On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon would send hundreds of additional spies overseas.
This is all part of transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, so that it is as complex and strong as the CIA.
I was interested in this because I had actually never heard of the DIA, so I wanted to learn more about it. The DIA is apparently being revamped in a major overhaul, and as part of this, an espionage spy network of “unprecedented size” will be created. The DIA’s longtime role has been to identify target spots for troops.
What’s also interesting is that this seems like it should be kept in secrecy. However, the Post has now made this information widely available on the web, and if it gets in the wrong hands, this information could potentially lead to some serious concerns. Obviously, if the targets were revealed, this could be catastrophic. But also, the information that the Post published is according to “U.S. officials” and does not really say where the Post got this information. But if this information is, indeed, accurate, then forces in the Middle East could very well amp up their weapons and forces against the United States to prepare for the additional spies being sent.
The DIA seems to be much less of a focus in the public eye as the CIA is. And so far, it seems that the Post is the only news source to offer the information. A visit to the DIA’s official website did not have any of this information, nor did it contain any press releases on this information.
http://www.dia.mil/public-affairs/releases/
Earlier this April, UPI reported on a new spy service, called the Defense Clandestine Service, that expanded the U.S. military’s espionage efforts to targets like China and Iran.
The justification of the expansion of spies is a result of President Barack Obama’s desire for espionage and covert action instead of conventional force. The Pentagon’s spy agency does not have the authority to “conduct covert operations that go beyond intelligence gathering,” according to the Post’s article.
The purpose of this was to bolster the DIA. The article also provided some background information on the DIA, describing its main focus as “collecting tactical and operational intelligence used day to day by battlefield troops.”
The so-called “resurgence” of the DIA has not come without its criticism. A July article from www.federalnewsradio.com discussed how the DIA’s new leader, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, had previously criticized wartime intelligence.
Flynn said that he was committed to building the Defense Clandestine Service, as mentioned previously. In 2012, Flynn authored a paper entitled “Fixing Intel,” where he criticized intelligence in Afghanistan, calling them “irrelevant to the counterinsurgency campaign.”
It remains to be seen how effective Flynn’s new leadership has been, as he’s been in the new position for mere months.
An article released earlier this week by Government Executive discussed also how the current digital information age would bring new challenges to intelligence, as there is just so much data.
http://www.govexec.com/defense/2012/11/intelligence-community-must-adapt-era-vast-data-study-says/59886/
Some of these problems, according to the article, “range from mountains of data to accelerated pace of change to competing information flow from nongovernmental sources to fears of violating privacy and civil liberties.” These are all included in a paper entitled “Expectations of Intelligence in the Information Age” released Thursday.
Flynn, during a banquet in Arlington, spoke and said that “the challenge for the community is to sustain its relevance beyond the stolen secret in the era of global access to diverse and rich sources of data and information.”
Undoubtedly, it will be interesting to see how Flynn will handle these new challenges.
-Will Mendelson
