New Spy Agency: Pentagon Announces 'Defense Clandestine Service' Focusing On Iran, China

Pentagon Announces New Spy Agency

The Pentagon is creating a new spy service that will focus on targets such as Iran and China, The New York Times reports.

A senior Defense Department official who briefed several reporters on condition of anonymity told NYT that the new 'Defense Clandestine Service' will realign the Pentagon's intelligence gathering and needs to "thicken our coverage across the board." Instead of focusing on focusing on Afghanistan and Iraq -- as the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency currently does -- the service would focus its attention on global threats, The Guardian explains.

A recent classified study by the director of national intelligence had shown that the Defense Intelligence Agency needed to spend more attention to working outside of battlefield regions, The Times notes.

According to the Washington Post, the new Defense Clandestine Service is expected to grow from "several hundred to several more hundred" agents. This “does not involve new manpower . . . does not involve new authorities,” an official told The Post.

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