The wanna-be A-Team that got millions of dollars for an illegal manhunt.
Somewhere between a bad action movie and an actual war crime, there was Spear Operations Group. The tax shelter was registered in 2015 and operated like something straight out of a fever dream.
It started with a lunch meeting at a military base in Abu Dhabi. Abraham Golan, a Hungarian-Israeli contractor, walked in with a pitch: Give me a team of former Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and Foreign Legion veterans, and we’ll run a targeted elimination program in Yemen. No official military structure. No oversight. No questions. Price tag: $1.5 million a month, plus bonuses per operation.
The UAE said yes. They handed over weapons, uniforms, military ranks, and a list of names with photos attached.
The team looked like the A-Team’s weird cousin: Cigars, headbands, tactical gear that screamed special operations but styled like an 80s action movie. On Christmas Day 2015, they sat sharing whiskey, planning how to eliminate their first target. One drew the mission plan on the tent floor with a Sharpie. After the briefing, he cut it out with a knife and burned it. “I don’t want any of that with my handwriting floating around.”
Their first operation hit a political leader’s office with explosives. The target fled minutes before, but Golan still called it a success. After that, it only got crazier: Motorbikes weaving through traffic to attach magnetic bombs to cars, a $7 million San Diego mansion as the operations center, and at least two members still on active US military duty. One had starred in a reality TV show called “One Man Army” before joining the hit squad in Yemen. A CIA officer called them “almost like a murder squad,” adding about Golan: “For crazy shit, he’s the kind of guy you hire.”
In 2018, a major investigation exposed everything. Golan went on the record without flinching: “There was a targeted program in Yemen. I was running it. We did it.” The company dissolved within weeks. The target who survived is suing in federal court, living in exile ever since.
Nobody went to prison. The website is still active. And in Bali, one of the operators now runs a dog training business.
Somewhere between a bad action movie and an actual war crime, there was Spear Operations Group. The tax shelter was registered in 2015 and operated like something straight out of a fever dream.
It started with a lunch meeting at a military base in Abu Dhabi. Abraham Golan, a Hungarian-Israeli contractor, walked in with a pitch: Give me a team of former Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and Foreign Legion veterans, and we’ll run a targeted elimination program in Yemen. No official military structure. No oversight. No questions. Price tag: $1.5 million a month, plus bonuses per operation.
The UAE said yes. They handed over weapons, uniforms, military ranks, and a list of names with photos attached.
The team looked like the A-Team’s weird cousin: Cigars, headbands, tactical gear that screamed special operations but styled like an 80s action movie. On Christmas Day 2015, they sat sharing whiskey, planning how to eliminate their first target. One drew the mission plan on the tent floor with a Sharpie. After the briefing, he cut it out with a knife and burned it. “I don’t want any of that with my handwriting floating around.”
Their first operation hit a political leader’s office with explosives. The target fled minutes before, but Golan still called it a success. After that, it only got crazier: Motorbikes weaving through traffic to attach magnetic bombs to cars, a $7 million San Diego mansion as the operations center, and at least two members still on active US military duty. One had starred in a reality TV show called “One Man Army” before joining the hit squad in Yemen. A CIA officer called them “almost like a murder squad,” adding about Golan: “For crazy shit, he’s the kind of guy you hire.”
In 2018, a major investigation exposed everything. Golan went on the record without flinching: “There was a targeted program in Yemen. I was running it. We did it.” The company dissolved within weeks. The target who survived is suing in federal court, living in exile ever since.
Nobody went to prison. The website is still active. And in Bali, one of the operators now runs a dog training business.
👀3🤨1
In 1956, the U.S. Army created one of its most secretive Cold War units in West Berlin:
Detachment A (39th Special Forces Detachment).
This elite ~90-man Green Beret team operated completely undercover for nearly 30 years. Dressed as civilians, fluent in German, they lived in safe houses on 24-hour alert, ready to conduct sabotage, guerrilla warfare, and stay-behind operations if the Soviets invaded. Many early members were Lodge Act recruits Eastern European immigrants with critical language and cultural skills.
They later pioneered urban counter-terrorism tactics and supported sensitive missions before being disbanded in 1984.
Detachment A (39th Special Forces Detachment).
This elite ~90-man Green Beret team operated completely undercover for nearly 30 years. Dressed as civilians, fluent in German, they lived in safe houses on 24-hour alert, ready to conduct sabotage, guerrilla warfare, and stay-behind operations if the Soviets invaded. Many early members were Lodge Act recruits Eastern European immigrants with critical language and cultural skills.
They later pioneered urban counter-terrorism tactics and supported sensitive missions before being disbanded in 1984.
🔥3👀1
One of its most legendary figures was Major General Sidney Shachnow.
Born in Lithuania in 1934, Sid survived the horrors of the Kovno Ghetto as a child, enduring starvation and forced labor before escaping the Nazis at age 9 by hiding under his uncle’s coat. After immigrating to America in 1950, he dropped out of high school, enlisted in the Army, and earned his Green Beret.
In 1964, he deployed to Vietnam as commander of Special Forces Operational Detachment A-121 (A-12) at An Long Camp near the Cambodian border. There he trained and led a Civilian Irregular Defense Group against North Vietnamese forces. During a fierce enemy attack, he was shot simultaneously in the arm and leg. Despite his wounds, he applied a tourniquet, continued fighting, led his men, and earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He later contracted tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and other serious illnesses but recovered and returned for a second tour with the 101st Airborne Division — where he earned a second Silver Star for gallantry in action.
He was later hand-selected for Detachment A in Berlin, commanding the unit in the early 1970s. He went on to command all U.S. Army Berlin as the Wall fell in 1989.
Born in Lithuania in 1934, Sid survived the horrors of the Kovno Ghetto as a child, enduring starvation and forced labor before escaping the Nazis at age 9 by hiding under his uncle’s coat. After immigrating to America in 1950, he dropped out of high school, enlisted in the Army, and earned his Green Beret.
In 1964, he deployed to Vietnam as commander of Special Forces Operational Detachment A-121 (A-12) at An Long Camp near the Cambodian border. There he trained and led a Civilian Irregular Defense Group against North Vietnamese forces. During a fierce enemy attack, he was shot simultaneously in the arm and leg. Despite his wounds, he applied a tourniquet, continued fighting, led his men, and earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He later contracted tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and other serious illnesses but recovered and returned for a second tour with the 101st Airborne Division — where he earned a second Silver Star for gallantry in action.
He was later hand-selected for Detachment A in Berlin, commanding the unit in the early 1970s. He went on to command all U.S. Army Berlin as the Wall fell in 1989.
🔥9