Word: coverte
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...Iran-contra debacle clearly showed the dangers of relying on semiprivate operators to handle such tricky covert missions. The CIA's legal authority and practical capacity to operate in the gray area between intelligence activity and paramilitary action have come under grave question. The business of conducting covert wars in an open and democratic society has never come easily to the Pentagon either. America's armed forces traditionally resemble a sheriff prepared for a shootout on Main Street at high noon but not for a back-alley brawl...
...Iran-contra affair. Though some of its clandestine activities were initially kept from legislators, to their displeasure, most were properly described to congressional oversight committees. Partly as a consequence, and somewhat paradoxically, the Army escaped the intense spotlight that the many Iran- contra investigations have cast on covert operations in general...
...Congress was not told that $20 million of that sum went to set up a supersecret intelligence unit, the ISA, under the command of Colonel Jerry , King. (The role of regular Army intelligence is to collect tactical military information, not to lay the ground for covert operations.) ISA initially was to act as a pathfinder for secret missions, but its functions quickly expanded. When General William Odom became assistant chief of staff for intelligence in late 1981, he argued persuasively that ISA was needed to fill gaps in the CIA's activities. Its personnel grew from about...
...troubles these units have experienced raise questions about whether the Pentagon ever can -- or should -- develop a covert operations and intelligence capacity to handle paramilitary missions that are beyond the scope of the civilians in the CIA. In some form there may be a legitimate need for secret, specially trained units to operate in behalf of approved U.S. foreign policy goals. Looking back on the secret operations he helped to begin, General Meyer, who retired as Army Chief of Staff in 1983, muses, "I think the lesson is that whatever kind of operation we conduct needs to have oversight...
Most important, Aspillaga said he will give U.S. officials the names of 350 Cuban agents who have penetrated foreign governments -- after sufficient time has passed for these compaeros to return safely to Cuba. Intelligence analysts expect that the list will cripple Cuba's covert intelligence-gathering capability for several years...