WASHINGTON, Nov 23: US President George Bush has ordered an internal review into whether the Defense Department should run covert paramilitary operations traditionally mounted by the CIA, administration officials said on Tuesday.
The presidential directive, signed by Mr Bush last week, asks the CIA and the Departments of State, Defense and Justice to report back to him in 90 days on "whether or not the paramilitary operations, currently under the control of the CIA, should be transferred to the Department of Defense," a senior administration official said.
The recommendation was first made by the commission that investigated the Sept 11, 2001, attacks as part of a package of reforms to overhaul and streamline the intelligence community.
Top officials at the CIA and the Pentagon have been cool to the idea of giving the military's Special Operations forces such a large role in paramilitary operations. The CIA's paramilitary units are authorized to carry out the most sensitive covert operations, like the one launched in Afghanistan soon after the Sept. 11 attacks.
COMPLEX ISSUE: Personnel in U.S. military Special Operations forces, such as Delta Force and Navy SEALs, are elite and highly trained troops who perform special missions, in many cases covert and behind enemy lines.
"Since this is a complex issue, we want to study it closely with the intelligence community to better understand it," said a Pentagon spokesman. "We don't have any preordained or preferred solutions in mind. We are undertaking the study with open minds.
"We have been working formally and informally with the CIA already on this issue. We have a great deal of common ground and agreement with them," the spokesman added.
Officials said the interagency review, first reported by The New York Times, would look at whether paramilitary authorities should be transferred in their entirety to the Defense Department.
It could also advocate a more collaborative role between Special Operations forces and the paramilitary units of the intelligence agency. They already work together in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.
The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission have been critical of the CIA's covert paramilitary actions, which before Sept. 11 had used local agents with little success to attack al Qaeda.
The commission said the joint CIA-military covert operations in Afghanistan after Sept. 11 were successful but still recommended shifting lead responsibility for all paramilitary operations to the better-equipped Pentagon.
In the Iraq war, Special Operations troops again figured prominently, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been a big backer of the military's special forces. -Reuters
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