about. It's clean and and precise and quick and
Speaker 1: a little that's kind of how it should be. So
Speaker 1: we should probably give some background here. Delta four is essentially,
Speaker 1: as we said, unrecognized officially by the US government. UM.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of trouble in writing an article
Speaker 1: on them because you really have to piece everything together.
Speaker 1: There's lots of hearsay, there's no concrete evidence, like there's
Speaker 1: no depressional exactly. Uh, there is, but it was sadly
Speaker 1: disappointing and was run by some guy no no, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, the Chuck Norris movie Delta Force highly inaccurate,
Speaker 1: wildly inaccurate. Sure, there was another movie he made called
Speaker 1: Invasion USA, which in that movie he was much more
Speaker 1: resembled a Delta Force operator. He didn't wear a uniform,
Speaker 1: he had a newsy. I think both of those movies.
Speaker 1: Lee Marvin was in both of them, right, great great
Speaker 1: late great Lee Marvin. Right, well, specifically in Delta Force,
Speaker 1: Lee Marvin's character, but also in Invasion USA as well.
Speaker 1: Lee Marvin's character was very much based on this guy
Speaker 1: named Colonel Beckwith. I don't remember colonel with the first name,
Speaker 1: do you, uh, Colonel, Yeah, we'll just call him colonel.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's like a murderous version of share colonel. Right. So,
Speaker 1: Colonel Beckwith was this guy who basically had been over
Speaker 1: in Great Britain to train with the s A. Yes, right,
Speaker 1: the British Special Forces. Right. So he's over there, he's
Speaker 1: really impressed with this group. Um, we have our own
Speaker 1: version of the Special Forces. It's a I can't remember,
Speaker 1: it's Special Forces Operational Detachment A I believe, um. And
Speaker 1: that's that's our regular Special Forces, who in and of
Speaker 1: themselves are just complete and total. Just they're rough. I
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any way to get a night.
Speaker 1: Let's just get it out of the way right now.
Speaker 1: Delta Force is bad ass. Yes, they are most decidedly UM.
Speaker 1: And the special Forces in and of themselves each are
Speaker 1: the thinking man's arm of the army. UM. They are
Speaker 1: based clee inserted into enemy territory and they identify um
Speaker 1: dissenting groups against the whatever government we want to topple.
Speaker 1: And one or two Special forces guys assemble guerilla armies
Speaker 1: out of these descending forces and creatingsurgencies from within. It's
Speaker 1: been done before. That's just special forces. Delta Force actually
Speaker 1: draws from special forces. They're not even army. They don't
Speaker 1: even know, they don't identify with any particular branch, right,
Speaker 1: because they draw the toughest dudes out of all the branches, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And UM, have you have you read Black Hawk Down
Speaker 1: or Killing Pablo And now I saw the movie. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's saw a great documentary and I saw that one too,
Speaker 1: is excellent and excellent on an unnamed channel. UM. The
Speaker 1: the the author of that book, Mark Bowden, is apparently
Speaker 1: just loved by the Delta Force because he's actually interviewed
Speaker 1: Delta Force operators, which is what they're called. They're not soldiers,
Speaker 1: they're operating. I kind of like that Um, and they
Speaker 1: don't wear you know, uniforms or fatigues. They shoot anything
Speaker 1: they like, um, which we'll get into later. That gets
Speaker 1: a certain private companies who hired Delta Force operators in trouble. Um.
Speaker 1: But they Mark Bowden put it pretty pretty clearly. He said,
Speaker 1: they are professional soldiers who hate the army, which actually,
Speaker 1: really think about it, that's the definition of a mercenary basically.
Speaker 1: But they're they're under control, They're they're ostensibly under the
Speaker 1: control of the U. S. Military, Right. Yeah, but apparently
Speaker 1: and this, like we say, all this is kind of
Speaker 1: it's all conjecture, conjecture, but only answer to the president.
Speaker 1: That's kind of my favorite part. Yeah. Well, the that
Speaker 1: whole thing came out of their second mission. Their first
Speaker 1: mission was to guard the Pan American Games I think
Speaker 1: in ninety eight, and um, that went smoothly, nothing noteworthy happened,
Speaker 1: maybe because the Delta Forces there, I don't know. Um.
