Special operators get a lot of attention in the press and in the movies, but there is a lot that goes into making special ops successful in real life that takes place in the background, one of them being counterintelligence. Some of the World War II and Cold War era clandestine and covert programs failed because they did not include integrated counterintelligence.
Some of those teams were intercepted the moment they parachuted behind enemy lines. At Special Operations Command, counterintelligence agents exist to prevent these types of failures.
In recent years, counterintelligence agents have become increasingly wary of so-called "insider threats." There are numerous examples, such as 5th Special Forces Group supply officer Ali Mohamed was an undercover member of Al Qaeda, and another Special Forces officer named Peter Debbins was arrested and convicted for spying for the Russians.
In order to help integrate counterintelligence into special operations, SOCOM created the SOF CI Integration Course (SCIC) which aims to educate new CI agents. According to SOCOM itself, CI agents are often misused or underutilized. For instance, "a close examination of the SOF Enterprise reveals CI is often stove-piped and underutilized. In some cases, CI assets have been tasked to guard ammo dumps or motor pools. This is a clear example of the military’s misconception and underutilization of one of its most valuable tools at its disposal to enable mission success," a recent SOCOM publication stated.
The SCIC incorporates two phases, the first being online distance learning and the second is a week-long in-person block of instruction in which students learn from senior members of the SOF intelligence community.
"The amount of experience in the room made the quality of instruction all the more valuable. Listening to vignettes and ‘sea/war’ stories helped significantly because it illustrated how to go about what specific CI activities and instances," a recent student explained.
The SCIC course is offered twice annually through the Joint Special Operations University.