Pentagon looks to build a deep-cover spy program to confront China
The covert effort would send U.S. operatives abroad as businesspeople while the Pentagon expands economic intelligence against China and other rivals, sources said.
- The Pentagon is planning a deep-cover spying program using nonofficial cover officers to conduct economic warfare against China, according to people familiar with the initiative. Tom Rakusan, a 39-year CIA veteran and adviser to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, is overseeing the planning.
- A covid-era report revealed that roughly 75 percent of all deep-cover CIA officers face retirement by the mid-2020s. This attrition-driven gap in traditional agency capacity reportedly prompted the Pentagon to develop its own clandestine capabilities.
- Feinberg formed the Economic Defense Unit this year to counter adversaries through economic means, including a $750 million investment in a Brazil rare earth deposit. The EDU is separate from the new spy initiative.
- Pentagon deputy press secretary Jacob Bliss stated the reported initiative is "built on information that is simply not true." The Defense Department categorically dismissed claims that such a deep-cover program is currently underway.
- In a post-9/11 case in Africa, Joint Special Operations Command-affiliated NOCs were compromised after encountering civilians. This historical incident illustrates the extreme dangers inherent in deep-cover work when operatives inadvertently encounter non-intelligence personnel.
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Pentagon Builds Spy Program for Economic Warfare
“The Pentagon is looking to build a more robust deep-cover spying program to conduct economic warfare against China and other U.S. competitors,” the Washington Post reports. “This new next-generation spying program — in which U.S. operatives would go undercover as businesspeople or other private-sector personnel, without any overt U.S. government affiliation — is intended to […]
The Pentagon is planning an intelligence program to wage economic warfare against China and other U.S. competitors
The Pentagon is planning an intelligence program to wage economic warfare against China and other U.S. competitors. This was reported by The Washington Post, citing sources.The US military denied the publication of the publication. "Whoever is...
On Wednesday (October 21), The Washington Post, citing six sources familiar with the matter, reported that the Pentagon was planning to establish a more powerful secret intelligence program to support its economic war against China. The Department of Defense questioned the report and denied the plan.
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Bias Distribution
- 34% of the sources lean Left, 33% of the sources are Center, 33% of the sources lean Right
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