>> when president obama first came into office, he campaigned on a pledge to end the war in iraq and to try to roll back the way that bush and cheney had prosecuted the war on terror. early in his administration he was briefed on the capacity that jsoc had. what ended up happening is that jsoc became the counterterrorism policy, not just the implementers of it, but policy itself. these are guys used to operating in shadows with little or minimal effective congressional oversight and they have a streamlined pipe to the commander-in-chief. president obama is in charge of all u.s. military forces. but often in his administration speaking directly to the commenders of jsoc on the ground. when an american flagged vessel was taken early on in obama's administration in somalia, the mersk alabama, the first time an american vessel had been hijacked in 100 years. obama was directly in touch with the people on the the ship that was going to take out the pirates and s.e.a.l. team 6 was deployed in kenya at the time and went out into the ocean and shot the three somali pirates and rescued the american