| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
24 Jan 2005 03:58:47 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Pentagon spy network revealed |
Pentagon spy network revealed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1396996,00.html
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Monday January 24, 2005
The Guardian
A previously unknown intelligence programme set up two years ago by the
Pentagon has been operating in states deemed to be "emerging target
countries", the Washington Post reported yesterday.
Providing further evidence of the centralisation of power around Donald
Rumsfeld, the Strategic Support Branch was created to give the defence
secretary the "full spectrum of humint [human intelligence]
operations," according to Pentagon documents quoted by the paper.
Dan Glaister
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/85893f2a8201210a
Pentagon
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/6ebbf9c64c1320b8
Rumsfeld
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/f486bfb02813ded1
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Pentagon spy network revealed |
25 Jan 2005 09:20:04 PM |
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On 24 Jan 2005 01:58:47 -0800, "maff" <maff91@yahoo.com> wrote:
Pentagon spy network revealed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1396996,00.html
Pentagon spy network revealed
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Monday January 24, 2005
The Guardian
A previously unknown intelligence programme set up two years ago by
the Pentagon has been operating in states deemed to be "emerging
target countries", the Washington Post reported yesterday.
Providing further evidence of the centralisation of power around
Donald Rumsfeld, the Strategic Support Branch was created to give the
defence secretary the "full spectrum of humint [human intelligence]
operations," according to Pentagon documents quoted by the paper.
The programme reportedly conducts operations in friendly and
unfriendly states where conventional war might not even be a distant
prospect. It deploys intelligence officers, including linguists,
technical specialists and interrogators, alongside secret special
forces in countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, the Philippines
and Georgia, the Washington Post said.
The deployment of the unit further muddies the issue of accountability
for covert and clandestine intelligence operations in the "war on
terror". The programme was established by diverting existing Pentagon
funds, thus freeing it from any congressional oversight.
Recent administration guidelines suggest that the Pentagon need not
report all "deployment orders" to Congress, as it did previously.
Pentagon lawyers argue that by defining the "war on terror" as
indefinite, global and ongoing, the defence secretary's war powers are
extended beyond times of imminent combat.
"Operations the CIA runs have one set of restrictions and oversight,
and the military has another," a Republican member of Congress with a
role in the oversight of national security told the paper.
"It sounds like there's an angle here of, 'Let's get around having any
oversight by having the military do something that normally the [CIA]
does, and not tell anybody.' That immediately raises all kinds of red
flags for me. Why aren't they telling us?"
There has been a long turf war between the CIA and the Pentagon to
determine control over intelligence operations.
Mr Rumsfeld and the Pentagon are known to see the CIA as having a
slow-moving and timid culture. The White House shares their concerns,
and has launched far-reaching reforms of the agency. The White House
and the Pentagon also succeeded in watering down proposals in the
recently passed intelligence bill which would have invested power in
the new national intelligence director at the expense of the Pentagon.
The Strategic Support Branch was set up in April 2002 under the
codename Project Icon. It is a branch of the Pentagon's Defence Human
Intelligence Service and is intended to complement the Special
Operations Command, based in Tampa.
The revelations follow allegations last week that US special forces
have been active inside Iran, identifying and helping prepare targets
for possible US strikes against the country's nuclear facilities.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
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