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Rumsfeld, CIA chief cool to plan for paramilitaries

By wire services
Published February 17, 2005

WASHINGTON - A recommendation by the Sept. 11 commission to transfer the CIA's paramilitary capabilities to the Pentagon received an unfavorable review by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA director Porter Goss.

In its final report, the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks said the United States couldn't afford separate agencies conducting such operations and "should concentrate responsibility and necessary legal authorities in one entity."

Goss told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that the CIA's and military's paramilitary capabilities should stay where they are.

"The secretary (Rumsfeld) feels he has capabilities that are important and I agree," Goss said in response to a question from Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "I feel I have capabilities that are important and he agrees. There's not a lot of disagreement on this. We just didn't come out in the same place the 9/11 commission did."

President Bush had asked the Pentagon and CIA in November to study the issue and submit their findings within three months.

Rumsfeld said he had not yet reviewed the study. Previously he has said he does not think the Defense Department should conduct the kinds of covert paramilitary operations the CIA has specialized in.

Paramilitary operations, which are used to arm rebel organizations, destabilize governments, destroy targets or collect intelligence, are conducted by armed units that do not belong to conventional military formations.

Such operations, such as the use of CIA officers and American special forces to help topple Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban rulers in 2001, are often more physically demanding and require more specialized techniques than regular military operations.

U.S. special operations forces often mount paramilitary operations, but they are mostly clandestine missions in which concealing the American government's involvement is not a priority.

Covert paramilitary operations, by contrast, are those in which the U.S. government wants to be able to deny involvement. Covert missions at times violate international law or the laws of war, and American special operations forces are expected to follow those laws. As a result, such missions largely have been the work of the CIA.

Moreover, U.S. special operations forces wouldn't wear uniforms or carry military identification on covert operations. If captured, they could be denied international protections as prisoners of war because they could not prove they are soldiers.

The president must grant authority to conduct such missions, and selected members of Congress must be kept informed.

The 9/11 commission's final report last summer said the CIA lacked "a robust capability to conduct paramilitary operations with U.S. personnel" before the Sept. 11 attacks. The agency had "relied on proxies instead, organized by CIA operatives without the requisite military training," the commission said. "The results were unsatisfactory."

It said primary responsibility "for directing and executing paramilitary operations, whether clandestine or covert, should shift to the Defense Department."

But the CIA and the Pentagon determined that the CIA is best suited to conducting paramilitary operations that require a few operatives who can move quickly and secretly.

CIA paramilitary operations are run by the agency's Special Activities Division, which has a small permanent staff that can quickly contract with former CIA officers, retired American military personnel or foreigners on a operation-by-operation basis.

The study said U.S. special operations forces are best suited to large operations requiring considerable logistical support.

--Information from the Associated Press and Knight Ridder newspapers was used in this report.

[Last modified February 17, 2005, 01:22:08]