I Know, Let's Violate International Law Some More!

Elite Troops Get Expanded Role On Intelligence

The military is placing small teams of Special Operations troops in a growing number of American embassies to gather intelligence on terrorists in unstable parts of the world and to prepare for potential missions to disrupt, capture or kill them.

Last time I checked, members of the military assigned to embassy duty were restricted by international law to gurading the security of the embassy and embassy personnel, attache duties, and coordination of military affairs with alligned nations. The role of intelligence by military members was not allowed.

Senior Pentagon officials and military officers say the effort is part of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's two-year drive to give the military a more active intelligence role in the campaign against terrorism. But it has drawn opposition from traditional intelligence agencies like the C.I.A., where some officials have viewed it as a provocative expansion into what has been their turf.

There is a reason that the CIA and other intelligence agencies are used for collecting information at embassy and consulate locations: they are trained for geo-political intelligence. Military intelligence operatives are not trained for geo-political data gathering. Their knowledge and training is directly related to strategic and logistic military analyses. This is not only a violation of international law and diplomatic principle, but an asinine wast of time and resources by way of unnecessary redundancy.

Officials said small groups of Special Operations personnel, sometimes just one or two at a time, have been sent to more than a dozen embassies in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. These are regions where terrorists are thought to be operating, planning attacks, raising money or seeking safe haven.

Inappropriate, illegal, unethical, misguided, improper and useless...

Their assignment is to gather information to assist in planning counterterrorism missions, and to help local militaries conduct counterterrorism missions of their own, officials said.

We have military advisors that can coordinate with the military commands of other nations and allies. We could also forward law enforcement specialists in the areas of counterterrorism rather than military spies... and we would not be breaking any international laws in the priocess.

The new mission could become a major responsibility for the military's fast-growing Special Operations Command, which was authorized by President Bush in March 2004 to take the lead in military operations against terrorists. Its new task could give the command considerable clout in organizing the nation's overall intelligence efforts.

The Special Operations command reports to Mr. Rumsfeld, and falls outside the orbit controlled by John D. Negroponte, the newly established director of national intelligence, who oversees all the nation's intelligence agencies. An episode that took place early in the effort underscored the danger and sensitivity of the work, even for soldiers trained for secret combat missions.

This is nothing less than another grab for power outside of the purview of a chain of command. It is a circumvention of the checks and balances placed on those personnel within Negroponte's chain of command and outside of a lot of congressional oversight.