Welcome back to the Two Navy Guys Debrief, the (mostly) weekly forum where we look at a national security issue and how we have explored that topic in our fiction.
By the way, if you’re not already a subscriber to the Two Navy Guys Debrief, here’s your chance!
Beyond acting as the title for our latest novel, the phrase covert action is a legal term. In the page immediately preceding Chapter 1 of said novel, we cited the legal definition. (By the way, you can read Chapter 1 of Covert Action for free here.)
Here’s what the law says:
United States Code
Title 50 - WAR AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
Chapter 44 - NATIONAL SECURITY
Subchapter III - ACCOUNTABILITY FOR INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES
Sec. 3093 - Presidential approval and reporting of covert actions
50 USC § 3093 (e) - “Covert Action” defined
…the term “covert action” means an activity or activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly…
Covert action is a term you see all the time. Here’s a recent example from Reuters of a failed covert action: Exclusive: Trump launched CIA covert influence operation against China.
The article describes an influence operation during the previous administration where “the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets.”
Why do we call this operation a “failed” covert action? Because we’re reading about it in the newspaper.
Last Saturday, JR and David gave the keynote address to the 8th Annual Writers Festival and Book Fair in Rosemount, Minnesota. (Yes, you caught us in a humble brag.) During the Q&A, we were asked about the use classified information of in our novels.
[We get this question a lot and the answer is WE DON’T. We use only unclassified information from publicly available, reputable sources—even if we know of additional capabilities or information.]
JR has fielded this question every time we’ve talked to a group about our books. This time, he put a different spin on his answer.
“How many people here have heard of SEAL Team Six?” he asked.
Every hand in the room went up.
“When I worked at SOCOM1 in the late 1990s,” he said, “We weren’t even allowed to acknowledge the existence of SEAL Team Six. Now you see it all the time in movies and such. That’s how much things have changed.”
What brought SEAL Team Six into the public sphere, of course, was the May 2011 raid to take down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But JR’s larger point is that the public is aware of a lot more operations that would have previously been considered “covert.”
With that in mind, it’s worth putting some context around the term covert action. Who decides when an operation needs to be secret, what’s the approval process, and who provides oversight?
As writers, we believe in showing not telling. If you’ve read Covert Action, you already know that the story goes through the process of turning an intelligence finding of a national security threat into a government-sanctioned covert action.
Most national security threats are dealt with publicly, through diplomatic channels or other means, such as a military response. But sometimes, as the US Code cited above implies, actions are deemed necessary “where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly.” In other words, the operation should be secret.
For these rare instances, a presidential finding is drafted to outline the operational scope and goals, then signed by the President to grant covert action authority to the CIA. In general, congressional intelligence committees must be notified immediately.
Note the use of the term notified. Congress is not part of the approval process for covert actions; however, they do hold the power of the purse, so they are not without influence.
Astute readers of our latest novel will note that Don Riley did not brief his covert action in Central Asia to the full congressional intelligence committees. Instead, he briefed the body known as the Gang of Eight, which is allowed under the law:
If the President determines that it is “essential” to limit access to a covert action finding in order to “meet extraordinary circumstances affecting vital interests of the United States,” he may limit the notification of such a presidential finding to the chairs and ranking Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and the majority and minority leaders of the Senate. These Members are colloquially known as the Gang of Eight.2
Another note about presidential findings and covert actions. They are not automatically cancelled when a new President is sworn in. It is entirely possible the influence operation we discussed at the start of this column is still in place—or at least it was until three “former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation” leaked the information to Reuters.
If you enjoyed this look behind the scenes at how we’ve incorporated what actually happens in our government into our latest novel, please share this post with a friend.
Sometimes a review on Amazon just makes us chuckle. Here’s a 5-star review from Doctalmadge that tells the story of how he meant to read a different book, but Covert Action got him hooked!
Now this was a book I only started because my computer was taking it's time downloading the next book I really wanted to read. I got caught up in it and found myself wanting to continue reading even after my chosen book downloaded. When an author makes you feel like you are part of the story he has written the story well. I don't need to tell you any of what the book was about, just do as I did, start it and then try to put it down. Good luck.
Thanks, Doc. We needed that. If you enjoyed Covert Action, we’d love for you to tell the world about it.
Be happy. Stay healthy. Read (or listen to) a book.
As always, thanks for being a supporter –
David & JR, AKA the Two Navy Guys
PS – Are you looking for the FREE download of Death of a Pawn?
PPS - This email is free, but it's not cheap. If you'd like to show your support, here's where you can find all the Two Navy Guys' books.
PPPS - If you enjoyed this post, you can get it delivered to your inbox every week for free.
The United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various special operations component commands of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force of the United States Armed Forces.