Announcing the first Joint Bill Roggio / BlackFive Venture

Posted By Grim

BlackFive.net has teamed up with Bill Roggio, with whose extraordinary reporting you are all familiar, to arrange an unusual opportunity.  Working together, we've arranged to send someone to report on operations at the Joint Special Operations Task Force - Philippines (JSOTF-P).  There, our Special Forces are working with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to deal with one of the most chaotic environments in the world.  Numerous militant groups contest government control of the area -- the MNLF, MILF, Abu Sayyaf, and al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, each riven with internal factions.  Some are engaged in peace talks with the government of the Philippines; some are openly hostile.

When we first started making inquiries about getting this approved, several people with reason to know said it would never be approved.  SOCOM doesn't do this kind of thing, we were told.  But it was approved.  Bill Roggio's good work and responsible journalism, real journalism, has earned him a lot of respect in the military community.  BlackFive.net also has a number of friends, contacts, and supporters.  Working together, we found we were granted the opportunity.

Bill Roggio's operations are reader supported, as you know.  What you may not know is that he is now an official nonprofit, a recognized 501c3, which means that your contributions are fully tax deductible.  BlackFive.net, in addition to helping arrange the trip, has promised to help him fund it.  This will not be cheap:  the insurance, for example, is more expensive to journey with Special Forces in Mindanao than it is to send someone to embed with the Marines or Cavalry in Iraq.  There are travel costs, equipment costs, and other costs as well.

We hope you will join us in supporting this venture.  No money is to be sent to BlackFive.net, but rather to Bill's Public Multimedia.  If there is any surplus from your donations to support the JSOTF-P trip, it will be rolled right over into supporting more journalism from Bill Roggio, Michael Totten, and others.  If you wish to donate, use the button below, or the one on the sidebar.

Donate though PayPal:

Please join us in supporting Bill's new venture.  BlackFive.net is glad to be working with him, as we all admire the good work he has done.  We hope that this will only be the first of our joint projects.

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Comments

[Barb]

Excellent! This is one of those 'forgotten areas' in the GWOT, and it should get coverage.
Having read Kaplan's "Imperial Grunts", I knew that SOCOM does allow some trustworthy journos to get close to the ops in the P.I., and in other places. By the way - you might already know this, but blogger 'Francis Marion' just returned from a deployment in the P.I.

And Yes - I plan to throw some funds in the kitty to help this out :-)

[Nomennovum]

This is great news. Good going, Grim.

(I'm resisting making some adolescent comment on those damn MILF terrorists ... but it's really, really hard.)

[warvet48]

I think this is a great oppotunity to garner more informatiom on these "bad guys" and I support Mr Roggio 100%. I wish I could send mony, but I'm on a fixed income of my disability and retirement pay, it doesn't stretch far with 2 in college and a juniour in high school. I'll do the one thing I can do and that is pray for you to be able to accomplish these missions.
When I was stationed in the Philippines (85-89), I was assigned as an M60 gunner doing jungle patrols and base security functions to protect against some of these insurgent elements. (Not the more recently formed AQ groups) People don't know but we (americans) lost 14 guys during my 4 and 1/2 year stint there. the higher highers didn't make a big
fuss about it because they were so worried about losing any kind of grip on the U.S. vs P.I. base agreements. So much for secret ops in the P.I.. Our boys over there (In the R.P.) now deserve whatever credit they can get for the job they are doing. There are certainly enough rebel groups to "work" with. My prayers are with them. Also, if my funding loosens up a little, wellll... better a little than none at all.

[liyak]

I was in PI twice!But the scary part is that,they still
have cannabals which probably
help, those damn terrors.