Special ops symposium looks at future of coalition warfare Published Feb. 7, 2005 By Samantha L. Quigley American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA director Porter J. Goss are working to make sure President Bush has a full range of options for dealing with terror threats, a top DOD official said Feb. 4.This includes covert and clandestine operations, said Thomas W. O'Connell, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. He also said studies are under way to determine whether all of the CIA's paramilitary activities should fall under DOD's jurisdiction.Mr. O'Connell spoke to attendees of the 16th Annual National Defense Industrial Association Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict Symposium and Exhibition here. He focused on special operations forces' role in the coalition's war on terrorism."The president and a truly historic coalition of more than 90 nations have sought to confront a new and perhaps even more dangerous enemy," Mr. O'Connell said.Special operations forces will help to meet the capabilities required of the Defense Department as part of that coalition, he said. They are charged with disrupting, defeating and destroying terrorist networks that threaten the United States and its citizens, according to the U.S. Special Operations Command mission statement.These capabilities must be used in concert with the capabilities of coalition partners as well as other, nonmilitary stabilization capabilities of the U.S. government and the civilian world, said Jeffrey Nadaner, Mr. O'Connell's deputy. "We're trying to place stabilization operations on comparable footing with combat operations."This would mean, he said, that these types of operations would be considered in all phases of the planning of an operation.