Word: isa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ISA became involved in an unauthorized plan for a 1981 raid into Laos to find Americans thought to be missing in action since the Viet Nam War. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was so incensed that he ordered the Army's secret intelligence unit disbanded, but it survived to collect information on terrorists in Lebanon, among other activities...
...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...
From the beginning, friction arose between King's ISA and Longhofer's operations units. In 1981 they cooperated with the CIA on a mission to slip Christian Leader Bashir Gemayel back into Lebanon after a secret visit to the U.S., foiling a suspected Syrian plot to kill him. Gemayel made it (though he was assassinated one year later). But while the Seaspray-ISA team was in Egypt coordinating the mission with the Israelis, a special operations officer spotted an ISA man taping their discussions, on King's orders. "Young man," the officer reportedly thundered, "this is a CIA mission. Either...
...following year, ISA and Seaspray worked together on a mission, code- named Queens Hunter, to locate leftist guerrilla forces in El Salvador by monitoring their radio transmissions. Seaspray pilots flew planes from Honduras to track the transmitters electronically; ISA agents rode along to operate the airborne radio equipment. Although the operation was planned to last only a month, it picked up so much useful information on where the guerrillas were hiding that it was extended for three years...
...Seaspray operatives and ISA agents, however, proved uneasy partners. They worked together out of a house in a small Honduran town, bickering over who was to be in charge. The feuding led to a formal ISA complaint about loose Seaspray security. Seaspray agents had set up a small military satellite dish outside the Honduran house, hiding it with only a plastic garbage bag. An operations security team, Yellow Fruit, flew a large commercial satellite dish to Honduras so that the Queens Hunter team could more convincingly play the part of rich Yanqui tourists...