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January 25, 2005
The Pentagon's Intelligence Branch
Marvin has an important post over on his blog in which he discusses the Pentagon's creation of a new intelligence arm, called the Strategic Support Branch. It's purpose is to rid the Pentagon's reliance on the CIA for "humint", or human intelligence. The Washington Post provides details:
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, 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. A recent Pentagon memo states that recruited agents may include "notorious figures" whose links to the U.S. government would be embarrassing if disclosed.
Perhaps the most significant shift is the Defense Department'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 combating terrorist threats.
Predictably, some Democrats are in a huff, Diane Feinstein in particular rushing to the cameras to express her "puzzlement" at the revalation of the secret unit. Democrat Rep Ellen Tausher "urged hearings."
However, as this Fox News story shows it appears that Congress was informed;
Pentagon officials told reporters, however, that the arrangement had been worked out in close coordination with the CIA and that appropriate congressional committees had been fully informed.A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said CIA director Porter Goss told him Monday that he had "no issue or questions or concerns" about the Pentagon arrangement.
Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Duncan Hunter, charman of the House Armed Services Committee, both expressed support of the Pentagon initiative.
Posted by Tom at January 25, 2005 1:56 PM
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