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Several hundred case officers will make up the new Defense Clandestine Service, according to a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program.
Drawn from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the officers will be sent to beef up U.S. intelligence teams in areas that are now receiving more attention. Those include Africa, where al-Qaida is increasingly active, to parts of Asia where the North Korean missile threat and Chinese military expansion are causing increasing U.S. concern.
Defense Department case officers already secretly gather intelligence across the globe on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other issues, mostly working out of CIA stations in embassies and operating undercover like their CIA counterparts.
But an internal study by the Director of National Intelligence last year found the agency still focused more on its traditional mission of providing the military with intelligence in war zones, and less on what's called "national" intelligence — gathering and disseminating information on global issues and sharing that intelligence with other national security agencies, the official said.
The study also found that the Pentagon did not always reward clandestine service overseas with promotions, so its most experienced case officers often left for the CIA, or switched to other career paths within the Pentagon.
The new service is intended to curb personnel losses, making clandestine work part of the Pentagon's professional career track and rewarding those who prove successful at operating covertly overseas with further tours and promotions, like their CIA colleagues.
The case officers in the field — some military and some civilian — will answer directly to the top intelligence representative in their post, usually the CIA's chief of station, in addition to serving their agency back home. The arrangement is likely to curb complaints seen in earlier expansions of the Defense Department's spy mission, which the CIA and other agencies saw as the military stepping on their territory.
The changes were worked out by the top Pentagon intelligence official, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers, and his CIA counterpart who heads the National Clandestine Service, and briefed to Congress before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed off on the new program last Friday.
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In other words, CIA and Secret Service agents will be more like James Bond than in the past -- except they won't be able to frequent red light districts or engage in Mata Hari types of hanky panky. In the latter sense they will have to be more like Miles Standish than like James Bond or Matt Helm.
In addition to the above, thank you for broadening the definitions of spying/espionage to also include agencies such as Defense Clandestine Service, Pentagon Spy Shop, etc.
And thanks to the "senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity" for "letting the cat out of the bag". Complete and total TRANSPARENCY to foreign nations and our enemies while keeping the American public in the dark.
This administration ALWAYS provides information ahead of what they are planning. Wow, such a good strategy for the Community Organizer in Chief. No secrets to what this administration is doing, unless of course they don't want to disclose those "behind the scenes" escapades.
More illegal US military adventures coming soon! Stay tuned to the American Fascist Network for updates and news of the US forever war for resources and political domination.
Ido: it is no secret what the world's most expensive gov't and the USA's largest employer- the DoD- does. Get real. Bush advertized he was going to order an invasion of Iraq for nearly a year.
This is what you get when you put the former head of the CIA in as the Secretary of Defense. This move has Panetta's fingerprints all over it. This is not where the military should be focusing. Setting up a military clandestine service to operate in countries where we are not currently involved in a conflict is an unwarranted expansion of the role of the military. Intelligence gathering in a non-war situation should be left to the CIA and NSA. The only reason this is happening is because Panetta misses his old job running spies and wants to keep his fingers in that world. Maybe Obama should put Panetta back at the CIA where he belongs, and apparently prefers to be, and put someone in as SecDef who better understands the role of the military.
JS
You forgot something !!!!
The C.I.A. started life during WW11 as the O.S.S. The O.S.S. ( Office of Strategic Services ) was an Army run operation , which morphed into the C.I.A. we know today.
bob
Bob - you are correct. Now ask yourself why DoD feels the need to have their own intelligence when the push is on to downsize unnecessary redundancy. Perhaps it goes back to the fact that the military does not agree with CIA methods to obtain information...
Will these spies be equipped with GPS devices so that the media can track their every movement and report on it daily ????? Geeez ....is nothing classified anymore ?
Mind telling us some names and dates? Just wondering.
Talking about our spy strategy to the media is about as dumb as it gets, bet the Russians, Israelis, and the Chinese do that all the time....NOT!!!!
It's just propaganda dude. Some of you guys are so paranoid and emotionally attached to the State leviathon. Good grief. Wikileaks releases US semi-secrets. The US gov't's very own press offices do not. Duh.
Duh....they do it all the damn time. Someone or a congressman has an agenda, they just leak it.
I don't think the Secret Service is part of this new 'Defense Clandestine Service', its from the Pentagon which would be military or civilian employees (aka-their case workers). Doubt even the NSA is part of this new spying service to help out the CIA.
John
I would not be so quick to count the N.S.A. out of the game or loop . They are far more secretive about what they do than other groups are .
bob
Will they receive training on how to negotiate payments for prostitutes?
The US governments new objectives is to find other countries to to start wars with after they have assissinated all the leaders in the middle east at the request of Israel. I think the US might find that China's government will not fall over night as the third world countries in the middle east did. The US has to consider that the chinese have neclear weapons and a delivery system, but because of the US love of war and their ability to protect the 1% they will probably attempt the genecide off the Chinese people during this century. Democracy is great we destory other nations and never look back, because if you kill in the name of democracy it's OK. Why not send the ELITE secret service to china they can screw the country to death. The only way to continue to overburden the citizens of the US is to continue looking for war.
This is a ruse.
They will be spying on Americans - all Americans.
Prior to taking office, obama was quoted as saying that he was in favor of a " civilian national security force" ce force " to keep america " safe".
This is it.
Can you say KGB??