OMEGA Teams: CIA-JSOC Hunter/Killer Teams

The OMEGA Teams were a joint collaborative program run by both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Combining the elite military units underneath the JSOC structure and the intelligence network run by the CIA has allowed the United States to operate a secretive network of ‘hunter/killer’ teams who operate with little to no oversight around the world. They were used to find high-value-targets (HVTs) in hostile environments. This includes Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. The OMEGA Teams were lethal and highly secretive. They have also been used in collaboration with friendly ‘native’ forces in Afghanistan to further remove culpability.

1 History of CIA-JSOC collaboration and the founding of the OMEGA Teams

The CIA and JSOC are both key components of the United States’s security apparatus. The two components have distinct roles when they operate apart from one another. However, the two components collaborated extensively over the past several decades. Their collaboration primarily ramped up during the Global War On Terror (GWOT). Although the OMEGA codename is no longer used they operated extensively during the GWOT in order to hunt down HVTs.

1.1 Phoenix Program

The Phoenix Program, largely regarded as the spiritual forerunner to the OMEGA Teams, was a covert operation during the Vietnam War. It was initiated by the CIA in 1967 and lasted until 1972. 

There were several agencies involved in the program:

• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• US Special Operations Forces
• Intelligence collection units from US Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV)
• US Navy SEAL Detachment Bravo
• USMC 1st Force Reconnaissance Command
• Republic of Vietnam National Police Field Force
• Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs)

The primary objective of the Program was to identify and neutralise the Viet Cong infrastructure (VCI). This was done through infiltration, capture, counter-terrorism, interrogation, and assassination. The program aimed to dismantle the Viet Cong’s support system and undermine their influence in South Vietnamese rural areas. The CIA described it as

“a set of programs that sought to attack and destroy the political infrastructure of the Viet Cong”

The Phoenix Program utilised a combination of military, intelligence, and police forces to achieve its goals. It was controversial due to the methods employed, which included torture and extrajudicial killings, leading to significant human rights abuses. Critics argue that the program targeted civilians and involved widespread abuses. This contrasts with supporters who claim it was a necessary measure to combat a formidable insurgency.

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1.2 Operation Quail Shooter

‘Operation Quail Shooter’ was the name of a secretive collaboration effort between the CIA and US Army Special Forces in the 1980s. Beginning in 1982 members of Honduran anti-terrorist units were trained by Green Berets with CIA involvement.

Prospective Green Beret team members were initially interviewed in a motel near Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina in the United States. Following the selection of six team members an additional briefing was held in a high-security Special Operations Command building at Fort Bragg. Officials from the Pentagon and the CIA stressed to the team members that the entire operation to train Honduran anti-terrorist units was to be carried out in absolute secrecy.

Instructed to grow their hair long and to be “completely sterile” they were also instructed to leave any identifiable items at home. This included dog tags and berets and their usual uniforms were replaced with jeans and other civilian attire.

The 6 team members were then further divided into two teams of three. One of them operated in Honduras for two or three months at a time. The other three-man team stayed behind in the United States. They prepared lessons and other activities related to the joint Special Operations-CIA program. 

The training was intensive and included the following items:

• Sniper shooting
• Shotgun firing
• Judo
• Other hand-to-hand fighting techniques
• Safehouse raids
• Airplane clearance
• Combat intelligence techniques
• High-speed photography 
• Demolitions training
• Rappeling

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1.3 Afghanistan and the OMEGA Teams

After the 9/11 attacks of 2001, the CIA deployed paramilitary teams into Afghanistan. This was done under orders to connect with the Northern Alliance (NA) and various anti-Taliban militias in order to topple the Taliban government which was in power at the time. 

When this regime collapsed following the invasion, the CIA and special forces teams remained in the country. With their recruited local militias, living on compounds they conducted strikes against both Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and positions. 

One of these newly founded militias was known as the Afghan Combat Applications Group (ACAG). It was based out of an old brick factory on the outskirts of Kabul. Becoming known as Eagle Base, the factory was later turned into one of the CIA’s ‘black site’ secret prisons. 

