The Proactive and Preemptive Operations Group (aka PPOG or P2OG), is reported to be a clandestine military intelligence agency established in 2002. Although the actual status of the project is not entirely clear, P20G is said to have been created to thwart potential terrorist attacks on the United States, according to a classified document, Special Operations and Joint Forces in Countering Terrorism. The project would be overseen by the White House's deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, John A. Gordon, and would carry out missions coordinated by the secretary of defense or the CIA director.
In 2002, it was estimated that PGO2 would require a team of hundred people with experience in covert activities, intelligence gathering, computer network attacks and other highly specialized skills, and at least $100 million annually to sustain operations. The covert counter-intelligence agents would be responsible for secret missions targeting terrorist leaders in order to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, thereby provoking violent acts, which would in turn make them susceptible to counterattack by US forces.In 2002, the US Defense Science Board (DSB) prepared a 78 page briefing Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism. Excerpts from that study, dated August 16, 2002, recommends the creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), to bring together Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover, and deception. For example, the Pentagon and CIA would work together to increase human intelligence (HUMINT) forward/operational presence and to deploy new clandestine technical capabilities.
The report, produced by a 10-member panel of military experts under the auspices of the DSB, advocates a greatly expanded and more assertive role for covert military actions, intelligence collection and operations to "stimulate reactions" among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction. The DSB chairman, William Schneider, Jr., rejected concerns that the proposal would usurp the CIA's covert operations role, erode congressional oversight, or change long-standing policies such as prohibition of assassinations. Expansion of existing covert units and the addition of new covert units in all of the Services as well as the new expenditure of billions of dollars was called for in the report. The panel recommended bringing together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, psychological warfare, intelligence, cover and deception.
On September 26, 2002, United Press International (UPI) announced it had exclusively obtained documents summarizing the report of the DSB, which were to be publicly released in late October, 2002, after presentation to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The report is entitled Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism. [2] The August 16, 2002, presentation, last found with pages dated June 6, 2003, currently exists in Power Point format.
One way to invigorate US intelligence would be to "Develop an entirely new capability to proactively, preemptively evoke responses from adversary/terrorist groups," according to the DSB. Such an approach would "improve [intelligence] information collection by stimulating reactions" from the target [3], i.e., provoke terrorists into action.[4]
P2OG, as described in an internal briefing drafted to guide other Pentagon agencies, would carry out 'secret operations' aimed at 'stimulating reactions' among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction, i.e., prodding terrorist cells into action and exposing themselves to 'quick-response' attacks by U.S. forces.' The brief declares the US will hold 'states/sub-state actors accountable', thereby warning states harboring terrorists that their sovereignty will be at risk.[5]
P2OG would expand existing military covert capabilities for the preparation, training and execution of anti-terrorist operations with the NSC doing the planning. The Army's highly compartmentalized Intelligence Support Activity, established in 1981 and now known as Gray Fox, anti-terror and intelligence collection capabilities would be included. P2OG would oversee missions involving special forces, psychological warfare experts and other covert operations. One aim would be to "improve information collection by stimulating reactions" among intelligence targets. The intent of the new organizations would be to hold "states/sub-state actors accountable" and "signal to harboring states that their sovereignty will be at risk" according to the panel's briefing paper.
'Secret army'
The covert side of the US military's special operations force resides in a sub-command, known as the Joint Special Operations Command. Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, it reportedly has command of the Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, aka Delta Force, a secretive counterterrorism unit. William M. Arkin, a private military and intelligence expert who has written about the Pentagon's efforts to expand covert capabilities, says Rumsfeld is building up "an elite secret army" and that this emphasis on covert action reflects the Pentagon's frustrations with the performance of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. "Insulated from outside pressures, armed with matchless weapons and technology, trained to operate below the shadow line, the Pentagon's black world of classified operations holds out the hope of swift, decisive action" in the war on terror, Arkin has written in The Los Angeles Times.
This approach fits with Rumsfeld's emphasis on pre-empting future terrorist attacks, in the wake of September 11, 2001, rather than relying on the military's traditional approach of organizing forces to defend against or to deter attacks. In fact, the word "pre-emptive" is in the name given a proposed new counter-terrorism organization. The "Proactive Preemptive Operations Group" would be composed of about 100 people with experience in covert activities, intelligence gathering, computer network attacks and other highly specialized skills.
Growth industry
Along with similar clandestine and black ops initiatives, P2OG has been cited as an example of government programs that have led to the proliferation of spy agencies and the rapid growth of defense contractors in the US and abroad. Michael G. Vickers, a former Special Forces soldier and one-time CIA officer, said the evolving nature of the war on terrorism makes it likely that covert military operators will be called on more often in the future. Having successfully chased al Qaeda from Afghanistan, the US and its coalition partners may need more unconventional forces to chase down individual fugitives elsewhere. "This is basically a growth industry," said Vickers, now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Rumsfeld is considering adding billions of dollars to the $5 billion budget of the Special Operations Command, the Tampa, Florida based headquarters that has responsibility for all of the military's special operations forces -- the Army's Rangers and Green Berets, the Navy's Seals and the Air Force's special operations commandos. The defense secretary also has asked Special Operations Command to take the lead in some anti-terrorism operations, a clear change from the usual arrangement of having a regional command, such as the Middle East-oriented U.S. Central Command, take the lead.
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