New US Agency to Spy on Iran, China
The US "New York Times" daily revealed late Monday that "the Pentagon is revamping its spy operations to focus on high-priority targets like Iran and China."
According to the newspaper, the US move "reflects a shift away from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan that have dominated America's security landscape for the past decade."
Under the plan approved last week by War Secretary Leon Panetta, "US case officers from the new "Defense" Clandestine Service would work more closely with counterparts from the Central Intelligence Agency at a time when the military and spy agency are increasingly focused on similar threats."
"It will thicken our coverage across the board," said a senior War Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss with a small group of reporters on Monday what he called a "realignment of the military's human espionage efforts."
Case officers from the "Defense" Intelligence Agency already secretly gather intelligence on a range of global issues typically working out of CIA stations in American embassies and undercover like their CIA counterparts.
The report further mentioned that " a classified study completed last year by the director of national intelligence found that the ...DIA needed to focus more attention outside the battlefields on what is called "national intelligence" - gathering and distributing information on global issues and sharing that intelligence with other agencies."
The senior US official said the new intelligence service aimed to ensure that "officers are in the right locations to pursue those requirements."
However, he declined to give specific examples of where such shifts might occur. The Obama administration has also begun to focus on security issues in Asia, including rising powers like China.
"The new intelligence service is expected to grow from several hundred to several more hundred" in the coming years by shifting people's assignments," the official revealed.
He also denied that it would seek additional personnel, authorities or money, and would strive for "closer integration" with the C.I.A. and other American intelligence agencies.
The plan, which was worked out by Michael G. Vickers, the top Pentagon intelligence policy official, and his CIA. counterpart and presented to Congressional committees last week, comes a week after a top Army officer with experience in special operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and close ties to the intelligence agencies, was nominated to be the next DIA director.
Source: New York Times, Edited by moqawama.org
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