This government of Mr.Bush's gets a little more interesting each day.


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7402480

Pentagon Operating Secret Spy Branch - Report
Sun Jan 23, 2005 03:45 PM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican lawmaker said on Sunday his U.S.
Senate committee would look into a reported move by the Pentagon to
reinterpret U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld broad
authority over spy operations abroad.
Responding to the report in The Washington Post on Sunday, Senate Armed
Services Committee member John McCain, an Arizona Republican, told
CBS's "Face the Nation" program he would raise the question at hearings
before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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

The unit, which has been operating for two years, deploys teams of case
officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists with
special operations forces, The Post said. The department contended the
defense intelligence missions were subject to fewer legal constraints,
the newspaper added.

Defense Department spokesman Lawrence DiRita, however, said there was
"no unit that is directly reportable to the secretary of Defense for
clandestine operations as is described in The Washington Post article."


"Further, the department is not attempting to 'bend' statutes to fit
desired activities, as is suggested in this article," he added in a
statement.

McCain said the move was "a product of the frustration with the CIA of
a failure to have decent human intelligence."

"Should the Armed Services Committee look at it? Yes. And should we
know more about it? Yes. And I'm always sorry to read about things in
The Washington Post when they affect a committee that I'm a member of."


The Pentagon statement said the war on terrorism necessitated "a
framework by which military forces and traditional human intelligence
work more closely together and in greater numbers than they have in the
past."

"These actions are being taken within existing statutory authorities to
support traditional military operations and any assertion to the
contrary is wrong," DiRita said.

A CIA spokesman said the agency had no immediate comment.

The unit has operated in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other
undisclosed locations, the newspaper reported. The group's focus,
according to an early planning document, was on Somalia, Yemen,
Indonesia, Philippines and Georgia, The Post said.

The Strategic Support Branch was established with "reprogrammed" funds
and without explicit authority from the U.S. Congress, the newspaper
reported, quoting unnamed Pentagon officials.