Speaker 1: Their second mission was Operation Eagle Claw. Uh, this is
Speaker 1: the hostage takeover in Iran in nineteen eighty nine, seventy nine,
Speaker 1: two years after Delta Force had been assembled. And this
Speaker 1: was back when Colonel Beckwith was real hands on and
Speaker 1: he was in there and and basically like the Lee
Speaker 1: Marvin characters leading the charge and shooting commies and all
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Um, So this is Operation Eagle Clause.
Speaker 1: They're flying in to do a strike on the American
Speaker 1: embassy that's been taken over by Iranian extremists, flying in
Speaker 1: and what playing black helicopters. Yes, it's not like a
Speaker 1: TC's rainbow colored island hopper on Magna Pa. It doesn't do,
Speaker 1: to tell you the truth, It would probably more resemble
Speaker 1: TCS helicopter than your normal HUEI. Yeah. Um, they they
Speaker 1: have their own aviation platoon that that can get them
Speaker 1: from place to place and actually creates plausible deniability. It
Speaker 1: could just as easily be a bunch of crazed, wealthy
Speaker 1: American businessmen's bent on you know, patriotism, as it could
Speaker 1: be Delta Force. But eagle Claw, I distracted you. So
Speaker 1: eagle Claw they're going in, there's a helicopter crash, and
Speaker 1: they never get to actually carry out the mission. Um.
Speaker 1: The problem was his Delta Forces being commanded by traditional
Speaker 1: Special Forces um AT commanders at the time. After that
Speaker 1: they were taken out of command. As I saying the article,
Speaker 1: no one has any idea whose command they were put under.
Speaker 1: And you kind of get the impression the more you
Speaker 1: find out about Delta Force that they're not under anyone's command.
Speaker 1: Like I said, they answer to the President. I think
Speaker 1: that's probably about it, right, and no one knows where
Speaker 1: their funding comes from. It's got I think he called
Speaker 1: it a black fund. It is a black fund. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's there's um there's some sort of appropriations that I'm
Speaker 1: sure Congress deals with every year, two years whatever, uh,
Speaker 1: and then gives X number of millions and millions of
Speaker 1: dollars to this Delta Force black fund and they do
Speaker 1: whatever they like with it. And actually in nineve that
Speaker 1: was a banner year for getting, you know, actual documented
Speaker 1: evidence that there is a Delta Force. Some Delta Force
Speaker 1: operators were being investigated for basically misappropriating money from that
Speaker 1: black funds. They have been deployed to I think Sicily
Speaker 1: too for counter terrorism activity, and before they could leave
Speaker 1: the country, they had to be cleared by the Justice
Speaker 1: Department because they were all under investigation because they've been
Speaker 1: basically pilfering money from black fund. I mean, what do
Speaker 1: you what do you do? How do you pill for
Speaker 1: money from black fund. You just put in your pocket
Speaker 1: and walk away. I guess. So. I mean there's gotta
Speaker 1: be a money trail somehow, but nothing that you know
Speaker 1: it was public. Also, I mean, what are you gonna do.
Speaker 1: It's Delta Force, like, hey, give us some money back. No, okay, sure,
Speaker 1: we'll come in there with a submachine guns, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: to talk about it and their their their weaponry actually
Speaker 1: isn't is the stuff of legends as well. Apparently they
Speaker 1: favor Heckler and Coach tremendously MP MP fives and four yeah,
Speaker 1: which are pretty pretty cool submachine guns. Looked him up
Speaker 1: on the internet. Yeah, and I don't even like guns, no,
Speaker 1: but then these things are off exactly. This is this
Speaker 1: is the heart of Delta Force. Okay, this, what Chuck
Speaker 1: just said is exactly the hard Delve Force. He is
Speaker 1: against war, and yet he is awed by Delta Force.
Speaker 1: He doesn't even like guns, and yet he's awed by
Speaker 1: the guns that Delta Force uses. This is quintessential Delta Force. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and well, part of it has to do with the
Speaker 1: fact that you know their operations. They have some of
Speaker 1: the names Eagle Claw and Operation Urgent Fury was one
Speaker 1: of my favorites. What was that Granada or UM that was?
Speaker 1: Now that was Granada, and then Panama was Operation just Cause.
Speaker 1: Operation just Cause was the operation where the United States
Speaker 1: including Special Forces, I think the Army Rangers were there.
