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Intel Panel Chair: Retool Spec Ops for China Conflict
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Intel Panel Chair: Retool Spec Ops for China Conflict

Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego also aiming at using more military spies and rooting out extremists in the ranks

Jeff Stein
Feb 24, 2021
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Intel Panel Chair: Retool Spec Ops for China Conflict
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Congress now has yet another intelligence oversight committee, but this one with a distinction: It’s headed by an Iraq war veteran who’s actually had to depend on timely intelligence in combat. 

Ruben Gallego, a fourth term Democrat from ArIzona, was a grunt with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, which took comparatively heavy losses during his 2005-2006 deployment: 46 Marines and two Navy corpsmen (called medics in the Army) in his company died. One was his best friend.

Photo: Stars & Stripes

So intelligence work is personal for Gallego, who also went on special missions to kill or capture “high value targets” on the U.S. counter-terror Most Wanted list. And as chairman of the new House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, he aims to prod the Defense Intelligence Agency into more direct, timely support of combat operations over writing situation reports. 

He also thinks U.S. Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other spec ops units need to be withdrawn from some regions an…

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