Exclusive: Inside the Military’s Secret Undercover Army

| May 17, 2021

Newsweek is running an article where they claim to provide a rare, exclusive glimpse into the US Military’s Secret Undercover Army.  Newsweek claims this report is a result of a two-year investigation.

Exclusive: Inside the Military’s Secret Undercover Army

The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called “signature reduction.” The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.

The unprecedented shift has placed an ever greater number of soldiers, civilians, and contractors working under false identities, partly as a natural result in the growth of secret special forces but also as an intentional response to the challenges of traveling and operating in an increasingly transparent world. The explosion of Pentagon cyber warfare, moreover, has led to thousands of spies who carry out their day-to-day work in various made-up personas, the very type of nefarious operations the United States decries when Russian and Chinese spies do the same.

Newsweek’s exclusive report on this secret world is the result of a two-year investigation involving the examination of over 600 resumes and 1,000 job postings, dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests, and scores of interviews with participants and defense decision-makers. What emerges is a window into not just a little-known sector of the American military, but also a completely unregulated practice. No one knows the program’s total size, and the explosion of signature reduction has never been examined for its impact on military policies and culture. Congress has never held a hearing on the subject. And yet the military developing this gigantic clandestine force challenges U.S. laws, the Geneva Conventions, the code of military conduct and basic accountability.

There’s a lot of neat clandestine stuff with a big emphasis on ‘signature reduction’ – which also includes fake hands a fake faces.

This looks similar to me before I’ve had my morning coffee and bear claw…

I find this entire concept very intriguing, but I’m guessing we will now have a whole new class of POSers.  Click on the story title above to read the entire story from Newsweek.

Category: Army, Army News, Pentagon

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11B-Mailclerk

“Its classified. That’s why I can brag about it in a bar.”

QMC

“I’ll tell you, but don’t tell nobody else though.”

Sapper3307

Daisy Cutter

How many people here now have their cover blown?

Anonymous

Well, depends on the definition…

Fjardeson

Love that movie. “He’s a damned used car salesman!”

timactual

“, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.”

Not enough. We don’t need a “secret Army” in addition to all the other police and security organizations.

Roh-Dog

At first blush, this seems more preposterous than 2 planes taking out 3 buildings and 46* being the most popularest ever.
But I thought the intel agencies just told us that conspiracy theorists are the biggest threat to “muh democracy”? Or was that the ever-present 12 white supremacists with 8 teeth?
It’s too much to remember what one should be afraid of on a week-to-week basis. TIME TO BRING BACK THE COLOR THREAT ADVISORY SYSTEM WITH NEW AND IMPROVED INFO GRAPHICS!!!
Watch out Newspeak, you’ll find yourselves on a super secret list and you might not even know!
You know who had secret armies and had one nut……?

Cobrakai99

I would laugh this off but with the current WOKEgon leadership it wouldn’t surprise me to learn this was started to get around the no domestic spying CIA clause. Not that I believe the CIA has ever abided by that rule.

Roh-Dog

Before FISA it was the wild west of “rolling wiretaps” and intrusions, after FISA it became the regulated wild west.
It’s not paranoia when you KNOW they could be listening.

This sea change could get really, really bad. Too many of those people have been programmed to hold some pretty deep grudges.

Anonymous

CIA can operate in this country; it just can’t spy on Americans doing it. Lots of room to do stuff.

Fjardeson

“You’re the guys who overthrow foreign governments.”
“No, that’s the CIA.”
“Oh then, you’re the guys I hear breathing on my phone line.”
“No, that’s the FBI. We’re the good guys, Marty. We make American codes and break foreign codes.”
“Sorry, I don’t work for the government.”
“Let me know, MR. BRYCE”

KoB

Kool. There are somethings that We, The People AND the foreign and domestics enemies of We, The People, have “…no need to know.” “specially since so many of the elected officials of We, The People will rat us out to the foreign enemies in a heartbeat. Or other imbedded spies that have access to who the “Good Guys” are. Tell me both of those scenarios haven’t happened…time and time again.

Where can I sign up?

Hack Stone

Hack Stone will take this opportunity to neither confirm nor deny that his position as Director Of Media Relations for a proud but humble woman owned business that sells software to the federal government formerly located in Bethesda Maryland is actually a front for clandestine operations to combat foreign and domestic enemies who would dare expose Phil Monkress’ claims of being a Navy SEAL, which in reality he actually is, which means that he is a Navy SEAL posing as a poser pretending to be a Navy SEAL. Sort of like holding a mirror up to a mirror. This shit is getting more confusing than Total Recall.

Daisy Cutter

“If things have gone wrong, I’m talking to myself and you have a wet towel wrapped around your head.”

