Strategic Support Branch The Strategic Support Branch ( SSB ) was a United States intelligence organization created by the Department of Defense ( DoD ) with support from the Defense Intelligence Agency ( DIA ) and the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) . The SSB ' s mission was to provide an intelligence capability for field operation units , and U . S . Special Operations Forces ( SOF ) , in support of anti - terrorism and counter - terrorism missions in war zones and beyond . The SSB has been dissolved with many of its activities and capabilities transferred to DIA ' s Defense Clandestine Service . Overview . The Strategic Support Branch was established to give DoD an increase of human intelligence capabilities and what was considered by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld an end to " near total dependence on the CIA " for human intelligence . Although the SSB was designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary ' s direct control , it is commanded by high - ranking military officials . Strategic Support teams have about 10 members each , consisting of case officers , linguists , interrogators and other specialists from the Defense Human Intelligence Service , a branch of the DIA . The missions they undertake are secret , but members do not use covert methods like false identities or nationalities . The unit operated secretly in Iraq , Afghanistan and several classified locations for two years . The SSB works directly with United States Special Operations Command ( USSOCOM ) to add missing capabilities such as the skill to establish local spy networks and the technology for direct access to national intelligence databases to USSOCOM ' s special operations units , specifically the special missions units of the Joint Special Operations Command ( JSOC ) . Also USSOCOM previously had to receive permission from the CIA to conduct clandestine operations in certain countries , but that was no longer necessary after the establishment of the SSB . DoD has decided that it will coordinate its human intelligence missions with the CIA but will not , as in the past , await consent . Controversy . The Strategic Support Branch was financed using " reprogrammed " funds , without explicit authority or appropriation of the United States Congress . The Pentagon hadn ' t released any details of the unit ' s operations or even of its existence to Congress until after an article about the secret unit was released by " The Washington Post " . Pentagon officials emphasized their intention to remain accountable to Congress , but they also asserted that Defense intelligence missions are subject to fewer legal constraints than believed . That assertion involves new interpretations of Title 10 of the U . S . Code , which governs the armed services , and Title 50 , which governs , among other things , foreign intelligence . Under Title 10 , for example , the Defense Department must report to Congress all " deployment orders " , or formal instructions from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to position U . S . forces for combat . But guidelines issued by former Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen A . Cambone state that special operations forces may " conduct clandestine HUMINT operations . . . before publication " of a deployment order , rendering notification unnecessary . Pentagon lawyers also define the " War on Terror " as ongoing , indefinite , and global in scope . That analysis effectively discards the limitation of the defense secretary ' s war powers to times and places of imminent combat .