Globe [NYT]: Rogue elements in the CIA the reason for Military's Secret Ops
Mort Zuckerman
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Subject: Globe: Rogue elements in the CIA the reason for Military's
Secret Ops
Date: Jun 1, 2010 6:39 AM
Given the fake case for war thanks to
the CIA-Israelis, no one would blame the
Military for not trusting CIA "intelligence."
The same is true with the CDC and
"health."
Without this initiative, we'll get some
Korean or Syrian "Uranium Letters" and
"mobile chemical weapons factories" that
turn out to be septic tank pumper trucks
in Iran, or worse (fake Anthrax or
dirty bombs in the USA).
Exactly how many Gulfs of Tonkin, Magical,
Reversible-direction-flying bullets, Accidental
Releases, or buildings that collapse at the
acceleration due to gravity do we need to
conclude that the "Intelligence," isn't?
KMDickson
http://www.actionlyme.org
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http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/05/31/secret_order_gives_military_too_much_leeway_on_covert_ops?mode=PF
GLOBE EDITORIAL
Secret order gives military too much leeway on covert ops
May 31, 2010
A SECRET directive authorizing clandestine actions by US armed forces
in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia reflects a can-
do attitude in the upper echelons of the US military, but it sets a
dangerous precedent.
As The New York Times reported Tuesday, the classified order, signed
in September by General David Petraeus, allows the military to conduct
a wide range of covert operations on foreign soil without having to
receive a presidential order for each one. Not only will generals of
the US Central Command be deciding when and how to strike anti-
American terrorist groups; they will also have blanket authority to
run the kinds of operations traditionally assigned to the CIA —
operations that, when they occurred, had to be authorized by the
president himself.
The order suggests that the military has prevailed in an institutional
competition with the CIA. But the Obama administration would be better
served by promoting closer cooperation between the military and the
CIA than by letting the Army take on espionage functions previously
handled by CIA agents.
The harm done by this broad expansion of the Army’s mission is almost
certain to outweigh any tactical benefits. The classified order
reportedly creates a standing authority for US Special Operations
forces to gather intelligence in friendly as well as unfriendly
countries, to take covert action against terrorist or insurgent
groups, and, as in the case of Iran, to prepare the ground for
possible US combat operations. Such a sweeping grant of authority to
military commanders could have unintended — and dire — consequences.
The order increases the likelihood that American military personnel
taken captive abroad will be treated as spies rather than prisoners of
war and deprived of Geneva Convention protections. Meanwhile, American
civilians traveling or working in foreign countries — tourists,
business people, journalists, scholars, members of human rights
organizations — will be suspected, more than ever, of conducting
espionage.
Petraeus’s order represents the culmination of a long struggle by the
Pentagon to wrest responsibilities and money away from the CIA. But
there are sound reasons to restrict the intelligence-gathering and
covert actions of the military to the battlefield, and leave the
nation’s main intelligence agency in charge of covert operations in
other areas. Whatever the failings of the CIA, its actions are
subjected to presidential approvals and congressional scrutiny.
In effect, the Obama administration has significantly expanded the
number of people with the ability to order covert operations, and
transferred some authority over covert operations from the highest
civilian officials to military commanders at a somewhat lower level.
Giving carte blanche to the military for actions in foreign lands
distorts a basic strength of American democracy: civilian control of
the military. President Obama should keep that authority where it
belongs, with himself.
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