East Africa, with the emergence al-Qaeda-aligned al-Shebaab and issues of piracy off the Somali coast, is becoming an increasingly busy region for U.S. Special Operations Command. In a recent article on Wired.com, former SOCOM Commander Admiral Eric T. Olson discusses these issues , as he did at last year’s Aspen Security Forum. It is regions like these, Olson says - as opposed to those that are “well-lit" and are more "stable [and] orderly" - that capture the attention of elite U.S. Special Operations Forces. Likewise, it is these places where the “lights are off,” Olson says, where the most dangerous groups are hardest at work.