A classified Pentagon study analyzing the effectiveness of Special Operations forces has found that the military's counterterrorism effort is hampered by bureaucratic duplication, officials said, citing in particular an overlap between new government centers.
The study also found evidence of broad resistance to the Special Operations Command's new counterterrorism role, from regional military commands and from other parts of the government's sprawling defense and intelligence apparatus.
The findings were viewed as so provocative that the classified report has not been distributed widely, even among officials with the security clearance needed to read such internal reviews, Pentagon and military officials said. The study was initially ordered by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Pentagon and military officials who have read the study say that the mission of the new Center for Special Operations, a large military headquarters created in Florida in 2003, mirrors the work of the new National Counterterrorism Center, established by executive order in 2004. The military center is intended to bring together elements of the armed services under a three-star general; the intelligence center answers to John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence...
Overlap in U.S. Counterterror Effort
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