Congress Is Skeptical On The Value Of The Pentagon's Newest Spy Agency

Congress Skeptical Of New Pentagon Spy Agency -- L.A. Times

Congress seeks to withhold some funds from the new Defense Clandestine Service unless it can show it collects useful intelligence.

WASHINGTON — Congress is giving only halfhearted support to a Pentagon effort to broaden military espionage operations beyond war zones.

The Pentagon created the Defense Clandestine Service in April 2012 to recruit sources and steal secrets around the globe, just as the CIA does. The new service relies on several hundred operatives from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's main source of human intelligence and analysis.

But senior defense officials failed to convince key members of Congress, especially those on committees that oversee Pentagon and intelligence operations, that the CIA's National Clandestine Service and the 15 other U.S. intelligence agencies aren't meeting military needs.

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My Comment: This skepticism from Congress is justified .... after-all .... with 16 agencies operating within the U.S. intelligence community .... and all of them coordinated by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence .... one has to wonder if this is all just building a bureaucratic empire, or having a valuable intelligence agency that can collect useful intelligence.