Does Cambone's Resignation Signal an End to the Secret Squirrels?

The resignation of Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, calls the question whether the Pentagon's secret spy units will survive Rumsfeld's departure.  Cambone was instrumental in the creation of a secret military unit which has been performing covert activities in Iran and other foreign countries, a traditional function of the CIA.  (The unit, part of the Strategic Support Branch or SSB, frequently changes its name and it has never been in an open source, so for the sake of discussion, I've dubbed it the Secret Squirrels.)

If General Boykin tenders his resignation soon, then it's open season on the Secret Squirrels.  If he goes, we can expect the unit to be downgraded and showed to a dark corner of Ft. Bragg or dissolved as Gates begins to make the Pentagon and CIA play together again.

Sy Hersh recently reported that the secret unit was playing a key role in the Administration's activities in Iran to undermine the government through covert support of certain ethnic groups.  Its dissolution or downgrading would signal a change of course with Iran--and this might be just what saves the Squirrels.  At the very least, Cambone's resignation is going to make Gate's job at the helm much easier.

Some background on the Secret Squirrels from a non-fiction afterword to my forthcoming novel, OUTSOURCED about the turf wars between the CIA and Pentagon and the privatization of national security:  

As part of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s desire to stop “near total dependence on the CIA,” he created a new espionage organization, planting military boots firmly in CIA turf.   Title 10 of the United States Code has traditionally been interpreted in such a way as to limit the collection of human intelligence in foreign countries to times of hostilities or when the threat of hostilities is imminent, but Pentagon lawyers have recently found a creative work-around for these restrictions by defining the War on Terror as global and ongoing.   This cleared the way for military spies, GI Joe’s 21st Century replacement:  Bond.  Master Sergeant Bond.

The new Pentagon spy agency, the Strategic Support Branch is staffed with linguists, case officers, signals intelligence specialists, interrogators and, most strikingly, Special Forces operators, reportedly drawn from the military’s most elite special units—Delta Force, former Gray Fox, and DEVGRU/SEAL Team 6.   The unit frequently changes its name and it fields spies throughout the world to gather human intelligence and to recruit foreign assets, functions that are the mainstay of CIA clandestine operations.  It is active in both friendly and unfriendly countries, operating outside of Congressional oversight, largely due to the diversion of funds approved for other programs and its claims that its activities do not strictly meet its own definition of covert actions.  However, the new CIA Director General Hayden has noted the problem of overlapping missions between the CIA and the SSB.  According to The New York Times, “General Hayden said it had become more difficult to distinguish between traditional secret intelligence missions carried out by the military and those by the C.I.A. "There's a blurring of functions here.”

We'll see if the new SecDef is able to sort them out or if pressure for increased involvement in Iran ties his hands.

Comments

[Mad Dogs]

"Does Cambone's Resignation Signal an End to the Secret Squirrels?"

Twould bet that DoD does a TIA on the Squirrels. The left hand will pass it to the right hand and no one will be the wiser.

Even if Gates as SecDef disenfranchises the Squirrels as a "Unit", I'd think that there are DoD operators with sufficient weight to keep the mission as well as its resources tucked away somewhere nice and quiet.

Funding such, is as you know, never, ever an issue. Money grows on trees at DoD. *g*

[R J Hillhouse]

I think you're dead on. But I'm betting that Boykin goes.

[Retired]

I also suspect it will go on behind Gate's back, that is until that inevitable day when an undisclosed, uncoordinated and undeclared Secret Squirrel operation in a friendly foreign country is embarrasingly compormised. Then Gates, who we must remember is a product of the bureacracy rather than just a guest leader on top of it, will come down like a giant lawnmower. Considering the way SSB runs its ops, I suspect that this day won't be too far in the distant future.

[Mad Dogs]

Thanks for the response!

Just as an aside, Ambassador Joe Wilson will be over at www.firedoglake.com Monday afternoon from 2pm ET/11am PT to chat with the commenters about Iraq.

Last week Joe suggested that American forces may have to fight their way out of Iraq.

Should be a great session!