ACAG grew to be several hundred men strong by early 2003. Its name was a reference to the cover name, the ‘Combat Applications Group’, used by the US Delta Force. Later in 2003, the CIA renamed ACAG into the Counter Terrorism Pursuit Team (CTPT). 

Counter Terrorism Pursuit Team (CTPT) 

With the CIA realising that the CTPT was extremely important as they could blend into regional minorities present in Afghanistan, they began dividing the CTPT into regional, ethnically homogenous sub-units. This however ran into the limitations placed upon it by the CIA’s Special Activities Division (now known as the Special Activities Center). It lacked the manpower to staff and train these regional sub-units.

SEAL Team 6 operators based at Bagram airfield began operating alongside these CTPT teams. A former CIA paramilitary officer stated that this started 

“As an informal relationship”.

The idea of using JSOC operators to supplement CIA paramilitary teams began spreading beyond the confines of Eagle Base. JSOC began sending small teams of operators to assist the CIA in running its network of Afghan militias. These early JSOC attachments were known as ‘Ultras’. Around 2005 this practice of attaching special operations operators to CIA teams was officially named the OMEGA Team program. 

(See more in the ‘Sheep Dipping’ section below)

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1.3.1 Afghan Strike Force Units

In December 2018, an Afghan paramilitary unit known as ‘01’, trained by the CIA and in partnership with US Special Operations Forces operating in the central Afghan province of Wardak was responsible for several raids which resulted in the deaths of at least 51 civilians. Some of the victims of these raids were as young as 8 years old. Many did not have any formal relationship with the Taliban.

These militias were known as Counter Terrorism Pursuit Teams by the Americans, as referenced previously, and were known as ‘National Strike Units’ by the Afghans. They have their own nicknames for their units such as the ‘Mustangs’ or ‘Headhunters’. Following the official transfer of control to the Afghan National Directorate of Security in 2009, they were rebranded with numerical designations.

List of ‘Strike Force Units’

‘01’ was just one of several CIA/JSOC-backed militias, known as ‘Strike Force Units’ or ‘National Strike Units’, which operated in Afghanistan and they are as follows:

• ‘NDS 01’ – Operated primarily in Wardak and Logar
• ‘NDS 02’ – Based in Jalalabad and works in the Eastern parts of Afghanistan
• ‘NDS 03’ – Known as the Kandahar Strike Force and worked in the south of the country
• ‘NDS 04’ – Conducted raids in Kunar province and adjacent ones in the northeast
• Khost Protection Force & Shaheen Forces – Operated primarily in Khost, Paktya, Paktika and Ghazni provinces [Source]

The fact that these strike force units were effectively operating under the OMEGA Team Program was not shared with their members. One member of strike force unit ‘02’ stated that, upon being asked who they worked for,

“We work for the Afghan government”.

[Source, source]

2 Organisation of the OMEGA Team Program ‘Sheep Dipping’

2.1 Organisation of the OMEGA Teams

According to OMEGA Team members and former intelligence community officials, this is how the Teams were organised:

• Omega-10 – Based in Asadabad, Kunar province and worked with NDS 04
• Omega-20 – Based in Jalalabad, there were two teams who reportedly operated there. One in a safe house in the city and one at the airport.
• Omega-30 – Worked out of Forward Operating Base (FOB) Chapman in Khost and worked with the Khost Protection Force.
• Omega-40 – Alternated between Orgun-E and a station in Shkin in Paktia province.
• Omega-50 – Worked out of FOB Gecko in Kandahar and worked with the Kandahar Strike Force (NDS 03)
• Omega-60 – Located at Eagle Base in Kabul and worked with NDS 01 and NDS 02
• Omega-70 – Reported to have been based in Fayzabad in Badakhshan province.
• Omega-80 – Based in Bari-Kowt, northwest of Asadabad.

