The Pentagon has admitted to sending its own intelligence teams with Special Operation forces to perform tasks that were usually handled by the CIA. According to the reporter, Rummy’s Strategic Support Teams are currently in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia but there are plans to deploy them to the Phillipines, the Horn of Africa, Somalia, Yemen and other countries.
The Pentagon says they’ve always had the authourity to do this. Oversight? If Congress reads something in the newspapers that concerns them they’re free to ask questions.
The NYT‘s reported on September 19, 2002 that “hundreds” of special operations forces had been moved into military bases in East Africa, “especially in Yemen.”