Pentagon Pushes For Greater Spy Powers

Picture this spy: A Syrian soldier, wearing mufti, dressed in a suit, fluent in Syrian and Iraqi Arabic. He’s in a rattletrap taxi in Syria going to meet an agent who says he can offer rebels the Syrian government’s order of battle. The spy, from Army intelligence, has spent 18 months cultivating this connection. The source is a senior official in the telecommunications company owned by the Syrian president’s brother. Ravaged by two years of civil war, he wants to help his country, and his information could help the rebels break the regime’s back. The Pentagon wants to obtain the authority to facilitate cases like this one. It would substantially increase the Defense Intelligence Agency’s authority to build covers, create businesses, and to run them for long periods. “Expansion of this authority is necessary to permit the DOD to conduct revenue-generating commercial activities to protect such operations and would provide an important safeguard for U.S. military forces conducting hazardous operations abroad,” their request to Congress states.