Defence Secretary sidesteps CIA to gather details on enemies

Donald Rumsfeld

WASHINGTON - The United States Defence Department has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting US law to give Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wide authority over spy operations abroad, says the Washington Post.

Citing Pentagon documents and interviews with participants, the newspaper said Rumsfeld created the Strategic Support Branch two years ago to end "near total dependence" on the Central Intelligence Agency for information-gathering.

A Defence Department spokesman was not available to comment.

The Strategic Support Branch deploys teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists with special operations forces, says the Post.

The SSB is said to have operated in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other undisclosed locations. An early planning document showed its focus was on Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, Philippines and Georgia.

Quoting a Defence Department memo, the newspaper said the Pentagon might recruit foreign spies that included "notorious figures" whose links to the US Government would be embarrassing if disclosed.

The Post said the Defence Department's espionage activities included missions in both friendly and unfriendly states when conventional war might be distant or unlikely. Those activities traditionally fell to the CIA's Directorate of Operations.

The SSB was established with "reprogrammed" funds and without explicit authority from the US Congress, the newspaper reported, quoting unnamed Pentagon officials.

Rumsfeld's efforts were aimed at giving combat forces more information about their immediate enemy and to penetrate organisations such as al Qaeda, the Post said.

It said the Defence Secretary was also seeking greater independence as intelligence departments and agencies were placed under a newly created position of national intelligence director, an office approved by Congress last year.

Assistant Defence Secretary Thomas O'Connell, who oversees special operations policy, was quoted as saying Rumsfeld had discarded the "hidebound way of thinking" and "risk-averse mentalities" of previous Pentagon officials.

- REUTERS