Proposal submitted to Congress: DOD Seeks Authority To Use Commercial Cover For Military Ops Abroad. InsideDefense.com, April 18, 2012.
The Defense Department is seeking new authority from Congress that would let DOD personnel work undercover in industry to conduct clandestine military operations abroad against terrorists and their sponsors.

The Pentagon's request, submitted to lawmakers last week in a package of legislative proposals, is designed to significantly broaden DOD's existing authority -- first enacted in 1992 -- to use commercial cover in support of intelligence-collection activities.

In recent years, the conflict with al Qaeda and its affiliates, as well as "other developments, have required the regular conduct of small-scale clandestine military operations to prepare the battlefield for military operations against terrorists and their sponsors," DOD writes in the proposal. U.S. clandestine operations differ from covert operations by focusing on concealment of the mission rather than on concealment of American sponsorship. Special operations activities may be both clandestine and covert.