A SECRET directive authorizing clandestine actions by US armed forces in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia reflects a can-do attitude in the upper echelons of the US military, but it sets a dangerous precedent.
As The New York Times reported Tuesday, the classified order, signed in September by General David Petraeus, allows the military to conduct a wide range of covert operations on foreign soil without having to receive a presidential order for each one. Not only will generals of the US Central Command be deciding when and how to strike anti-American terrorist groups; they will also have blanket authority to run the kinds of operations traditionally assigned to the CIA — operations that, when they occurred, had to be authorized by the president himself.
The order suggests that the military has prevailed in an institutional competition with the CIA. But the Obama administration would be better served by promoting closer cooperation between the military and the CIA than by letting the Army take on espionage functions previously handled by CIA agents.
The harm done by this broad expansion of the Army’s mission is almost certain to outweigh any tactical benefits. The classified order reportedly creates a standing authority for US Special Operations forces to gather intelligence in friendly as well as unfriendly countries, to take covert action against terrorist or insurgent groups, and, as in the case of Iran, to prepare the ground for possible US combat operations. Such a sweeping grant of authority to military commanders could have unintended — and dire — consequences.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/05/31/secret_order_gives_military_too_much_leeway_on_covert_ops/
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