By comparison, covert activities can be characterized as the strategic concealment of the United States' sponsorship of activities that aim to effect change in the political, economic, military, or diplomatic behavior of an overseas target. Because clandestine activities necessarily involve sensitive sources and methods of military operations or intelligence collection, their compromise through unauthorized disclosure can risk the lives of the personnel involved and gravely damage U.
Examples of clandestine activities include intelligence recruitment of, or collection by, a foreign intelligence asset, and military sensitive site exploitation SSE of, or surveillance of, a facility in a denied or hostile area. SSE is one of many military operations that can be conducted clandestinely, without the acknowledgement—at least initially—of U. These examples of clandestine activities can be further categorized as traditional military activities or routine or other-than-routine support for traditional military activities, operational preparation of the environment OPE , and sensitive military operations , all of which are discussed in more detail below.
Clandestine activities can also include defensive or offensive operations in cyberspace, in which both the activity and U. Though neither term is itself defined in statute, Congress's intent regarding traditional military activities and routine support to traditional military activities is relevant to understanding the range of military activities for which the notification requirements are less stringent than those for covert action.
These terms, which were first cited as exceptions to covert action in P. In a joint explanatory statement attached to the conference report for P. It is the intent of the conferees that 'traditional military activities' include activities by military personnel under the direction and control of a United States military commander whether or not the U. In this regard, the conferees intend to draw a line between activities that are and are not under the direction and control of the military commander.
Activities that are not under the direction and control of a military commander should not be considered as "traditional military activities. Examples include caching communications equipment or weapons, the lease or purchase from unwitting sources of residential or commercial property to support an aspect of an operation, or obtaining currency or documentation for possible operational uses, if the operation as a whole is to be publicly acknowledged….
Only the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has definitively categorized other-than-routine support to military operations as a type of covert action that includes a range of activities in which the U. Traditional diplomatic activities would be excluded by other parts of this section.
In other words, the Committee believes that when support to a possible military contingency operation involves other than unilateral efforts by U. Congress's discussion of other-than-routine support is limited to general discussion of covert action and routine support in the conference reports accompanying the Intelligence Authorization Act for P. It is not defined in statute and is not a term in DOD's lexicon. From DOD's perspective, these kinds of operations fall within a category of traditional military activities termed operational preparation of the environment, or OPE.
This distinction underscores the inherent tension between Title 10 and Title 50 authorities, insofar as the standards and processes for congressional notification of covert action—to include other-than-routine support— differ from those for traditional military activities, including OPE [See CRS Report R, Covert Action and Clandestine Activities of the Intelligence Community: Selected Notification Requirements in Brief , by Michael E.
Operational Preparation of the Environment is a DOD term for a category of traditional military activities conducted in anticipation of, in preparation for, and to facilitate, follow-on military operations. It is a term DOD frequently uses, though its definition does not exist in statute. The DOD defines operational preparation of the environment as the "conduct of activities in likely or potential areas of operations to prepare and shape the operational environment," with operational environment defined as a "composite of the conditions, circumstances, and influences that affect the employment of capabilities and bear on the decisions of the commander.
Joint Publication , Special Operations , a doctrine issuance of the Joint Staff, describes preparation of the environment as an "umbrella term for operations and activities conducted by selectively trained special operations forces to develop an environment for potential future special operations," with "close-target reconnaissance … reception, staging, onward movement, and integration Congress has expressed concern that the military overuses OPE to describe a range of military activities that can include, among other things, clandestine military intelligence collection that is neither subject to oversight by the congressional intelligence committees nor jurisdiction of the congressional defense committees.
The Committee observes, though, that overuse of this term has made the distinction all but meaningless. The determination as to whether an operation will be categorized as an intelligence activity is made on a case-by-case basis; there are no clear guidelines or principles for making consistent determinations.
The Director of National Intelligence himself has acknowledged that there is no bright line between traditional intelligence missions carried out by the military and the operations of the CIA. Clandestine military intelligence-gathering operations, even those legitimately recognized as OPE, carry the same diplomatic and national security risks as traditional intelligence-gathering activities.
While the purpose of many such operations is to gather intelligence, DOD has shown a propensity to apply the OPE label where the slightest nexus of a theoretical, distant military operation might one day exist. Consequently, these activities often escape the scrutiny of the intelligence committees, and the congressional defense committees cannot be expected to exercise oversight outside of their jurisdiction.
The continued failure to subject OPE and other activities to Committee scrutiny precludes the Committee from fully executing its statutorily mandated oversight role on behalf of the House and the American people, including by specifically authorizing intelligence and intelligence-related activities as required by Section e of the National Security Act of 50 U.
Therefore, the Committee directs [DOD] to ensure that the Committee receives proper insight and access to information regarding all intelligence and intelligence-related activities of [DOD], including those presently funded outside the MIP.
The Committee further encourages [DOD], in meeting this direction, to err on the side of inclusivity and not to withhold information based on arbitrary or overly technical distinctions such as funding source, characterization of the activities in question, or the fact that the activities in question may have a nexus to ongoing or anticipated military operations. Sensitive military operations are defined in statute as 1 lethal operations or capture operations conducted by the U.
Armed Forces outside a declared theater of active armed conflict, or conducted by a foreign partner in coordination with the U. Armed Forces that target a specific individual or individuals, or 2 operations conducted by the armed forces outside a declared theater of active armed conflict in self-defense or in defense of foreign partners, including during a cooperative operation.
Examples of these operations include a lethal CT drone operation, or a military train, advise, and assist mission where U. Sensitive military cyber operations are a subcategory of sensitive military operations.
Congress defines sensitive military cyber operations under Title 10 U. Code as operations carried out by the armed forces of the United States that are intended to cause cyber effects outside a geographic location where the Armed Forces of the United States are involved in hostilities or where hostilities have been declared by the United States. The first, offensive cyberspace operations, is not defined in statute, but by DOD, as "missions intended to project power in and through cyberspace.
The IC is a federation of 17 component organizations spread across two independent agencies and six separate departments of the federal government. DeVine, as well as P. See also Andru E. James S.
The four congressional defense committees include the Armed Services and Appropriations committees of the Senate and House. See 10 U. For a discussion of the organization and contents of the U. However the implication of the two terms are different from each other. Covert refers to something that is not openly acknowledged or displayed, whereas clandestine refers to something that is either kept secret or done secretively.
In terms of covert, the thing being referred to need not be something that is secret. It could be something that most people or at least some people already know about, however, the thing is not usually openly discussed as it is covert. Clandestine, on the other hand, refers to something that is secret and is meant to be hidden; very few people other than the ones directly involved in the act know about it.
Hence, there is this implication of extreme secrecy, which covert does not have. Additionally, things that are clandestine are usually secretive because they are not commonly morally correct. They are often in the wrong, which is why the people involved often choose to keep them secret. Whereas, covert does not have this moral implication. It must be highlighted in such situations the state or agency has no authority over the targeted country.
Hence, a lot of illegal activities are conducted. This is why the identity of the agency is protected at all costs. A clandestine operation is an operation that is carried out in such a manner that the operation remains in secrecy. Such an operation is usually conducted by a particular government or an agency for a particular purpose. This could be for military, intelligence or legal purposes. It must be highlighted that a clandestine operation aims at concealing the identity of the operation more than the agency or organization responsible.
During the Second World War , many clandestine operations were carried out by countries to gather intelligence from enemy states.
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