Intelligence: Rumsfeld's Dirty Little
Secret

The Pentagon Hides Spy Unit from Congress

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. 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.
Here's a look inside the Strategic Support Branch:

PLAYING GAMES WITH THE
LAW: Defense Department lawyers are hard at work redefining the rules to
give Secretary Rumsfeld more expansive powers and to get around any legal
constraints. Take Title
10 of the U.S. code, for example. While the Pentagon is legally required to
tell Congress about all “deployment orders,” Undersecretary for Intelligence
Stephen A. Cambone this month issued new guidelines that state the group is
allowed to “conduct clandestine HUMINT operations…before publication” of a
deployment order, making the subsequent order meaningless. Title
50 got a friendly freshen-up as well: current law says Congress does not
have to be informed about “traditional” military activities and their “routine”
support, so the Pentagon's general counsel simply expanded the definition of
“traditional” and “routine.”

RE-READING HERSH:
The Post article fits with the article written last week by Seymour
Hersh, which detailed the Pentagon's secret plans to go to war in Iran.
Hersh wrote, “[Bush] has signed a series of findings and executive
orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces
units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets
in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia… [Bush]'s
decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books—free from legal
restrictions imposed on the C.I.A.”

WHO IS WALDROUP? The
secret intelligence group is headed up by Col. George Waldroup, a man with
little intelligence experience. Waldroup, who likes to refer to himself in the
third person as “GW,” is not a graduate of the Army's Special Warfare Center nor
the CIA's Field Tradecraft Course for intelligence officers. He spent much of
his professional life as a “midlevel manager” at the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. He was embroiled
in scandal in the mid-'90s for deceiving a congressional delegation about
staffing problems at Miami International Airport. “Waldroup, then assistant
district director for external affairs, helped orchestrate a temporary doubling
of immigration screeners on the day of the visit, instructed subordinates not to
discuss staff shortages and physically confronted a union leader to prevent him
from reaching members of Congress.” During the investigation, he then “refused
to disclose the password to his e-mail files, refused to sign an affidavit
summarizing his testimony and, in a subsequent interview, 'stated that he would
not answer any questions' because 'he wished to protect himself from exposure to
criminal sanctions.'”

A DANGEROUSLY
INEXPERIENCED TEAM: The Strategic Support Branch operatives are sent to work
directly with the military's elite Special Operations forces. One big problem:
Waldroup's team is staffed with members who lack crucial intelligence experience
and training. One military Special Forces officer who worked with the team said
one of Waldroup's men actually held his team back like an anchor “because of his
physical conditioning and his lack of knowledge of our tactics, techniques and
procedures. The guy actually put
us in danger.” Another Special Forces officer in Afghanistan said Waldroup's
men were reluctant to leave the base to do their intel: “These guys can't set up
networks and run agents and recruit tribal elders.”

SHHHH…DON'T TELL
CONGRESS: The Strategic Support Branch operated well below congressional
radar. The group was set up using funds siphoned off of other Pentagon projects
“without
explicit congressional authority or appropriation.” The Post reported two
“longtime members” of the House Intelligence Committee were unaware of any
details surrounding the group. And on CBS's Face The Nation, Sen. John McCain, a
member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called
yesterday for hearings to examine the group.