Pentagon scales down its plans for new spy agency
Defence Clandestine Service was envisioned as rival to CIA, but its numbers will be cut in half after lawmakers question its cost and purpose
The Pentagon has scaled back its plan to assemble an overseas spy service that could have rivalled the CIA in size, backing away from a project that faced opposition from lawmakers who questioned its purpose and cost, current and former US officials said.
The previous plan called for moving as many as 1,000 undercover case officers overseas to work alongside the CIA and the US military's Joint Special Operations Command on counterterrorism missions and other targets of national security concern.
Instead, the training schedule has been cut back, and most of those involved will be given assignments that are more narrowly focused on DIA's traditional mission of gathering intelligence for the Defence Department.
The revised aim was to "stay small but be highly effective", said a former senior US intelligence official.
The Pentagon would still be placing dozens of undercover officers "in very difficult places around the world", including parts of Africa and the Middle East, where al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have significant footholds, the former official said. But their espionage efforts would "focus on defence needs".
The shift represents a retreat by Pentagon officials who had sought to transform a spy service seen as second string to the CIA, repositioning it for an era of more dispersed threats after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The overhaul was spearheaded by Undersecretary of Defence for Intelligence Michael Vickers, a former CIA operative who has pushed to model the Pentagon's spy service more closely on his former agency.
Aspects of that approach remain intact, including having members of the Defence Clandestine Service take part in the same instruction as their CIA counterparts at the agency's training compound, known as The Farm, near Williamsburg, Virginia.
Those who emerge from that training are expected to work in closer coordination with CIA station chiefs who have broad authority over US espionage operations overseas.
But the initial scale of the plan has been drawn down after it became clear it could not secure enough support from Congress.
"We did re-evaluate the DCS programme after initial discussions with Congress," said Amy Derrick-Frost, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon.
A senior US intelligence official said the new numbers reflected a different approach to the way officers in the Defence Clandestine Service were counted. He said initial projections included everyone who was considered part of the clandestine service, no matter where they were stationed. Now, he said, only those who were deployed overseas and gathering intelligence were part of the 500, meaning those who were in assignments at headquarters or still undergoing training would not be counted.
"We don't count people sitting at desks or people undergoing training," the official said, suggesting the reduction was not as severe as it might sound.
Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and others raised concern that DIA officers would be used largely to fill in gaps in areas regarded as low priorities by the CIA, effectively doing aspects of that agency's job at the Pentagon's expense.