Anonymous

“If I am not me, den who da hell am I?” –Ahnold

Curly_Bill

Only secret squirrels need apply.

Anonymous

Hey, it was good enough for the Russians’ “little green men” in eastern Ukraine…

David

Obviously time to buy more stock in Reynolds Aluminum.

SFC D

Skippy! Do you have any of those copper-foil hats left? You know, the ones with the ground strap?

Roh-Dog

Hook up leads to both sides so when parallel to the emanator you can build a charge, hook ‘em up to a flux capacitor so you can rescue Doc Brown from 1885.
Tried it once but someone had crossed the streams and spent the week thinking I was a 10-story marshmallow man.

A Proud Infidel®™

NEXT ISSUE of Newswuss: Mass Psychological Subversion and Enslavement via Chemicals Dispersed via Aircraft Chemtrails…

They’re even less believable than the Weekly World News we saw at the grocery checkout counters in the 70’s and 80’s, remember the Elvis sightings and the Bat-boy Mutant headlines?

Hack Stone

Hack Stone did not read the article, but did they trace the origins of these secret command back to Secret Combat Naked Warriors?

https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=57878

penguinman000

I finished reading the article. Jesus, why can’t people with clearances and special access keep their damn mouths shut?

Aside from that, everything they are talking about in that article is nothing new. We have cyber guys, military guys, spooks, etc.. operating in places and manners folks don’t know about.

How, exactly, do they think we manage to keep this wonderful experiment that is America afloat? Its by having people doing really nasty stuff in places most haven’t heard of. Started with Washington and his spy ring. Still going strong 240+ years later.

LC

I think the key thing that’s (relatively) new is the massive amount of data that governments -ours, and others- have access to that make covers a much more complex and data-intensive effort. Imagine needing to hack a server or somehow change your gait just to avoid automatic detection of something as subconscious as how you walk in a foreign airport. That’s not something we had to do before.

The depth at which private industry whose main function isn’t intelligence is involved is also interesting. Clancy and Ignatius both have examples of this in their (fiction) books, and real-life examples are abound, too.

penguinman000

It ain’t new. Snowden let that horse out of the barn a number of years ago.

Except this appears to be speaking to our attempts to counter the massive surveillance/death of privacy the information age has brought about.

11B-Mailclerk

FEAR! And buy our failing magazine! FEAR!! Yes we ARE still relevant!

MI Ranger

Have to agree with Penguinman000, likely not his real name! None of this is new, just the folks that need their clearances revoked for talking about it.
Question: Why is a contractor driving a government vehicle from GSA? I keep getting told I have to get my own vehicles because I am a contractor, and by law the government cannot provide me with one, only to Military members and civilians. Parts of this story do not add up.

Claw

I think the guy in the aging mask above is really Heavy Chevy.

You can tell by the eyes./s

Commissar

Reality has become indistinguishable from satire at this point.

penguinman000

Insert catch phrase that has no substance or intellectual depth.

You do realize substantive commentary actually requires intellectual effort?

Commissar

Go fuck yourself.

That mask was damn near satirical.

I don’t need to have intellectual depth to hold my own on this forum.

Especially with the likes of you.

Penguinman000

Of course your perception is you don’t need intellectual depth to “hold your own” on this forum. You think your whole undergrad and (potentially) handful of grad classes, at an institution that provides intellectual insulation against anything that doesn’t resemble group think, is something special.

I’ll hold my undergrad and 2 graduate degrees up against your sloppy excuse for “education” any day of the week. (BTW there are multiple people on this forum who have far greater academic accomplishments than you ya malignant narcissist. Have you looked up that definition yet or is Wikipedia still too tough for your Berkeley skill set?) You aren’t smarter or better educated than everyone else.

Not to mention I didn’t forsake my oath to participate in actual insurrections against the lawful government, unlike you turd.

A sure sign of your intellectual cowardice is resorting to ad hominem attacks immediately. I’ve engaged in it to demonstrate it’s another intellectual exercise you suck at. You do it because your argument has no firm ground to stand on.

And as always, my schedule is still free to engage in an actual forceful exchange of ideas. Not just hide in the internet. Not that I expect that to happen coward.

Anyways, why don’t you go back to the “hood” in your $200k house and fuck off? (I got a really good laugh out of you “threatening” a firefighter with your “hood”) Maybe regale us with another of your stories about your extensive law enforcement experience (of which you’ve provided zero evidence)? Or perhaps try to equivocate the civil affairs course to the Q course (your orders mention the JFKSWC after all).

You bring nothing to the table and lack anything resembling intellectual depth. You don’t contribute.

