Secret Wars
Posted onI have abstained from talking too much about politics recently because it just gets me too angry. However, this little nugget was one I felt was worth sharing:
The Pentagon has secretly been operating a clandestine espionage branch for the past two years after reinterpreting U.S. law to place more power directly in the hands of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Yes, you read that correctly. TWO YEARS! That is a loooong time to keep something hidden from Congress, the CIA, hell, everybody. According to an explosive new article in yesterday’s Washington Post, the group, called the Strategic Support Branch, is “designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary’s direct control” in collecting human intelligence (or HUMINT, in intelligence-speak). Not only does the group operate outside the public view, Rumsfeld has also hidden it from Congress and is not coordinating with the CIA. Already, it has been operating in places like Iraq and Afghanistan – as well as in unnamed “friendly countries” with which the United States is not at war. The group has been working with the elite U.S. Special Forces, such as Delta Force, as well as recruited outside agents, including “notorious figures” whose “links to the U.S. government would be embarrassing if disclosed.” The Defense Department has also engaged in legal tricks, redefining the rules to support its claims that the intelligence group is subject to less stringent oversight than similar operations within the CIA.
Thanks go to the Center for American Progress’s Daily Progress Report