Pentagon spies get new service, stepped up mission

Pentagon spies get new service, stepped up mission


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is rebranding and reorganizing its clandestine spy shop, sending more of its case officers to work alongside CIA officers to gather intelligence in places like China, after a decade of focusing intensely on war zones.
Several hundred case officers will make up the new Defense Clandestine Service. Drawn from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the officers will be sent to beef up U.S. intelligence teams in areas that are now receiving more attention. Those include Africa, where al-Qaida is increasingly active, to parts of Asia where the North Korean missile threat and Chinese military expansion are causing increasing U.S. concern.
The new effort was described by a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program.
Defense Department case officers already secretly gather intelligence across the globe on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other issues, mostly working out of CIA stations in embassies and operating undercover like their CIA counterparts.

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