"Expansion of this authority is necessary to permit DOD to conduct revenue-generating commercial activities to protect such operations and would provide an important safeguard for U.S. military forces conducting hazardous operations abroad," the request for legislation says. It was first reported by my colleagues at Inside Defense.
On top of DIA's inexperience in running such ops, there is the basic question of why they need to do this and how they would coordinate with their colleagues at CIA, questions certainly not answered by the legislative proposal.
Since CIA already runs such operations, why does DIA suddenly feel the need to start doing this? The proposal argues that combatting terrorists and "other developments, have required the regular conduct of small-scale clandestine military operations to prepare the battlefield for military operations against terrorists and their sponsors."
