Exclusive: Inside the Military's Secret Undercover Army

[Beetlegeuse]

If you're fixated on always only coloring inside the lines, you'll never win a war against a determined enemy who ignores all moral codes and precepts of international law.

Exclusive: Inside the Military's Secret Undercover Army

Inside the largest undercover force the world has ever known: the one created by the Pentagon, with tens of thousands of soldiers, civilians and contractors operating under false names, on the ground and in cyberspace.

The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called "signature reduction." The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.

The unprecedented shift has placed an ever greater number of soldiers, civilians, and contractors working under false identities, partly as a natural result in the growth of secret special forces but also as an intentional response to the challenges of traveling and operating in an increasingly transparent world. The explosion of Pentagon cyber warfare, moreover, has led to thousands of spies who carry out their day-to-day work in various made-up personas, the very type of nefarious operations the United States decries when Russian and Chinese spies do the same.

Newsweek's exclusive report on this secret world is the result of a two-year investigation involving the examination of over 600 resumes and 1,000 job postings, dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests, and scores of interviews with participants and defense decision-makers. What emerges is a window into not just a little-known sector of the American military, but also a completely unregulated practice. No one knows the program's total size, and the explosion of signature reduction has never been examined for its impact on military policies and culture. Congress has never held a hearing on the subject. And yet the military developing this gigantic clandestine force challenges U.S. laws, the Geneva Conventions, the code of military conduct and basic accountability....


The rest of the story is here. There's lots more, including James Bond/Mission Impossible gee-wiz shit.

[almostgone]

Man, don't you know they appreciated that attention.

[Beetlegeuse]

Man, don't you know they appreciated that attention.

That shows how 'Murrica has changed, doesn't it? While they were at the peak of their fame, the press was discrete enough never to report that Mickey Mantle was a drunkard or that Rock Hudson was light in the loafers. They find out that the gummint has 60,000 warriors living their lives "in the black" so they can protect us from an enemy who lurks in the shadows waiting for their chance to cut our throats and they can't wait to go to press with it.