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2.2 Units Which Constitute the OMEGA Teams

The OMEGA Team program was largely manned by SEAL Team 6 operators and Rangers from the 75th Ranger Regiments, Regimental Reconnaissance Company (RRC). However, due to the growth of the program, it began including other Rangers, other SEALs and also members of other special operations teams.

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2.2.1 Frictions within the OMEGA Teams

Due to the nature of mixing the different special operations units, tensions arose within the program’s constituent teams. Reportedly, SEALs on an OMEGA detachment did not work well with their RRC counterparts or additionally, CIA Ground Branch personnel. One SEAL stated that if they didn’t get him some missions they were

“Going to have some problems”. 

CIA case officers in Asadabad also reported finding SEALs who had been drinking to the point of being

“sh*tfaced” & also “passed out in a conference room at 3 a.m.”

A former OMEGA Team member, recalling a July 2013 mission in the Pech River valley, also stated that a team leader had to hold his radio in the air in order to convince the JSOC task force that he needed close air support (CAS).

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2.3 OMEGA Team Mission Scope

The scope of the OMEGA Team mission is similar to that of the missions in which both the CIA and JSOC operate. During the War in Afghanistan, the CIA and JSOC had reportedly developed a rivalry over controlling the Afghan militias.This, however, was muted through the creation of the OMEGA Team program.

The combining of these two organisations and their personnel allows for a more collaborative and successful working relationship which may also prevent competition between the two.

Its mission scope can include things such as:

• Capturing HVTs
• Eliminating HVTs
• Conducting vehicle interdictions
• Intelligence Gathering
• Training of foreign military personnel (See Afghan Strike Force Units section)

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2.4 ‘Sheep Dipping’

The OMEGA Team program utilised a legal loophole in the law which governs the usage of active-duty military personnel. Known as ‘Sheep Dipping’ this involves the ‘employment’ of JSOC Special Operations fighters by the CIA, nominally as para-military contractors, in order to circumnavigate the law.

The US military holds an authority known as ‘Title 10’. This relates to war-time deployments whereas the CIA holds ‘Title 50’ authority which allows for covert operations against threats deemed a danger to the U.S. and its foreign policy objectives.

The combining of these two authorities presents a grey zone within the law. This loophole has been exploited by the CIA and the U.S. in order to deploy elements of special forces units such as the aforementioned 75th Ranger Regiment, DEVGRU through the OMEGA Teams program.

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2.5 War Crimes Connected to the OMEGA Teams

According to a 2019 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the CIA strike forces were responsible for 

“extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, indiscriminate airstrikes, attacks on medical facilities, and other violations of international humanitarian law, or the laws of war.”

A report released by ProPublica detailed the war crimes allegedly committed by the so-called zero units. It suggested that the nature of the US forces which oversaw them (the OMEGA Teams), shielded them.

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3 Weapons of the OMEGA Teams

Although the OMEGA Teams are highly classified and little to no information is publicly available regarding their equipment, since they are believed to be made up of elements of the aforementioned 75th Ranger Regiment, DEVGRU and Delta Force, they can be presumed to be using the equipment available to these units.

3.1 Weapons Tables

3.1.1 Pistols

3.1.2 SMGs

3.1.3 Assault Rifles (ARs)

3.1.4 Machine Guns (MGs)

3.1.5 Sniper Rifles

3.1.6 Explosive and Other Weapons

4 Operations Involving the OMEGA Teams

Although the operations involving the OMEGA Teams are highly classified and unknown there are several which the OMEGA Teams are known to have taken part or at least contributed personnel to.

This includes:

4.1 Hunt for Bowe Bergdahl

Beaudry Robert “Bowe Bergdahl, is a former US Army soldier. He was held captive for five years from 2009 by the Taliban in Afghanistan and also Pakistan. He was captured on 30 June 2009 and the circumstances of his capture have been regarded as questionable.

On 27 June 2009 he sent an email to his parents which rebuked his commanders and also stated

“The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies”

Significant resources were diverted to find Bergdahl and at least six soldiers from his battalion were killed during the search efforts. Officers in Afghanistan during the time of the search period stated that the diverting of resources to find Bergdahl delayed the closing of Combat Outpost Keating. This in turn led to the deaths of eight American soldiers when the outpost was overrun by three hundred Taliban insurgents.

