Skip to main content

What Are Special Operations and Paramilitary Operations?

The U.S. strategy in pursuing the war on international terrorism involves a variety of
missions conducted by military and civilian intelligence personnel characterized as
“special operations” or paramilitary operations. The separate roles of the Department of
Defense (DOD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are not always clearly reflected in
media accounts and at times there has been considerable operational overlap. Proposals such as
those made by the 9/11 Commission to change organizational relationships will, however, be
evaluated on the basis of separate roles and missions, operating practices, and relevant statutory
authorities.

DOD defines special operations as “operations conducted in hostile, denied, or politically
sensitive environments to achieve military, diplomatic, informational, and/or economic objectives
employing military capabilities for which there is no broad conventional force requirement.”1

DOD defines paramilitary forces as “forces or groups distinct from the regular armed forces of
any country, but resembling them in organization, equipment, training or mission.” In this report,
the term “paramilitary operations” will be used for operations conducted by the CIA whose
officers and employees are not part of the armed forces of the United States. (In practice, military
personnel may be temporarily assigned to the CIA and CIA personnel may temporarily serve
directly under a military commander.)

In general, special operations are distinguishable from regular military operations by degree of
physical and political risk, operational techniques, and mode of employment among other factors.
DOD special operations are frequently clandestine—designed in such a way as to ensure
concealment; they are not necessarily covert, that is, concealing the identity of the sponsor is not
a priority. The CIA, however, conducts covert and clandestine operations to avoid directly
implicating the U.S. Government.

Endnotes

1 Definitions are from Joint Publication 1-02, “Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms,” Apr. 12, 2001, as amended through Oct. 7, 2004.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MKULTRA Proposal - Subproject 133

Proposal entitled [redacted] Submitted on behalf of [redacted] June 1962 DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY June 14, 1962 Purpose of Study: The purpose of this proposal is a request for financial support to continue an investigation of microbial action on marine manganese nodules and terrigenous mineral sulfides, which the principal investigator has been pursuing since 1958. Very intensive work on these materials is being carried on by him, with fruitful results, during the current year, 1961-62, under a grant from the [...] of Stanford University, California. Since relatively little is known about microbial mineral transformation, and in view of current academic and practical interest of microbiologists, geologists, mining engineers, soil scientists, oceanographers, etc., in the subject, this research should make a valuable contribution to science. Summary of Past Work: a. Bacteriology of mineral sulfides. Attempts were made to evaluate the microbial flora isolable from unsterilized, crushed sulfi...

The Darker Bioweapons Future

3 November 2003 A panel of life science experts convened for the Strategic Assessments Group by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that advances in biotechnology, coupled with the difficulty in detecting nefarious biological activity, have the potential to create a much more dangerous biological warfare (BW) threat. The panel noted: The effects of some of these engineered biological agents could be worse than any disease known to man. The genomic revolution is pushing biotechnology into an explosive growth phase. Panelists asserted that the resulting wave front of knowledge will evolve rapidly and be so broad, complex, and widely available to the public that traditional intelligence means for monitoring WMD development could prove inadequate to deal with the treat from these advanced biological weapons. Detection of related activities, particularly the development of novel bioengineered pathogens, will depend increasingly on more specific human intelligence and, argued panelist...

CIA Domestic Activities Timeline - July 1971

1 July 1971 "Carver noted that Secretary Laird had requested that our printing plant assist in reproducing the forty-seven-volume secret Pentagon study on Vietnam for distribution to the press and others this morning. This request was aborted by the President." (DDCI in the chair) 2 July 1971 "DD/S said that in the absence of [...] attended a meeting at the White House yesterday of the interagency group which is reviewing classification and declassification policy. The President spent an hour with the group and said that he wants: ... and (6) the revocation of all clearances and the return of all classified material held at Harvard, Brookings, Rand, and Cal Tech, as well as the withdrawal of Q clearances held by the Regents of the University of California. A brief discussion followed, and the Executive Director noted that DOD has asked us to provide information on all our contracts with Rand, as well as all clearances held by Rand personnel for our purposes. Acting Direc...