Speaker 1: Basically we sent a contingent of our best of the
Speaker 1: best down there to get rid of Manuel Noriega and
Speaker 1: CIA guy. Yeah, there's a CIA guy who'd been operating
Speaker 1: in Panama basically doing a radio free broadcast UM and
Speaker 1: he had been captured, and so Delta Force went in
Speaker 1: and I believe rescued him, rescued him, and they also
Speaker 1: captured Noriega. If it wasn't Delta Force, somebody captured in Noriega,
Speaker 1: because as far as I know, he's still in a
Speaker 1: prison in Miami right now. Well, I think they helped
Speaker 1: capture him. Okay, So it might have been one of
Speaker 1: those things where I have a feeling Delta Force a
Speaker 1: lot of times said and get the public credit for
Speaker 1: some of these things because they don't exist, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And the other impression I have is that Delta Force
Speaker 1: really doesn't care about the public credit. I think they
Speaker 1: just like to be deployed. Whenever I think of Delta
Speaker 1: Force they're they're supposedly they're headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: I suppose, which is the home of the Army Special
Speaker 1: Forces as well. Um, and apparently just very well funded,
Speaker 1: great training center. But when I think about Delta Force training,
Speaker 1: I just see a bunch of guys who are either
Speaker 1: bored or frustrated right that they want to be around
Speaker 1: the world in Yemen, for example, illegally hunting down El
Speaker 1: Kada operatives and shooting them while they're unarmed. Well, you
Speaker 1: know the other thing that you'll find if you were
Speaker 1: to see a Delta Force training operation is some excellent marksman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is really thing. You want to tell
Speaker 1: them what the requirements are as far as we know, Again,
Speaker 1: this is conjecture, but we got this from my think
Speaker 1: VFW magazine. Uh you want me to tell them now? Uh?
Speaker 1: So this is reputed of course, um that Delta Force
Speaker 1: recruits must show one hundred percent accuracy from six hundred
Speaker 1: yards away. Okay, so that's six football field six football fields.
Speaker 1: You have to be able to hit some target in
Speaker 1: the heart from six football fields. Right where where's the accuracy?
Speaker 1: It a thousand yards? So they'll give you a little
Speaker 1: bit of leeway if you're shooting from a thousand yards
Speaker 1: away a ten football fields, ten football films. Now they also, Um,
Speaker 1: we were talking about the armaments that the weapons they like.
Speaker 1: There's a Browning fifty caliber sniper rifle that's a very
Speaker 1: large shelf. It's enormous. It is enormous, um and apparently
Speaker 1: they use that for targets up to fifty yards. Right.
Speaker 1: I mean that's the kind of thing that can go
Speaker 1: through a wall, then through another wall, and through a
Speaker 1: brick wall and then into someone's uh you know probably
Speaker 1: and then through somebody's helmet and head. Right, that's what
Speaker 1: will do, and then go out the back and wrap
Speaker 1: a Christmas present on the way, right. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: differently so, um, I'll tell you what though, Man if
Speaker 1: I was capp, if I was stuck in Granada, if
Speaker 1: I was a journalist and I was blindfolded and potentially
Speaker 1: going to be beheaded, you know who I would want
Speaker 1: coming to visit me? Oh no, I realized Delta Force.
Speaker 1: Sure of course, nobody else. No. And they have had
Speaker 1: some sterling operations that have made it into the media. Um,
Speaker 1: there was a hijacked airliner and I think four and um,
Speaker 1: what what country was it, Chuck four? Was that Yemen?
Speaker 1: If it was, then wow, okay, well let's just say, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll go with the airliner hijacking. These guys, I believe. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many members were on the team.
Speaker 1: They stormed the airliner. Now there's four hijackers in there, Indonesia,
Speaker 1: in Indonesia, right, okay, Um, they they stormed the airliner
Speaker 1: that was on the tarmac, the jet. There's four hijackers
Speaker 1: who had this whole planeload of of hostages. Uh, adults.
Speaker 1: Force goes in there and as far as I know,
Speaker 1: they used the two tap method, which Colonel Beckwith came
Speaker 1: up with. The two tap method is where you put
Speaker 1: two bullets in the head of each target. It's not
Speaker 1: a love tap, no, So I think I point out
Speaker 1: in the article. You know when you see somebody on
Speaker 1: in a movie or on TV and they have, um,
Speaker 1: they have let they've spared some enemy that is dying,
Speaker 1: but he picks up a gun and tries to shoot
Speaker 1: maybe kill. For instance, this doesn't happen with Delta force.
