Clandestine Human Intelligence

January 24th, 2005 at 15:36 Björn Hallberg

Washington Post has revealed that despite recent setbacks, Rumsfeld is pushing forward with his Strategic Support Branch. The word of the day seems to be empowerment. Or rather circumventing normal channels, diplomacy, honour. And that decency that we hear so much about. While not addressed specifically in the article, this operation is part of the same ‘branch’ that visited Sweden in 2001.

The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA’s historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld’s written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence.

Military and civilian participants said in interviews that the new unit has been operating in secret for two years — in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places they declined to name. According to an early planning memorandum to Rumsfeld from Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the focus of the intelligence initiative is on "emerging target countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, Philippines and Georgia." Myers and his staff declined to be interviewed.

Now that is interesting. The official statement is that they do the work that the CIA cannot. But there is more to this than just efficiency, or indeed inefficiency which I fear is the likely outcome for Americans. Whether Rumsfeld is looking out for America’s best interests or not is no concern of mine. I just recall what numerous analysts, most notably Hannah Arendt, have drawn conclusions about secret organizations in a pre-totalitarian and totalitarian nation. Apart from being secret and multi-layered (onion skinned) they also ghost or shadow each other. I.e. do mostly the same job. As they say, the first rule of government spending is, why have one when you can have two for twice the price. And while it would be unproductive to claim that the United States is a fully developed totalitarian state, they are showing some nasty tendencies. While they may or may not facilitate the rise of a totalitarian state in the long run, they are indications that we cannot overlook. On a basic level they are incompatible with a so called free and democratic nation. You just don’t fix the plumbing by levelling the house. Nor do you treat psychological disorders by killing the patients. And you certainly do not spearhead freedom by employing ‘infamous elements’ (i.e. known criminals, opportunists, scum, adventurers) in kidnapping, torture and black ops.
Again, even if you think that all of the above is justified, there is the old Boomerang Effect that is often linked to old style imperialism. Is it viable to keep the butchers abroad and what will happen to those holding the leash when the butchers return home? It’s impossible to affect others without becoming affected yourself in some way. The real danger of course is when you don’t discriminate between the domestic and the foreign population, as will be the case in the long run.

Entry 22 filed under: North America. This entry was posted 3 years, 10 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.