Third Echelon ?

As stupid as it is to post a topic about Splinter Cell, it just seems real enough to happen. Im not sure all of you know what Splinter Cell is, and for those of you who do, awesome. Ive always thought if the CIA or NSA really DID have a groupd of people called Splinter Cells in a group called Third Echelon. American Spies carying around all of this top of the line stealth equipment and technology. Ive read the book and played the game, now I would just like to see it in real life. Any possiblities ?

maybe in real life its not called ''third echelon'' but it is actually true that the us army / government have elite operatives using the latest hi-tech stealth and assaults weapons. So do many others countries.

[edit on 15-7-2005 by moonchild]

Actually, the suggestion has been brought up in policy magazines, with a call for Global Scouts, specially trained soldiers (from the military tho I beleive) that will go into a region, stay there for the long term, and provide intelligence for the us, rather than using Agents (ie non-officers that the CIA recruits locally and on an ad hoc basis) or regular Army Scouts only. The Global Scout would interact with the community and become invovled with it, which is critically important. Not so much 'cloak and dagger' thats presented in any video game tho.