Ramping up its spying operations overseas, Pentagon is planning to create a new spy service that will focus on high-priority
targets like Iran and China.



Focusing on Iran and China, as high priorities, reflects a shift away from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan that have dominated America’s security landscape for the past decade.


Under the plan approved last week by US Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, case officers from the new Defense Clandestine Service (DCS) would work closely with the CIA  in an effort to bolster espionage operations overseas at a time when the missions of the agency and the military increasingly converge.


New York Times quoted a senior defense department official as saying "as the new spy service will thicken our coverage across the board, it is expected to grow from several hundred to several more hundred agents in the coming years by shifting personnel and funding from existing assignments."


The new project was worked out by the top Pentagon intelligence official, the Undersecretary for Defense Intelligence Michael Vickers, and his CIA counterpart who heads the National Clandestine Service.


Source: RT