DIA sending hundreds more spies overseas

[unhappycamper]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dia-to-send-hundreds-more-spies-overseas/2012/12/01/97463e4e-399b-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html




DIA sending hundreds more spies overseas
By Greg Miller, Published: December 1

The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.

The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.

When the expansion is complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 “collectors” in positions around the world, an unprecedented total for an agency whose presence abroad numbered in the triple digits in recent years.

The total includes military attachés and others who do not work undercover. But U.S. officials said the growth will be driven over a five-year period by the deployment of a new generation of clandestine operatives. They will be trained by the CIA and often work with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, but they will get their spying assignments from the Department of Defense.




unhappycamper comment: Oh goodie! Now we have competition between spy agencies.

[leveymg]

1. Wasn't it corrupted intel produced at the Pentagon OSP and DIA HUMINT that led to the Iraq War?

Wasn't the purpose of creating the CIA to serve as an independent intelligence collection agency serving the President, rather than the Generals?

What has something fundamentally changed so that the military now behaves as the chief spy agency and the CIA is a paramilitary auxilary?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Pentagon builds military network to rival the CIA

Pentagon builds military network to rival the CIA
Nikhil Kumar
New York
Sunday 02 December 2012

The Pentagon is planning a major expansion of America's international spy network, creating a new generation of undercover agents to get a better handle on critical issues such as China's growing military might and the rising influence of fundamentalist militants in Africa.

The enlarged military spy ring will rival the civilian Central Intelligence Agency in size, marking a major expansion in America's espionage network – something that reflects the Obama administration's preference for undercover operations over conventional force.

The US has conducted more than 300 drone strikes since Barack Obama took office in 2008, killing thousands in missions managed by the CIA and the military.

But with the CIA increasingly stretched, the Pentagon is planning to deploy hundreds of additional spies to work alongside civilian colleagues and elite military commando units, according to the Washington Post.

More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pentagon-builds-military-network-to-rival-the-cia-8374245.html