![]() ![]() Unfortunately, the hostages were dispersed throughout the country, and the chance never came for a second attempt, but the seeds were planted for the Intelligence Support Activity. In the summer of 1980, FOG agents were infiltrated into Teheran to report back on the hostages' whereabouts, movements of the Iranians, as well as to recruit local agents. The second rescue force was not going to be affected by the same problem, and the FOG was established in July of 1980, under the control of Colonel Jerry King. The CIA proved unable to provide the critical intelligence Delta Force needed, such as the number of guards, the type of weapons they were using and what kinds of locks were on the doors. One problem that plagued the first attempt was the lack of valuable intelligence. "When the first rescue attempt of the hostages in Iran failed, a second attempt, code-named Honey Badger, immediately started. Ironically, the embassy in Iran was on their itinerary, but, history intervened, and it was overrun by a mob who took the larger part of the staff hostage. The survey was successful, which led defense officials to create ad hoc Special Forces units to survey US embassies in hotspots around the world. Operators from the unit entered Nicaragua using false passports, and proceeded to photograph the embassy from every angle, record the types of locks on all doors, inside and outside, record the number of exits and windows, and finally drew up the internal layout of the building. The rapidly deteriorating situation in the country prompted the United States to create a small Special Forces unit with the purpose of surveying the US embassy. "The ISA's origins are in the Foreign Operating Group (FOG), whose origin in turn is in the 1979 overthrow of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. The amount of accurate and up-to-date information about the ISA is very small, due to the extremely high secrecy surrounding the unit, but over the years, various books and reports have gleamed some information about the ISA. "Perhaps the least known, and most classified unit within the realm of US special operations is the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), a small, highly trained and capable intelligence unit. The authors note that "All information used in this article has been obtained from publicly available, open source documents." (Dominique Sumner and Peter Tomich). ![]() The following article on the Intelligence Support Activity was copied from online. "These commands and white Special Forces like the Green Berets, as well as Air Force combat controllers and commandos of eight different nations report to a mind-boggling array of new command cells and coordination units set up after Sept. "In and around Afghanistan, Gray Fox was part of a secret sphere that included the CIA's paramilitary Special Activities Division and the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command. Working closely with Special Forces and the CIA, Gray Fox also places operatives inside hostile territory. "Gray Fox's low-profile eavesdropping planes also fly without military markings. In addition to covert operations, it provides the war on terrorism with the kind of so-called 'close-in' signals monitoring - including the interception of cell phone conversations - that helped bring down Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. "Today, the ISA operates under the code name Gray Fox. involvement in Somalia in 1992 and was reportedly active in the hunt for Bosnian Serbs suspected of war crimes. "In May 1982, Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank Charles Carlucci III called the ISA 'uncoordinated and uncontrolled.' Though its freelance tendencies were curbed, the ISA continued to operate under different guises through the ill-starred U.S. It built a reputation for daring, flexibility and a degree of lawlessness. "Known as the Intelligence Support Activity, or ISA, when it was established in 1981, this unit fought in drug wars and counter-terror operations from the Middle East to South America. intelligence community and follow through with covert military action. Arkin, published in the Los Angeles Times on October 27, 2002, "The Army created a highly compartmentalized organization that could collect clandestine intelligence independent of the rest of the U.S. According to The Secret War by William M. ![]()
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