Rumsfeld creates rival agency to CIA - report

A leading US Republican senator says his Senate committee will look into a reported move by the Pentagon to reinterpret US law…

A leading US Republican senator says his Senate committee will look into a reported move by the Pentagon to reinterpret US law to give the defense secretary broad authority over spy operations abroad.

Responding to the report in yesterday's Washington Post, Mr John McCain told CBS's Face the Nationprogramme he would raise the question at hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The newspaper, citing Pentagon documents and interviews with participants, reported that Mr Donald Rumsfeld had created a unit called the Strategic Support Branch to end "near total dependence" on the CIA for human intelligence.

The unit, which has been operating for two years, deploys teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists with special operations forces. The department argued the defence intelligence missions were subject to fewer legal constraints, the newspaper added.

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But a Defense Department spokesman said there was "no unit that is directly reportable to the secretary of Defence for clandestine operations as is described in the Washington Postarticle.

"Further, the department is not attempting to bend statutes to fit desired activities, as is suggested in this article," he added in a statement.

Mr McCain said the move was "a product of the frustration with the CIA of a failure to have decent human intelligence.

"Should the Armed Services Committee look at it? Yes. And should we know more about it? Yes. And I'm always sorry to read about things in the Washington Postwhen they affect a committee that I'm a member of," Mr McCain said.