Goss to CIA: Get your asses into the Gap!
Thursday, November 18, 2004 at 7:40PM ■"CIA plans riskier, more aggressive espionage: Campaign would send undercover officers to get 'close-in access' to hostile groups, nations," by John Diamond, USA Today, 18 November 2004, p. 8A.
Porter Goss intends to jumpstart the CIA humint capabilities, reorienting them radically from the Core, where they tended to operate under "flimsy cover as diplomats in U.S. embassies" to effective undercover cops working the giant nasty precinct that is the Gap by infiltrating terror networks and rogue regimes. Why riskier approach? That's how you access the bad guys where the U.S. doesn't have embassiesóand that's exclusively inside the Gap (and outlier North Korea).
In short, Goss "wants to train and field more officers as 'NOCs'ómeaning they would work under 'non-official cover' to give them more options for penetrating an adversary," but of course, when they get caught, they won't be tossed out of the country as some persona non grataóthey be killed.
Seem radical? Seems about right if we're going to get serious about infiltrating the truly dark spots inside the Gap.
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