FORT BRAGG, UNITED STATES // A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: the shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered about the checkpoint.
But the blood and body were fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb.
Fort Bragg's Special Warfare Centre shows how the US has turned hunting terror networks into half-science, half-art form since the September 11 attacks.
Forging lessons painfully learnt in the last decade into a formal curriculum, the training is intended to help elite military units track militants across international boundaries and work alongside sometimes competing US agencies.
The coursework is similar to the CIA's legendary spycraft training centre called The Farm, and is the brainchild of Green Beret Major General Bennet Sacolick, a veteran of elite special operations units, and a long stint on loan to the CIA.
The school is also an illustration of how special operations and intelligence forces have reached an easier coexistence, after early clashes where CIA officers accused the military operators of ineptly trying to run their own spy rings overseas without State Department or CIA knowledge.
"As my guys go to Afghanistan and interface with CIA base and station chiefs, they can do it with more credibility than in the past," Gen Sacolick said.
While many of the public may not be aware that the military is allowed to gather information, and even run its own spy networks, special operations forces have been authorised to do just that since the disastrous Desert One raid meant to rescue the US hostages held in Iran in 1979.
The raid went awry because of a helicopter crash, not an intelligence foul-up.
But before the raid, military planners had been frustrated that CIA employees working inside the country were unable to provide them the tactical intelligence needed to insert a covert force - even basic information like which way the streets ran outside the embassy.
That is why almost a third of every class at the CIA's Farm has been military, said a former senior intelligence official.
The Fort Bragg school means special operators can now get much of that CIA-style training at their home facility.
Gen Sacolick said he was shocked at how piecemeal intelligence gathering and sharing was up until a couple of years ago.
Special operations units would know their area but had no established way to pass it on, he said, nor any means for reaching out to the CIA to fill in information gaps.
"The CIA will satisfy any information requirement we have," Gen Sacolick said. "All we have to do is ask the right person.
"So that's what we are creating" among the special operations teams training at Fort Bragg, Gen Sacolick said, pointing out troops who "have the vocabulary, have the contacts, know the questions to ask, and who to ask".
The CIA also helped Gen Sacolick design the course to teach special operators the spy-related tradecraft they need for the counterterror fight outside known war zones.
They learn skills such as how to evade surveillance by terrorists, or target a country's intelligence service. The White House eventually created an information exchange to allow elite military troops to gather intelligence, while keeping the State Department and the CIA in the loop.
To make sure spy did not stumble over spy, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, Stephen Cambone, and the CIA's then-top clandestine representative, Jose Rodriguez, created a mechanism that exists to this day: to let each network know who was working for whom.
The next step was to find some common ground among those competing tribes of intelligence and military operators - a step embraced by the now-retired General Stanley McChrystal.
Then heading the military's Joint Special Operations Command, Gen McChrystal embraced the "hostage swap" of special operations troops and CIA officers, deploying them to each other's command centres and forcing collaboration through proximity.
But he upgraded the practice, sending his best people, instead of following the unwritten custom of sending one's least-valuable employee to get them out of the home office.
Gen McChrystal used to lecture his people, Gen Sacolick among them, to forge their own networks of one-on-one relationships in other agencies to counter the enemy network. That is how Gen Sacolick ended up at the CIA, and why he patterned his school on lessons the agency helped teach him.
The idea is to pass on the skills learnt in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, where special operators have had more intelligence backup and logistical support from the regular military than they would in the remote places where they usually operate, Gen Sacolick said.
"I need to prepare a 12-man team to go anywhere on this planet," he said. "They need to be every bit as good as they are in Afghanistan, in the middle of Africa somewhere, or wherever the next conflict takes them."
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
ALL THE RESULTS
Bantamweight
Siyovush Gulmomdov (TJK) bt Rey Nacionales (PHI) by decision.
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) bt Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR) by submission.
Catch 74kg
Omar Hussein (JOR) bt Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) by decision.
Strawweight (Female)
Seo Ye-dam (KOR) bt Weronika Zygmunt (POL) by decision.
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli (TUR) bt Walid Laidi (ALG) by TKO.
Lightweight
Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) bt Leandro Martins (BRA) by TKO.
Welterweight
Ahmad Labban (LEB) bt Sofiane Benchohra (ALG) by TKO.
Bantamweight
Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR) no contest.
Lightweight
Mohammed Yahya (UAE) bt Glen Ranillo (PHI) by TKO round 1.
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) bt Aidan Aguilera (AUS) by TKO round 1.
Welterweight
Mounir Lazzez (TUN) bt Sasha Palatkinov (HKG) by TKO round 1.
Featherweight title bout
Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) by KO round 1.
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km
Price: From Dh796,600
On sale: now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
