The seven Rangers were now part of ‘CFT Tarbela’, or cross-functional team—a small U.S. force comprised of CIA personnel, Delta/DEVGRU operators, and regardless of the CIAs numerous petitions, members from the Intelligence Support Activity, whose contention and mutual loathing with the CIA has been raging since the unit’s inception. This clandestine task force would be directed by Operational Control Element Islamabad, or simply ‘OCE Ibad’, the main CIA strength in the country.
In that three-month training period, the Rangers ran the Pakistani commandos through the same type of train-up one could expect as a new member to the 75th right before a deployment. Live-fire exercises, fast-roping, direct-action raids, air assaults, detainee handling, sensitive-site exploitation, room clearing, night shooting, and countless other advanced light-infantry tactics.
Forward advising in the frontier provinces side-by-side, the way our forces have operated with Afghans and Iraqis, was virtually unheard of in Pakistan. To any reader, it sounds as if the program was a success both operationally and politically—bringing two rivals together. Unfortunately, this story concludes with an adverse finale. Spies, technically state-sponsored double agents from Pakistan’s ISI, clandestinely embedded themselves with the commandos during the Ranger-led training. CIA case officers discovered reliable intelligence that proved Pakistani ISI agents were traveling to Taliban training camps in Waziristan and Quetta and disseminating what they learned to the enemy.
The CIA pulled the plug on the Ranger-Commando program, and many of the U.S. personnel redeployed stateside. Agency personnel who were part of the drone program remained in Tarbela for years to come. In September 2007, months after the Ranger advisors left, an officer with the Ranger-trained Pakistani commandos walked into the Tarbela chow hall and detonated his explosive vest, killing 19 of his fellow commandos and injuring dozens more. Multiple CIA and NSA personnel were reported to have been present during the attack.
https://sofrep.com/37934/75th-ranger-re ... -pakistan/
