CIA: Special Operations Group

## About

The **Special Activities Center** (**SAC**) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert and paramilitary operations. The unit was named **Special Activities Division** (**SAD**) prior to 2015. Within SAC there are two separate groups: SAC/SOG (Special Operations Group) for tactical paramilitary operations and SAC/PAG (Political Action Group) for covert political action.

The Special Operations Group is responsible for operations that include clandestine or covert operations with which the US government does not want to be overtly associated. As such, unit members, called Paramilitary Operations Officers and Specialized Skills Officers, do not typically wear uniforms.

If they are compromised during a mission, the US government may deny all knowledge. SOG is considered the most secretive special operations force within the United States, with fewer than 100 operators. The group generally recruits personnel from special mission units within the U.S. Special Operations community.

SOG Paramilitary Operations Officers account for a majority of Distinguished Intelligence Cross and Intelligence Star recipients during conflicts or incidents that elicited CIA involvement. These are the highest two awards for valor within the CIA in recognition of distinguished valor and excellence in the line of duty. SOG operatives also account for the majority of the stars displayed on the Memorial Wall at CIA headquarters, indicating that the officer died while on active duty. The Latin motto of SAC is *Tertia Optio*, which means "Third Option," as covert action represents an additional option within the realm of national security when diplomacy and military action are not feasible.

The Ground Branch of the Special Operations Group has been known to operate alongside the United Kingdom's E Squadron, the UK's equivalent paramilitary unit.

The Political Action Group is responsible for covert activities related to political influence, psychological operations, economic warfare, and cyberwarfare.

Tactical units within SAC can also carry out covert political action while deployed in hostile and austere environments. A large covert operation typically has components that involve many or all of these categories as well as paramilitary operations.

Political and "influence" covert operations are used to support US foreign policy. As overt support for one element of an insurgency can be counterproductive due to the unfavorable impression of the United States in some countries, in such cases covert assistance allows the US to assist without damaging the reputation of its beneficiaries.

## Selection and Training

Special Activities Center has several hundred officers, mostly former members from Tier 1 units like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force, as well as other U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel. The CIA has also recruited individuals from within the agency. The CIA's formal designations for these individuals are *paramilitary operations officers* and *specialized skills officers*. Paramilitary operations officers often attend the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program, which trains them as clandestine intelligence operatives at an internal paramilitary training course.

The primary strengths of SAC paramilitary officers are operational agility, adaptability, and deniability. They often operate in small teams, typically made up of two to ten operatives (with some operations being carried out by a single officer), all usually with extensive military tactical experience and a set of specialized skills that does not exist in any other unit. As fully trained intelligence case officers, paramilitary operations officers possess all the clandestine skills to collect human intelligence – and most importantly – to recruit assets from among the indigenous troops receiving their training. These officers often operate in remote locations behind enemy lines to carry out direct action (including raids and sabotage), counter-intelligence, guerrilla/unconventional warfare, counter-terrorism, and hostage rescue missions, in addition to being able to conduct espionage via HUMINT assets.

There are four principal elements within SAC's Special Operations Group, formerly called branches, now organized as departments: the Air Department, the Maritime Department, the Ground Department, and the Armor and Special Programs Department. The Armor and Special Programs Department is charged with the development, testing, and covert procurement of new personnel and vehicular armor, and maintenance of stockpiles of ordnance and weapons systems used by the SOG, almost all of which must be obtained from clandestine sources abroad, in order to provide SOG operatives and their foreign trainees with plausible deniability in accordance with U.S. Congressional directives.

Together, the SAC/SOG comprises a complete combined arms covert paramilitary force. Paramilitary operations officers are the core of each branch and routinely move between the branches to gain expertise in all aspects of SOG. As such, paramilitary operations officers are trained to operate in a multitude of environments. Because these officers are taken from the most highly trained units in the U.S. military and then provided with extensive additional training to become CIA clandestine intelligence officers, many U.S. security experts assess them as the most elite of the U.S. special missions units.

Paramilitary operations officers require a bachelor's degree to be considered for employment. SAC officers are trained at Camp Peary, Virginia (also known as "The Farm"), "The Point" (Harvey Point), a facility outside of Hertford, North Carolina, and at privately owned training centers around the United States. In addition to the eighteen months of training in the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program required to become a clandestine intelligence officer, paramilitary operations officers are trained to a high level of proficiency in:

* explosive devices and firearms (foreign and domestic)
* hand-to-hand combat
* high-performance / tactical driving (on and off-road)
* apprehension avoidance (including picking handcuffs and escaping from confinement)
* improvised explosive devices
* cyberwarfare
* covert channels
* HAHO / HALO parachuting
* combat and commercial SCUBA
* closed circuit diving
* proficiency in foreign languages
* surreptitious entry operations (picking or otherwise bypassing locks)
* vehicle hot-wiring
* Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE)
* extreme survival and wilderness training
* combat EMS medical training
* tactical communications
* tracking