On 31 May 2014, Bergdahl was released by his captors and recovered by a Delta Force component which is believed to have either contained or belonged to the OMEGA Team.

[Source, source, source, source, source, source]

4.2 Tracking and Elimination of Adam Gadahn

Adam Gadahn was an American citizen who had converted to Islam in the 1990s, travelled to Pakistan and eventually ceased contact with his family after 2001. In the mid-200s he attracted the attention of the FBI after appearing in al-Qaeda propaganda videos as “Azzam the American”.

In late 2014 Gadahns wife had travelled to Pakistan to visit her uncle and the CIA had an informant who was able to report her movements. The CIA, also along with the help of Omega-60 based out of Eagle Base, had proxies follow the wife who was pregnant at the time. They followed her knowing she would eventually give birth with her husband present.

A CIA drone picked up her location with their proxy militias following her providing location data. In January 2015, the CIA eliminated Gadahn with a drone strike. However, the Obama administration waited three months to announce his killing stating that 

“He was not specifically targeted”.

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4.3 Jalalabad 2016

In 2016 an Afghan militant had turned in a suicide vest to British forces based in Kabul. They in turn placed a tracking device within the vest. This vest, returned to the asset, was given back to the bomb-making factory and when the location was revealed the information was turned over to the CIA.

The CIA, alongside Omega-20, launched a mission to hit the factory and the operators entered the building but did not find a suicide vest factory. Instead, Apache helicopters overhead spotted two people dash out of the building adjacent to where the OMEGA Teams began pursuing them.

In the ensuing pursuit, a Ranger Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) within the OMEGA Team was shot in the abdomen and also his thigh. After the fighters who had ambushed the team were killed an OMEGA medic began working on the JTAC. He began by providing him with a transfusion of freeze-dried blood. This was a new technology introduced to the special operations community.

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4.4 Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Others

The joint CIA/JSOC OMEGA Team concept was also reportedly exported to Yemen. According to a former member of the Teams they were also on the verge of introducing it to Libya. However, this was scrapped by the CIA following the Benghazi attack in 2016.

In Puntland,  Somalia: SEAL Team 6 trained the Puntland Strike Force (PSF) in basic military tactics. Whilst the Regimental Reconnaissance Company used the PSF  to run intelligence operations.

The CIA also trained its own counterterrorism unit modeled after the Omega team called “Alpha Group”. Founded in Mogadishu, operators were selected on physical prowess, intellect and additionally, a lack of bad habits like chewing Khat. This is a methamphetamine-like drug used by a high percentage of the adult male population. 

Some of the operators were also flown to the US to get trained there by CIA paramilitary officers. While technically under the jurisdiction of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). It is a de facto CIA-trained, managed and paid-for unit.  

The unit is the country’s premier counter-terrorism unit and has the following duties:

1. Direct Action against Al-Shabaab and IS Somalia
2. PSD for CIA or other US dignitaries
3. Intelligence gathering
4. Hostage Rescue  

There were also active 127e programs, the process which allows US special operations forces to use specific foreign units as surrogates in counterterrorism operations, in various countries. This includes but is not limited to:

• Tajikistan
• Lebanon
• Jordan
• UAE
• Syria
• Other Locations in Africa

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5 Conclusion 

The Omega Teams were a secretive collaboration between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Designed to circumnavigate the legal barriers to allow for the deployment of special operations forces in support of missions run by the CIA, the Omega Teams are highly secretive. Described as ‘Hunter/Killer’ teams they have been used in the capture and also elimination of many high-value targets (HVTs). They were also involved in the tracking of HVTs such as Bowe Bergdahl and Adam Gadahn. They have no doubt been additionally involved in a wide variety of highly classified missions across their active deployments. No longer active, their legacy of creating a basis for the circumnavigation of laws has impacted global counterterrorism operations.