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Pentagon Wants More Battlefield Intelligence
The U.S. Defense Department plans to station more intelligence officers in the field in order to deal with threats such as terrorism and weapons proliferation, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, March 22). “The idea is to bring together in one place, for a combatant commander especially, the collectors, the analysts and bring them in contact with his operating forces,” a senior Defense Department official said yesterday. The plan, which is in the final approval stages, would increase the number of defense intelligence personnel, officials said (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, March 24). The bulk of the new activity is centered in the Defense Intelligence Agency, the military’s primary intelligence-gathering service, under a program called the Strategic Support Branch, the Los Angeles Times reported today. Under the program, teams of interrogators, analysts and other operatives are assembled and deployed with special forces units, according to the Times. The teams have expertise in regional languages and culture, a Defense Intelligence Agency said. The agency is also expanding its Defense HUMINT Service, the military’s equivalent of CIA overseas intelligence collection, the Times reported. The Pentagon’s expanding role in intelligence gathering “rubs some people the wrong way,” a Defense Department official involved in the plan said yesterday. The Defense Department maintains, however, that its new activities are legally permissible and do not infringe on CIA duties, according to the Times (Mazzetti/Miller, Los Angeles Times, March 24).
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