No Surprise: Washington Post Outs DoD Spy Operation

Using the logic that  we are engaged in endless war, the DoD has set up its own spy operation in an effort to become less dependent on the CIA.  An interesting move in light of the recent over haul of the nation’s spy apparatus which apparently did not include the DoD because the Senate and House did not know about its existence. 

“ WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon, edging into foreign spy operations traditionally handled by the CIA, is now using its own intelligence support group to work directly with U.S. special forces troops in world trouble spots, defense officials said on Monday.

…One veteran private analyst told Reuters the Pentagon unit, which has been operating for nearly two years in Iraq and Afghanistan, made sense and apparently did not violate U.S. law.

"This is just a common sense way of getting more tactical intelligence value out of military deployments," said Loren Thompson of the private Lexington Institute.

"I don't see where they are breaking any rules. Rumsfeld's initiative is understandable, given the cautious and unreliable performance of the Central Intelligence Agency in similar operations," Thompson said.

Defense officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that the support unit in question -- including linguists, interrogators and case officers -- was for "tactical analysis" and had been operating with elite military units for nearly two years in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Washington Post, citing Pentagon documents and interviews with participants, reported on Sunday that Rumsfeld had created the Strategic Support Branch to end "near total dependence" on the CIA for human intelligence.

WHITE HOUSE DENIAL

"There is no unit that is directly reportable to the secretary of defense for clandestine operations as described in the Post article," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Monday.

He said the 9/11 Commission report on the attacks on America had stressed the need to expand and enhance human intelligence and that Rumsfeld and the Pentagon had moved to do so.”