DOD should clarify role in covert actions

WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- The man nominated to be the next Pentagon spy chief says the U.S. military needs to clarify its role in clandestine operations.

Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. James Clapper told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that "clarify(ing) roles and responsibilities in clandestine activities" was a major challenge for the whole U.S. intelligence community, as America's sprawling and sometimes squabbling collection of 16 spy agencies is called.

He also pledged "to conduct an in-progress review of (human intelligence, or spying) activities, both within the department, to include the involvement of Special Operations, and externally with the CIA and the National Clandestine Service."

In written testimony prepared for the hearing Clapper said, "For me, the crucial distinction lies in whether an activity is 'passive' ... or 'active' (which is the case with covert action)."

Covert actions, defined by law, are designed "to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly."

By contrast, he said, "clandestine activities -- a term that is not statutorily defined -- are those activities conducted in secret, but which are, in an intelligence context, passive in nature."

He said military actions ought to be restricted to passive operations.

"I believe that, to the maximum extent possible, there needs to be a line drawn between (clandestine and covert operations) from an oversight perspective and as well as a risk perspective," he said at the hearing.