CIA Special Operations
CIA Special Operations — Poliquicks
Too many news media correspondents and political pundits are saying that the CIA paramilitary activities should be transferred to the military. They know not what they speak.
The Special Activities Division (SAD) of the CIA National Clandestine Service (NCS) is responsible for covert operations around the world. Within SAD there are two separate groups, one for tactical paramilitary operations and another for covert political action.
Special Operations Group (SOG) is the department within SAD responsible for operations which include the collection of information/intelligence in hostile countries, and all high threat military or intelligence operations with which foreign governments do not want the U.S. to be overtly associated. They normally do not carry any objects or clothing that would associate them with the United States government.
SAD provides the President with an option when overt military and/or diplomatic actions are not viable or politically advisable. SAD/SOG has far fewer members than most of the other special missions units, such as the U.S. Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta or Navy Special Warfare Development Group which include SEALs.
Another part of the CIA is the Global Response Staff (GRS) which is an organization that has recruited former U.S. Special Forces members to serve as armed guards for the agency.
The GRS will stay in the shadows as training teams to work undercover and provide an unobtrusive layer of security for CIA officers in high-risk outposts.
The increasingly conspicuous role of the GRS since Benghazi is part of a broader expansion of the CIA’s paramilitary capabilities.
The agency collaborated in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and has eliminated a number of Islamist militants fighting the U.S. and our allies with its fleet of armed drones.
These men and women are very valuable in our campaigns against our enemies.