In October 2002, Intelligence Online reported that Bush administration had re-activated a para-military organization originally formed to support the Contras in the 1980s, which they referred to as the "Intelligence Services Acitivity." This article stated that Richard Perle was the overall coordinator of this organization, whose function was to engage in covert intelligence activities through friendly countries. Michael Ledeen and Reveul Marc Gerecht were reported to be handling the operations in the Middle East and Richard Secord would be overseeing operations in Central Asia. In November 2002, OSS.Net, an apparently defunct web-site and forum for the intelligence community created by an ex-CIA employee also reported a role for Secord in the revival of "the 'Gray Fox' organization which restores the power of Richard Secord to manage rogue and possibly illegal intelligence operations."
None of these individuals were at that time employed by the government as anything other than consultants, so whatever they were doing would have been an off-the-books operation. Of the four, only Secord, whose operation appears to have been separate, had the experience to oversee a clandestine para-military operation. Perle and Ledeen are primarily propagandists masquerading as scholars. Ledeen, for example, was well-known for spreading the discredited allegation that the Bulgarians were responsible the attempted assassination of the pope. Gerecht had been CIA operative in the Middle East working under diplomatic cover from 1985-1994, but has worked primarily as a journalist/propagandist since he left the agency. All three are affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, while Gerecht and Perle are both members of PNAC.
If the group does not make much sense as a group intended to oversee covert activities, they do make sense as a group of propagandists, for which purpose each brings specific strengths. Gerecht, was a former CIA operative who had been critical of the agency's intelligenc-gathering abilities. He had the credibility to challenge CIA analyses in the press, which he did. Perle had access to US intelligence reports through his role in the Defense Advisory Board. This intelligence that could be used selectively to advocate for war and could be used to create more effective propraganda that could plausibly be represented as a different analysis of intelligence data. Ledeen was well-connected to Itallian covert operatives who could be used as sources and as a conduit for disinformation.
A Lexis-Nexis search reveals that Ledeen, Perle, and Gerecht all were engaged in an active campaign to promote the war in Iraq through articles and speeches. In addition,
Perle and Ledeen appear to have made efforts to cultivate and influence the Itallian military and intelligence officials in the run-up to the war. Perle, for example, spoke at a strategic policy workshop in Cornobie, Italy before several hundred businessmen and government officials in September 2002, where he made headlines by asserting there was a meeting between agents of Sadam Hussein and al-Qaida. Perle also made some contacts with SISMI in late 2002-early 2003,, because he helped to negotiate the sale of specialized "terror alert" software produced by Autonomy Corporation to them in March 2003. (Perle was a director of Autonomy Corp.)
Michael Ledeen, of course, has long had ties with Itallian intelligence operatives and neo-fascist politicians, which is probably why he was recruited for this work. He was at, and probably helped to arrange, a meeting attended by Iranian representatives, members of SISMI (Italian Intelligence), Itallian Defense Minister, Antonio Martino, and Lawrence Franklin and Harold Rhode, of the (US) Office of Special Plans. According to reports in
La Republica, the Iranians at this meeting agreed not to oppose the invasion and, after the meeting, SISMI dispatched 20 undercover agents to Iraq to engage in pre-war surveys and planning. This would seem to fit within the mandate of the group to work through friendly countries to enegage in covert intelligence activities. Ledeen has also been linked, at least indirectly with the forged Niger documents, that surfaced through SISMI and might be tied to the activities of this group.