RUMSFELD'S POWER GRAB CONFIRMED

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By Allen L Roland (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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[T]he Pentagon, expanding into the CIA's historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad. . . . The new unit . . . the Strategic Support Branch . . . has been operating in secret for two years -- in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places. . . [T]he creation of the espionage branch, the scope of its clandestine operations and the breadth of Rumsfeld's asserted legal authority have not been detailed publicly before." Gellman reported that the unit had been created "without explicit congressional authority or appropriation."

Gellman reported: "Under Title 10, for example, the Defense Department must report to Congress all 'deployment orders,' or formal instructions from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to position U.S. forces for combat.

But guidelines issued this month by Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone state that special operations forces may 'conduct clandestine HUMINT operations . . . before publication' of a deployment order, rendering notification unnecessary.

Pentagon lawyers also define the 'war on terror' as ongoing, indefinite and global in scope. That analysis effectively discards the limitation of the defense secretary's war powers to times and places of imminent combat."

Plans to make the Pentagon effectively independent of civilian authority date from early on in the first Bush administration. They were formally described as "Project Icon" on April 25, 2002. Stephen Cambone's role in designing these changes is well-known.

What all this means is that the Department of Defense is developing an operational capacity that is independent of all civilian oversight, both in the area of special operations and in the area of intelligence.

On Jun. 2, 2005, Steven Aftergood (http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2894/) called attention to a number of bizarre documents issued by Cambone, one of Donald Rumsfeld's neoconservative protégés, which purported to codify the Pentagon's expansion into the arena of counterintelligence.

Cambone is a key player in this subversion of traditional principles of American government.

In December 2003, Seymour Hersh ("Moving Targets," [http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/031215fa_fact] *New Yorker*, Dec. 15, 2003) called Cambone "[t]he rising star in Rumsfeld's Pentagon."

Gen. Hayden's appointment to the CIA has provoked so much concern in Congress because the final remnants of oversight of the military-industrial complex are being lost by the democratic institutions of U.S. society.

In February 2005, Barton Gellman reported ("Controversial Pentagon Espionage Unit Loses Its Leader," [http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2255/] *Washington Post* [Feb. 13, 2005]) that Cambone had participated in closed briefings alongside senior defense officials where "[i]n sometimes heated exchanges . . . members of both parties complained to Cambone about learning from a newspaper account that the Pentagon created a new espionage team more than two years ago, using funds 'reprogrammed' from congressional appropriations.

Members of Congress also asked about Pentagon legal theories under which defense personnel could conduct 'routine' and 'traditional' operations without notifying Congress."

At that time, Republicans purported to be reassured by Cambone's responses. But the recent flak that the administration is receiving over the nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden is a revival of these long-standing concerns.

The real issue is not military control of intelligence, but the development of the Pentagon as an independent branch of government, free of all oversight from other branches -- even the executive branch.

As Erich Schmitt's article shows, September 11 is the all-purpose legitimating principle of these fundamental changes. In fact, however, they are driven by the neoconservatives' militaristic ideology. September 11 is just an excuse.

Stephen Cambone has had little knowledge of on-the-ground military realities in his career. Like Paul D. Wolfowitz, and Douglas J. Feith, Cambone is an armchair warrior with a Ph.D. and has never served in a combat environment.

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Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website more...)

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