CIA paramilitary teams

[kato13]

Copied from rpghost.

boogiedowndonovan 09-19-2008, 01:36 PM Does anyone have any info on CIA covert operations paramilitary teams? Specifically, do they have a formal TOE or are teams formed on an ad hoc basis depending on the area of operations and skills needed?


or is this info classified?


I've posted before about US/Western Europeans forming a Flying Tigers type air group in China before the hostilities in Europe commence.


So I am also thinking that the CIA might send some of their covert ops people over before NATO got involved.


-bdd

ps. if the CIA, NSA or anyone is monitoring this, I'm only asking if there is a formal TOE.

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[Raellus]

I seem to remember Chalkline having posted over on RPGHost a few months back about a recently declassified CIA operation to seed European countries with stay-behind operatives and caches in anticipation of a Soviet invasion.

The groups were designed to be highly autonomous to prevent one cell from ever compromising another.

I'm fuzzy on the details but I think some of the groups took it upon themselves to become active in Western Europe during the Cold War, assassinating left-wing radicals and engaging in other dirty tricks. This admission caused some embarrassment to the CIA.

Anyway, if anyone knows how to find and recover really old threads from RGHost, the original thread could still be out there somewhere. I'm thinking that it was up some time in the last year and a half or so.

[Fusilier]

Operation Gladio

No real official organization or TOE, and not surprising with the CIA involvement, a black mark on NATO's history.

[kato13]

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Targan 09-19-2008, 09:25 PM Does anyone have any info on CIA covert operations paramilitary teams? Specifically, do they have a formal TOE or are teams formed on an ad hoc basis depending on the area of operations and skills needed?

Short answer - ad hoc organisation and equipment, no official TOE.


I have two sources of info covering CIA paramilitary forces during the 1990s. One is a Word document whose source I have forgotten but it is a list of US Federal Agencies, and the standard equipment and organisation for their direct action components. I think it was written for Delta Green. The information it contains on CIA PMs and related assets is as follows:


The elite assets of the ad hoc-assembled SOG teams can be provided with virtually any firearm commonly available. The one available photo shows them being armed with 5.56×45mm Colt M4A1 assault carbines (CAR-15A3 Model 927) and 40×46mmSR Colt M203A1 underbarrel grenade launchers.


The standard CIA weapons used to be the 9×19mm FN-Browning HP-35 pistol and 18.5×70mmR Winchester Model 1200 Defender pump-action shotgun, but these have certainly been replaced by more recent designs. The CIA's own Cessna U-27A (Model 208B Caravan I) Utility/Special Missions Aircraft can be used to deliver seven men by parachute.


Seaspray was a clandestine US Army special operations unit. Its existence within the Department of Defense was held secret insofar as it testifies to the close links between the US Army and the CIA.


Established on March 2, 1981, Seaspray was charged with the clandestine transport of elements of special operations units in the course of their operations. The management of the unit was entrusted to a joint CIA/US Army command. Seaspray may have been established in response to President Carter's 1978 Executive Order 12036, which generally prohibited the use of the United States Armed Forces in "special activities."


On one hand, the CIA became the only branch to run clandestine operations abroad, but lacked the resources to do so; on the other hand, the Army had the equipment but not the authority to carry out clandestine operations. A joint unit was created to bring these assets together. Seaspray operated many air assets, including various Cessna and Beechcraft light fixed-wing airplanes, and modified FLIR-equipped Hughes 500MD rotary-wing aircraft equipped to transport up to nine operators.


Seaspray operated under the cover of a private airline company associated with the CIA, Aviation Tech Services. The unit, which was later renamed First Rotary Wing Test Activity, had its principal base at Fort Eustis, Virginia. A detachment was based at the international airport of Tampa, Florida, for operations in Central America. Among these, the best known is probably Operation Queens Hunter, concerned with weapons traffic between Nicaragua and Honduras. The unit was given a new codename, Quasar Talent, at the beginning of the 1990s. The current status of this operation is unclear.


The other source of information I have is the book US Special Forces - A Guide to America's Special Operations Units, written by Samuel A Southworth and Stephen Tanner and published by Da Capo in 2002. It has a whole chapter on CIA PM forces but probably 60% is about the history of such forces and notable missions undertaken from the OSS during WWII to the Vietnam War and the various shenannigans that went on under Reagan during the 80s. Another 20% or so describes the eclectic assortment of training CIA PMs receive and descriptions of facilities like "The Farm". The only info of direct relevence to this thread basically confirms that CIA PM forces have no TOE or standardised organisation.


The book says that during the 1990s the CIA's Directorate of Operations was renamed the Special Activities Division and it is under the control of that division that the above mentioned Military Special Projects Special Operations Groups and Seaspray would fall. It also says that it is estimated there were around 150 CIA PM operators active during the 1990s and the majority were (and probably still are) ex-US military Spec Ops personnel of various persuasions (US Army SF, USN SEALs, Delta, USMC Recon, ISA etc).

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[kato13]

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marvin 09-20-2008, 07:13 AM The organization within the CIA that handles this sort of thing is known as the Special Services Office. It was called the Special Activities Division during the Cold War an up until a few years ago. If you google CIA Special Activities Division there are a few good hits including of course a Wiki Article.


GURPS Special Ops and Covert Ops both have information that would be useful in creating a SAD campaign. Within Steve Jackson Games in house online magazine, Pyramid, there is an article entitled, Special Ops: Designer Notes. It has template, in GURPS terms, for a CIA SAD operative. the article mentions that it is difficult to truly define a "typical" SAD operative but its a start.


Good luck.

Benjamin

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[kato13]

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DSumner 09-22-2008, 03:12 AM Try this Link (http://www.specialoperations.com/Domestic/CIA/default.html) It's a little old, but it should give you a rough idea of what you're looking for.

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[kato13]

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Neal5x5 09-23-2008, 08:53 AM Don't forget that many of the extra-territorial forces employed by the CIA and other agencies are private military contractors, particularly in Columbia and Iraq.

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[Targan]

Some good info at these sites too:
http://www.americanspecialops.com/cia-special-operations/
http://www.americanspecialops.com/cia-special-operations/air-branch/
http://www.spyflight.co.uk/CIA.htm