Asahi: Defense Agency to bolster intelligence gathering
The Defense Agency will set up a 600-member intelligence unit to improve safety for troops dispatched overseas as Japan gears up for the swift deployment of personnel in major missions abroad, officials said. The new intelligence unit, intended to be created in March 2007, will focus on information-gathering directly from contacts in foreign countries, a departure from the current method of relying on published material and data from foreign military forces... The SDF has been required to gather information regarding troop safety ever since SDF members in 1992 took part in the United Nations' peacekeeping operations in Cambodia. But the SDF has depended on foreign troops affiliated with the United Nations for such information. In Iraq, SDF personnel have found themselves at a loss in intelligence gathering because there is no commanding organization, such as the United Nations, there...more...
