Another While-You-Were-Sleeping moment in American history

Congress has given the Pentagon important new authority to fight terrorism by authorizing Special Operations forces for the first time to spend money to pay informants and recruit foreign paramilitary fighters.

The new authority, which would also let Special Operations forces purchase equipment or other items from the foreigners, is spelled out in a single paragraph of an 800-page defense authorization bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in October. It was requested by the Pentagon and the commander of Special Operations forces as part of a broader effort to make the military less reliant on the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Congressional and Defense Department officials.
  NY Times article

Great. Less reliance on the CIA - probably not a bad idea. But we're going to hire mercenary paramilitary? Out-of-work death squads from South America and Africa, I suppose. Sounds like a leg in the Salvadoran Option.

Not only that, but it seems as though Congress is turning over even more authority to the executive. Selling our Constitution down the drain at every turn. Although this paragraph is confusing.

The new law authorizes the secretary of defense to spend as much as $25 million a year through 2007 "to provide support to foreign forces, irregular forces, groups or individuals" who help Special Operations missions to combat terrorism. It also specifies that Congress is not providing authorization for the Pentagon to conduct covert action, which has traditionally been undertaken by the C.I.A. and requires explicit presidential authority.

Actually, it's all a bit confusing.

"The fact that D.O.D. has fixed a gap in its capability is a good thing," [a CIA] official said. "But the C.I.A. exists to do exactly this. Just because another agency has a new authority doesn't mean we stop doing what we're doing. In fact, the president has asked us to increase our capability by 50 percent."

Another intelligence official said that additional authority provided to the Pentagon could prove beneficial as long as operations were properly coordinated by the C.I.A. station chiefs in the countries involved.

Like that's going to happen.

Under provisions added to the bill by Senate negotiators during the House-Senate conference, the secretary of defense is required to notify Congressional defense committees about those procedures before using the new authority, and to notify the committees in writing within 48 hours any time the authority is used.

Like that's going to happen.

And what about that Strategic Support Branch that Rumsfeld is using so the DoD isn't even required to report to Congress? Maybe some more, clearer information will come out on this.