spying
...derstandable, given the cautious and unreliable performance of the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) in similar operations," Thompson said. Defense officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that the support unit in question -- including linguists, interrogators and case officers -- was for "tactical analysis" and had been operating with elite military units for nearly two years in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Washington Post, citing Pentagon documents and interviews with participants, reported on Sunday that Rumsfeld had created the Strategic Support Branch to end "near total dependence" on the CIA for human intelligence. WHITE HOUSE DENIAL "There is no unit that is directly reportable to the secretary of defense for clandestine operations as described in the Post article," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Monday. He said the 9/11 Commission report on the attacks on America had stressed the need to expand and enhance human intelligence and that Rumsfeld and the Pentagon had moved to do so. In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA has been criticized for not having enough intelligence agents on the ground and for lack of sharing of intelligence information. "Generally speaking, the president is aware of the Department of Defense (news - web sites)'s efforts to expand and enhance human intelligence capabilities," McClellan added. "We support efforts by the Department of Defense to collect intelligence to enhance battlefield capabilities." The Post, citing an early planning document, said the group's focus was also on Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, the Philippines and Georgia. Defense Department spokesman Lawrence DiRita said in a statement responding to the Post article that the war on terrorism necessitated "a framework by which military forces and traditional human intelligence work more closely together and in greater numbers than they have in the past." "It is accurate, and should not be surprising, th...