Speaker 1: You get two bullets in the in the head from
Speaker 1: a Delta Force operative, you're you're going down and you're
Speaker 1: not coming back. It's definitely a shoot first asked and
Speaker 1: even ask questions question. I think this was a t
Speaker 1: W a flight or something. They stormed this flight, two
Speaker 1: taps to each each hostage taker. Not one casualty, not
Speaker 1: one incent casualty, as far as I know, only the
Speaker 1: four hijackers. And't that crazy to think about this, this
Speaker 1: international incident, these hostages and eight bullets takes care of
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Yeah, exactly, exactly, that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: I agree wholeheartedly. Um, now we are getting a little druly.
Speaker 1: As I warned, we're pretty excited about Delta Force. We
Speaker 1: want to be in Delta Force. That kind of kind
Speaker 1: of although you wouldn't know if I was, So there's there.
Speaker 1: There's some plenty of criticism of Delta Force. They were
Speaker 1: reputedly part of the siege of the Branch Davidians compound
Speaker 1: and Waco that went horribly awry. And I just didn't
Speaker 1: get across in the in the article, but some of
Speaker 1: the sources that I read it sounded very plausible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the definitely one of the black eyes.
Speaker 1: Definitely the Clinton administration and our County Tree as a whole.
Speaker 1: I think. The other thing from researching this article is
Speaker 1: Clinton seemed let me put it differently, the Delta Force
Speaker 1: was operating in within the US borders, which is not
Speaker 1: what's supposed to be done. The military isn't supposed to
Speaker 1: operate in the in the borders of the United States
Speaker 1: unless Marsha law has been declared. UM. As far as
Speaker 1: police police actor, that happened a lot under Clinton, a
Speaker 1: disproportionate amount um. That happened supposedly at Waco. Um Well, Actually,
Speaker 1: what I love about Waco, though, is they they admitted
Speaker 1: that there were three Delta Force guys there and one
Speaker 1: was supposedly an observer, which I just I don't know,
Speaker 1: he's just standing on their watch. Yea. From what I
Speaker 1: get from these guys, they're they're not ones to stand around.
Speaker 1: You're doing a great job, right exactly, you know, padding
Speaker 1: the backs of the FBI like wait to firestorm that place.
Speaker 1: Way to go, buddy. Um. We we know for a
Speaker 1: fact that they were at the World Trade Organization summit
Speaker 1: in Seattle in which went horribly arived, and they do
Speaker 1: a lot of guarding of dignitaries and uh and humming cars.
Speaker 1: I apparently is being protected by Delta Force right now,
Speaker 1: and it's so weird. When I was researching this again, UM,
Speaker 1: I saw photos of cars I with guys that were
Speaker 1: identified as Delta Force operators, and you'd start looking and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you start to recognize that this
Speaker 1: guy or that guy, and the same guys but in
Speaker 1: different different locations. You know. Um, there's a very famous uh,
Speaker 1: there's a very famous photo of a Special Forces guy
Speaker 1: out of uniform wearing UM I can't remember what they
Speaker 1: call it, but basically that head wrap. It goes around
Speaker 1: the head and then it's not a turban, but it's
Speaker 1: somewhat similar. It goes down the back. Uh. He's riding
Speaker 1: a horse through Afghanistan with like, you know, laden with
Speaker 1: guns exactly. But he was Special Forces, you know. But
Speaker 1: you see that guy around here there. Um. So it's
Speaker 1: it's really interesting to start to to root through their
Speaker 1: history and come to the present and start to see
Speaker 1: the same people over and over, and you're like, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure I'm looking at adulta Force operator, somebody who
Speaker 1: doesn't exist, somebody who's a shadow, somebody who is basically
Speaker 1: the closest thing we have to a license to kill
Speaker 1: like you don't send Delta Force into rough somebody up.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm going to completely slaughter everybody. Two. Hopefully
Speaker 1: Chuck and I will survive the night after recording this podcast,
Speaker 1: I find out. We just want to say we're glad
Speaker 1: these guys are out there. I mean, I much preferred
Speaker 1: Delta Force going in a few guys doing something efficiently
Speaker 1: and quietly than sending in, you know, ten thousand troops. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's much less clumsy and it gets the job done.
Speaker 1: Although you know, I'm quite sure there's several um human
Speaker 1: rights activists that would disagree with us on that. Yeah, Josh,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're right. That's that's that's a good point. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: it's all I'm sure the adults force would disagree with them,
Speaker 1: and I would not want to be the human rights
Speaker 1: activist while we're sidestepping an international incident. Uh, don't forget
Speaker 1: to look up how Delta work works on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send
Speaker 1: an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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