UNCLASSIFIED Ladies and Gentlemen: (U) Article Below Appeared on Page 14 of the 29 May

UNCLASSIFIED

Ladies and Gentlemen:

(U) Article below appeared on page 14 of the 29 May 05 issue (current issue) of Army Times.

(U) Without commenting on article or what it does or does not say, following are unclassified facts:

(U) On a US military base in the Washington area, in front of a building that formerly housed an overt Military Intelligence unit, hangs a fairly crude sign that says, "US Army Operational Activity." (COMMENT: Eyes-on verification within last 60 days.)

(U) Underneath the sign hangs a sign saying, "COL [NAME]." (COMMENT: Eyes on verification within last 60 days.)

(U) The US Army War College yearbook for a post 9/11 class shows a photo of a white male in the uniform of an airborne-qualified military intelligence lieutenant colonel with the same name as that now hanging under the USAOA sign. The yearbook further identifies this individual as a Senior Service College Fellow assigned a fellowship at CIA. (COMMENT: Eyes-on verification within last seven days.)

(U) The former overt MI building, now with a USAOA sign in front of it, is located squarely in the middle of one of the two largest troop concentrations present on the particular Washington- area military installation. In this specific case, large numbers of young trainees of all Services are present in the area and pass by the USAOA facility regularly, because it is next to the local mess hall (excuse me, "dining facility"). (COMMENT: Eyes-on verification within last 60 days)

(U) Within the last 18 months or so, an Army organization named US Army Operational Activity overtly recruited for civilian intelligence operations specialists, series GG-0132, on the Office of Personnel Management's USAJOBS site. (COMMENT: Eyes-on verification during period announcement was active.)

(U) At least one of you, if you read the article closely, may discern other tidbits of potential interest to you.

(BEGIN TEXT)

May 29, 2006

Army quietly stands up new human intel unit But small force is spread thin, source says

By Sean D. Naylor Times staff writer

As the Army revamps its military intelligence force, it has created a secretive unit to fill a perceived gap in its spying capability.

The new unit, called the Army Operational Activity, is designed to conduct human intelligence, or HumInt, at the operational level — i.e., between the tactical and strategic levels — according to Joe Parker, HumInt division chief in the office of Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence.

However, a retired intelligence professional familiar with the unit says the new organization is squandering its energies in too many directions and needs to sharpen its focus if it is to prove its worth.

AOA was founded within the past two years, Parker said, and is located in the Washington area; he declined to be more specific. The unit has fewer than 100 personnel, Parker said, and is commanded by a colonel he would not identify.

The new organization falls under the operational control of Maj. Gen. John DeFreitas III, chief of the Intelligence and Security Command, Fort Belvoir, Va. However, AOA elements deploy and then fall under the command and control of the regional combatant commander for the area they are in, like other InSCom units, Parker said.

Yet the unit is so small and so new that it would not be the Army’s first choice if a combatant commander requested a unit to conduct operational-level HumInt, Parker said.

“As yet, we don’t consider it to be a prime force provider for anything of that nature,” he said.

Parker, however, said AOA elements have performed real-world missions. He could not provide examples of those missions.

A retired intelligence professional said that to his knowledge, the unit’s “successes” have been in the form of producing reports on information gathered in overt or “semi-covert” fashion, such as attending trade shows. Although the unit is being set up to conduct traditional HumInt activities such as recruiting and running agents, he did not think AOA had conducted such missions yet.

Parker said the unit is organized according to “geographic orientation” as well as along “functional” lines.

In AOA’s case, the retired intelligence professional said, “functional” refers to different areas of technical expertise. The unit also includes a small analytical element, he added.

He said he believes the unit is trying to do too much too soon. “They’re trying to go after a whole range of different kinds of collection, and with the few people they have, that just squanders their assets.”

The unit’s priorities are the global war on terrorism, science and technology, force protection, and even Army transformation.

“They haven’t been able to well-define what their focus is, as yet,” he said.

Focusing on one area, particularly where there is a gap in U.S. intel operations, would help AOA’s cause, said the intel professional.

With fewer than a hundred people, AOA is “not very robust,” Parker acknowledged.

But the unit has plans to expand over the next several years to a force numbering in the low thousands, according to the retired intelligence professional.

AOA’s charter is to fill the capabilities gap that exists between the Army’s tactical human intelligence collection teams and, at the strategic level, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s defense HumInt organization. The initiative to launch AOA resulted in part from defense HumInt’s “lack of results,” according to the retired intel professional.

A Defense Intelligence official, who did not want to be named, said that, “As the increasing demands of the Global War on Terrorism are placed on our military, we adapt to meet these needs, requirements and resources from the strategic to the tactical level.” (END TEXT)

UNCLASSIFIED