'Dirty Wars.' - "...the American people would be extraordinarily surprised if they could see the difference between what they believe a law says and how it has actually been interpreted in secret." - Senator Wyden

"Somehow, in front of our eyes, undeclared wars have been launched in countries across the globe. Foreigners and citizens alike assassinated by presidential decree. The war on terror transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy. How does a war like this ever end?"

Dirty Wars: "Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill travels to Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other countries where the United States has taken military action in the War on Terror. In Afghanistan, he investigates the United States military and government cover-up of the deaths of five civilians, including two pregnant women killed by US soldiers from the Joint Special Operations Command. After investigating the attack, Scahill travels to other sites of JSOC intervention, interviewing both proponents and opponents, and the survivors, of such raids, including U.S. Senator Ron Wyden."

THE FILM | Dirty Wars: "We encounter two parallel casts of characters. The CIA agents, Special Forces operators, military generals, and U.S.-backed warlords who populate the dark side of American wars go on camera and on the record, some for the first time. We also see and hear directly from survivors of night raids and drone strikes, including the family of the first American citizen marked for death and being hunted by his own government. Dirty Wars takes viewers to remote corners of the globe to see first-hand wars fought in their name and offers a behind-the-scenes look at a high-stakes investigation. We are left with haunting questions about freedom and democracy, war and justice."

Dirty Wars (2013) Movie Script | SS: "What we were being asked to do, and where, and for what purpose. A lot of it was of questionable legality. And most of it was outside of any stated battlefield. Kinetic operations, whether it's capture or kill, in some cases to detain, people as directed by the United States government. They launched their own internalized interrogation program, without the knowledge of the conventional U.S. military forces, or even the CIA. Because of the extreme secrecy surrounding the program, there was a variety of abuses. 

Torture? 

I would say that, yes. The president has made a political and military calculation to let the joint special operations command run wild."

Scahill: So you're saying j-soc is able to hit harder under President Obama than they were under President Bush? 

Harder, faster, quicker, with the full support of the the White House."

"Senator Wyden:  It's important for the American people to know when the president can kill an American citizen and when they can't, and yet it is almost as if there are two laws in America, and the American people would be extraordinarily surprised if they could see the difference between what they believe a law says and how it has actually been interpreted in secret. 

Scahill:  You're not permitted to disclose that difference publicly. 

Wyden:  That's correct."

 "We're now seeing the effects of covert intervention in countries on multiple continents without any thought to future repercussions. And it has radically expanded. At one point it was 40 countries. It is now expanded to over 75. And there are dozens, if not hundreds, of concurrent operations. But in theory, Congress is supposed to have oversight of these operations. They don't want to step into the dark and see what goes on behind the curtain. Joint special operations command became a paramilitary arm of the administration. And billions upon billions of dollars was poured into JSOC. What we have essentially done is created one hell of a hammer. And for the rest of our generation, for the rest of my lifetime, this force will be continually searching for a nail."