The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA's historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by the Washington Post.| That'll take a minimum reinterpretation. The Pentagon controls the military intel branches. And it can task CIA resources. Pretty high winds in this here teapot... |
| Amazing! That's certainly never happened before... Errrhhh... Has it? |
The Strategic Support Branch was created to provide Rumsfeld with independent tools for the "full spectrum of humint operations," according to an internal account of its origin and mission. Human intelligence operations, or "humint" -- a term used in counterpoint to technical means such as satellite photography -- range from interrogation of prisoners and scouting of targets in wartime to the peacetime recruitment of foreign spies. Perhaps the most significant shift is the Pentagon's bid to conduct surreptitious missions, in friendly and unfriendly states, when conventional war is a distant or unlikely prospect -- activities that have traditionally been the province of the CIA's Directorate of Operations. Senior Rumsfeld advisers said those missions are central to what they called the department's predominant role in combatting terrorist threats.
The creation of the espionage branch, the scope of its clandestine operations and the breadth of Rumsfeld's asserted legal authority have not been detailed publicly. Two longtime members of the House Intelligence Committee, a Democrat and a Republican, said they knew no details before being interviewed for this article. Pentagon officials said they established the Strategic Support Branch using "reprogrammed" funds, without explicit congressional authority or appropriation.
Rumsfeld's ambitious plans rely principally on the Tampa-based U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, and on its clandestine component, the Joint Special Operations Command. Rumsfeld has designated SOCOM's leader, Army Gen. Bryan Brown, as the military commander in chief in the war on terrorism. Known as "special mission units," Brown's elite forces are not acknowledged publicly. They include two squadrons of an Army unit popularly known as Delta Force, another Army squadron -- formerly code-named Gray Fox -- that specializes in close-in electronic surveillance, an Air Force human intelligence unit and the Navy unit popularly known as SEAL Team Six. Lt. Gen. William Boykin, deputy undersecretary for intelligence, acknowledged that Rumsfeld intends to direct some missions previously undertaken by the CIA. He added that it is wrong to make "an assumption that what the secretary is trying to say is, 'Get the CIA out of this business, and we'll take it.' I don't interpret it that way at all."
CIA spokeswoman Anya Guilsher said the agency would grant no interviews for this article. Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas O'Connell, who oversees special operations policy, said Rumsfeld has discarded the "hidebound way of thinking" and "risk-averse mentalities" of previous Pentagon officials under every president since Gerald Ford. "Many of the restrictions imposed on the Defense Department were imposed by tradition, by legislation and by interpretations of various leaders and legal advisers," O'Connell said in a written reply to follow-up questions. "... In my view, many of the authorities inherent to (the Defense Department) ... were winnowed away over the years."