UpNorth

Easy now, Penguinman. Lars is not only an educated fucking idiot, a failed LEO and an all-around fool, he’s a medic.
Perhaps, this is a video of Lars attempting to hold back a CHP vehicle? After all, his book bag back pack says medic. Could it be?
https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/anti-israel-protest-cop-california

5JC

This is a forum now? I thought it was a BLOG.

Anonymous

He mistook it for that stroke-story section in Penthouse.

SFC D

“I don’t need to have intellectual depth to hold my own on this forum.”

That’s good. Because you don’t. And you can’t.

You’re a fraud.

Sapper3307
Commissar

Nothing these guys are doing is all that spooky.

Because data analysis, collection volume, data breaching, and collection methods have become advanced…securing our clandestine operational signature requires more advanced methods, analysis, and coordination.

And because so many private and public agencies and firms are involved in supporting our operations, including contractors….many of the SigRedux guys are employees of the private sector so their firm is not the source of a compromise.

Here is a foreign policy article giving insight into the reason SigRedux has expanded so much.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/21/china-stolen-us-data-exposed-cia-operatives-spy-networks/

A Proud Infidel®™

Izzat SO? Now go run along and brake check a Chapter of Hells Angels somewhere on the highway.

Ret_25X

Leave it to FP to be ten percent correct.

Signature reduction is not signature elimination. At the end of the day, the person still exists and even with great effort, the person is unchanged and somewhere, even in the persona layer, the connection is still there.

Privacy is gone and cover identities are only one “oopsie” by a database admin or network security admin from exposure.

Now, I am sure that you feel warm and secure in the feeling that reading an FP article made you an expert here, but trust me.

There. Are. No. Secrets.

Green Thumb

Anyone check with the False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics)?

He may have some inside knowledge.

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neanderthal B Woodman Domestic Violent Extremist SuperStraight

When I read the title, I thought they were talking about the E4 Mafia.

The E4 Mafia has much better OPSEC. Much like antifa, the E4 Mafia is only an idea, not an organization.

rgr769

Is the first rule of the E4 Mafia, “don’t talk about E4 Mafia?”

5JC

I always thought the aging mask looked like a burn victim.

Somewhere in the article I tried to find a point.

Failed.

MI Ranger

Me too, why can’t they make them look like a hot women, or a biker, or a computer geek? They really need to hire some of those folks that compete in shows like Face-off to really up their game!

26Limabeans

Where did you get the photo of my neighbor?

11B-Mailclerk

M.I.B. ? Was that one in the first movie?

Sapper3307

Ten years of Facebook history and Amazon shopping list’s.

Mustang Major

Might be a “Men in Black” outfit if you believe the DOD UFO incidents

SFC D

I was watching NBC news last night, there was a reporter and an independent “expert” breathlessly gushing over how the Navy has admitted that “UFO’s are real”.

Well no shit, Sherlock. You’re missing the real question though. UFO’s are real WHAT?

26Limabeans

I recall Jimmah Carter saying that if elected he
would release everything the government knows
about UFO’s.
After he was elected, when asked about it he said
the government doesn’t know anything about UFO’s.

The report to be released next month will most
likely say the same thing only with more drama.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

With elementary school kids leaving an electronic trail this will become more problematic one suspects in the future….

Guys like me who took few, less than a dozen photos while in uniform and have very few photos of themselves as youngsters are dinosaurs today…

So many people have a digital trail as long as the nation is wide these days it really is as Ret_25X suggests that there are no secrets anymore….not in real terms.

26Limabeans

“photos while in uniform”

I scanned all my military photos in hi res and have them on various media.
Gave a CD full of Viet of the Nam photos to my nephew with the explicit
warning to not share them. Not smart on my part.

rgr769

Your photos are already stored in China for the ChiComs’ future use during Red Dawn ops.

penguinman000

I got hosed when the VA lost my data and OPM had a data breach. Oh well.

SFC D

I’m still trying to clear up a fraudulent American Express card in my name that was a result of the OPM breach. C’mon man, who actually uses American Express anymore?

SgtBob

About a dozen years ago, news organizations ran stories of an 80,000-man “special brigade” created for deployment anywhere in the US when security was threatened, or something. In this latest version, quotes by people who agreed to be quoted were in the form of “Yeah, we know what’s going on, and we’re on top of all of it.” News writers who refer to “Get Smart” should take a look in a mirror and see if the letters “AYFKM?” appear.

rgr769

So, since Newspeak says so, we should start believing the POSer stories about “sheep dipping” and their secret squirrel missions. I love how they included the photo of the shoe heel device just like the one in “Get Smart.” Only Smart could actually do double channel voice like a cell phone on his shoe.

Bill R

I seem to recall the plotline of an NCIS show that had a secret unit that used phony faces. I don’t doubt there are some out there but I don’t think it’s an entire army.