Page 346 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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326———September 11 Attacks

is part of the Joint Special
Operations Command and
works with other counter-
terrorism units, such as
Army’s Delta Force and the
160th Special Operations
Aviation Regiment.
See also COUNTERTERRORISM;
DELTA FORCE;
GRENZSCHUTZGRUPPE 9;
OPERATION EAGLE CLAW.

Further Reading
Marcinko, Richard. Rogue
Warrior. New York: Pocket
Books, 1992.
Terrorism Research Center:
SEAL Team Six. http://www.
terrorism.com/terrorism/SEA
L6.shtml.
U.S. sailors and Marines of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard their
U.S. Navy Naval Special War-
hovercraft returning from Afghanistan to the ships of their amphibious group,
fare. http://www.specwarnet.
January 23, 2002
com/americas/DEVGRU.
Source: U.S. Department of Defense photograph by USN Chief Photographer’s Mate Johnny Bivera [sic]. htm.
that year, including the Achille Lauro hijacking and
the invasion of Grenada, which involved the evacua-
tion of Governor Sir Paul Scoon. In 1989, ST6, along SENDERO LUMINOSO. See
with Delta Force, helped locate and secure Manuel SHINING PATH.
Noriega in Panama. A year later, ST6 returned to
Panama in an unsuccessful attempt to apprehend
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. In the 1990s, the
group was apparently part of an aborted plan to shoot SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS
down Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s helicopter. ST6
reportedly recovered Jean Bertrand Aristide after the
coup in Haiti. In the late 1990s, 65 members of ST6 On September 11, 2001, 19 men, part of the Al
were deployed to Bosnia to aid in the hunt for war Qaeda organization, a militant Muslim terrorist
criminals. network, hijacked four passenger airplanes in the
By the mid-1990s, ST6 was disbanded; U.S. Navy United States. Two of the planes were deliberately
commander Richard Marcinko, founder of ST6, had crashed into New York City’s World Trade Center, one
been convicted of conspiracy. After Marcinko was flown into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.,
departed, ST6 became the Naval Special Warfare and one crashed into a field in western Pennsylvania.
Development Group (DEVGRU). (For a short time, The attacks, which killed approximately 3,000
the group was called MARESFAC. ) people, targeted two potent symbols of U.S. military
Most information about DEVGRU is classified, and economic might: the Pentagon, which houses the
though the group is thought to have roughly 200 oper- nation’s military leadership, and the World Trade Cen-
ators, with an additional support staff of 200 to 300. ter, which symbolized U.S. global financial power.
The base, in Dam Neck, Virginia, includes a $25- The United States responded with a military campaign
million armor-plated “kill house,” where much of the in Afghanistan to destroy the Al Qaeda network,
close-quarter battle training is conducted. DEVGRU whose leader, Osama bin Laden, had found sanctuary