Bush’s SpecialForces areoperating incountries which areU.S. allies, andwon’t play nice withthe CIA.
Are U.S. Military Spy Teams Out Of Control?By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 30th, 2007U.S. Special Forces teams on foreign espionage missions have carried out operations in countries which are staunch U.S. allies and have often clashed with the CIA, prompting a new effort by the agency and the Pentagon to reign in the military units, senior U.S. intelligence and military officials recently told the L.A. Times.The missions are part of a highly classified program which officials claim has made it easier for the U.S. to uncover terrorist networks and capture or kill enemy operatives in regions such as the Horn of Africa, where weak governments cannot respond to emerging threats. However, the effort has not led to the capture of even one significant terrorism suspect.But the missions have led to several embarrassing incidents for the United States, including a shootout in Paraguay and the exposure of a sensitive intelligence operation in East Africa, according to current and former officials familiar with the subject.Some intelligence officials also complain that Special Forces teams have sometimes launched missions without informing the CIA, duplicating or even jeopardizing their operations. They further question deploying military teams in friendly nations–including those in Europe–at a time when combat units are desperately needed in war zones.Like most questionable military programs these days, this one was approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Many however expect his successor, Robert Gates, to give it closer scrutiny; Gates has been critical of the military delving into intelligence operations.Senior officials at both the Pentagon and the CIA defended the program to the L.A. Times, saying they would ask Gates to support it. But they also acknowledged the concern of Gates and others about America‘s growing reliance on military units for espionage.”We are at war out there and frankly we need all the help that we can get,” Marine Maj. Gen. Michael E. Ennis, who since February has worked as one of the senior CIA officials in charge of coordinating human intelligence operations with the military, told the Times.”But at the same time we have to be very careful that we don’t disrupt established relationships with other governments, with their liaison services, or [do] anything that would embarrass the United States.”Ennis admitted the military units have created “really egregious mistakes,” but added that collaboration has now improved between the CIA and the military.”What we are seeing now, primarily, are coordination problems,” Ennis said in a Times interview. “And really, they are fewer and fewer.”Such problems underscore the sensitivity of using elite combat forces for spy missions which normally have been performed by the CIA.After Sept. 11th, 2001, the Bush Administration gave expanded authority to the Special Operations Command, that oversees the Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other elite units, in the “war on terror.” At the same time, Rumsfeld, who seemed to hold a pathological bent against any agency he couldn’t control, directed a major expansion of the military’s involvement in intelligence gathering to make the Pentagon less dependent on the CIA.Officials told the Times that this led to the secret deployment of Special Forces teams, known as Military Liaison Elements, or MLEs, to American embassies as intelligence operatives.Members of the teams undergo special training in espionage at Ft. Bragg and other facilities, officials familiar with the program told the L.A. Times. The troops typically work in civilian clothes and mirror the activities of CIA case officers, cultivating sources in other governments or Islamic organizations.One objective, say officials, is to collect information that could be used to plan such secret operations as the capture or killing of terrorism suspects. But critics point to a series of MLE incidents in recent years which has caused diplomatic embarrassment for the United States.In 2004, members of an MLE team working in Paraguay shot and killed an armed assailant who tried to rob them outside a bar, former intelligence officials familiar with the incident told the Times. U.S. officials removed those team members from the country, the officials added.In another incident, members of a team operating in East Africa were arrested by the local government after their activities were discovered.”It was a compromised surveillance activity,” a former senior CIA official familiar with the incident admitted to the Times. The former official did not name the country or provide other details.The official said it was an isolated example of an exposed operation, but that coordination problems have been frequent.
