Meet Your Newest Spy Service
Posted at 11 a.m. on Dec. 3, 2012
Marc Ambinder has a primer on the new spy agency to be run out of the Pentagon: the Defense Clandestine Service.
“There are already about 600 or so Defense Attaches attached to embassies and consulates. They collect intelligence openly. They will now work more closely with their covert-counter-parts… Of the remaining 1,000 personnel, a bunch will come from existing Department of Defense intelligence collection agencies.”
“The DCS will allow the Defense Department to focus resources on current and future problems that cross the boundary lines of individual services, like counter-proliferation. It will also allow policy-makers to devote more resources to national intelligence priorities related to defense, like Chinese efforts to modernize its Navy.”
“It has been reported that the DCS officers will be trained by the CIA and report to, CIA chiefs of station. Congress needs to figure out what this means for the military chain of command, which, in turn, is THE essential requirement for covert-like activities to be legal when conducted by the Defense Department.”
