Overview
- Pentagon officials are developing a planned program to place nonofficial cover officers, or NOCs, who would pose as private‑sector businesspeople to collect economic intelligence and conduct covert economic operations.
- The effort is still in the planning stage, is not operational, and has no decided organizational home inside the Defense Department; former CIA officer Tom Rakusan is overseeing the design as a senior adviser to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg.
- Reporters described the program as intended to act as a secret arm of a broader U.S. campaign of economic pressure against China and other strategic rivals, aligning with administration priorities on export controls, investment and industrial policy.
- Experts warn that NOC operations carry diplomatic and legal risks because operatives would have no visible U.S. ties, and senior intelligence figures are publicly debating whether to lift long‑standing limits on sharing intelligence with American companies.
- The plan draws on retired CIA officers, military service experts and officials in the under secretary for intelligence office, raising questions about private‑sector links, oversight rules and how the program could affect U.S. firms and relations with China.