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CIA voert robotoorlog in Afghanistan
tom - 14.02.2002 12:22
De CIA bestuurt met raketten bewapende ´drones´ die in Afghanistan patrouilleren, in combinatie met de mysterieuze ´special forces´ en lokale strijdkrachten. Desertie en opstand zal wel niet getolereerd worden door drones. Een ijzersterk team - onverslaanbaar?
CIA Acts On Its Own In Afghanistan
2002-02-14 09:17:00 By JOHN J. LUMPKIN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA´s semipublic role in the war in Afghanistan is a bit of a switch from its entirely covert days.
Officials have said agency intelligence officers entered Afghanistan even before the first U.S. military commandos. Armed CIA drones patrol the skies above the country, and a CIA officer, Johnny Micheal Spann, was the first American killed by hostile fire during the war.
The CIA, which does not report to the Defense Department, has a long history of secret involvement in Afghanistan and sometimes calls its own shots in the campaign to destroy Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden´s al-Qaida terror network.
Through its half-century history, the CIA has had a role in military operations, usually kept quiet. Although the agency itself has not spoken publicly about specifics of its efforts in Afghanistan, others have with rare candor.
Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA official who specialized in counterterror, said the nature of the war explains why the CIA has taken a key role and not kept it entirely secret.
``There is no need to hide CIA´s role,´´ he said, unlike in previous conflicts such as the agency´s support for Contra rebels in Nicaragua, where the Reagan administration sought to conceal U.S. involvement.
Early in the war, military officials would acknowledge some airstrikes but would say ``another agency´´ conducted it, an oblique reference to the CIA´s armed Predator drones. Now, they are acknowledging the agency´s role more openly.
``They´ve been doing it for weeks and weeks and weeks now, and they´ve got a darn good record,´´ Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters in describing the CIA´s use of missile-armed Predators against al-Qaida operatives.
The CIA has done much more in Afghanistan than operate Predators to hunt bin Laden. On the ground, its officers have functioned much as the Army´s Green Berets, working with tribal leaders and commanders opposed to the former ruling Taliban militia to collect intelligence and provide weapons and training.
These CIA operatives led the effort to organize anti-Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan while the Green Berets were taking the lead in the north.
(...)
Before Sept. 11, the agency was hunting for bin Laden without the offensive air power or paramilitary troops now in use in Afghanistan. Director George Tenet says the agency has ``been at war´´ with al-Qaida for more than five years.
Military and CIA officials say they are cooperating closely in Afghanistan, although Pentagon officials acknowledge the CIA has authority to conduct its own operations.
``The relationship between the Defense Department and the CIA today is as good as I´ve ever seen it,´´ Rumsfeld, who also was Pentagon chief in the mid-1970s, said Tuesday.
(...)
The Army officer who is the top war commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, has no authority to veto the CIA´s military operations, although he is consulted. Franks drew up the battle plan that began unfolding Oct. 7, but the CIA was there before the first U.S. military troops.
Early in the war, however, Franks´ command denied a CIA drone permission to fire on aconvoy suspected of carrying Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. It is unclear how rules have changed since then.
A Feb. 4 Predator strike against suspected al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan has yet to be fully clarified. The drone targeted and killed three people suspected by the United States of being bin Laden operatives, but some Afghans say the Feb. 4 strike killed innocents, not terrorists.
Associated Press Military Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
 Website: http://www.wired.com/news/reuters/story?story_id=20020214APAP-Afghan-The-CIA-War.htmlt
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| supplements | | | stop the pasting! | Indy-fan - 14.02.2002 16:08
Wil iedereen nou eens ophouden met het kopiëren van allerhande artikelen uit regulirer media? Indymedia is bedoeld voor EIGEN BIJDRAGEN, niet voor het plakken van stukken die we elders kunnen lezen.
Deze site is expliciet bedoeld om ruimte te bieden aan geluiden die in de reguliere media weinig aandacht krijgen. Stukken van het ANP, Teletekst, AP, AFP etc, zoals bovenstaand artikel, lezen we elders wel.
Als je een selectie wilt lezen van artikelen die elders verschenen, maar desondanks onderbelicht zijn, kan je terecht bij BATTL.nl of CommonDreams, Mother Jones, Alternet, ZNet etc.
Voor alles een tijd en plaats...
| | Dit gebeurd toch al heeeee lang | theli - 15.02.2002 00:58
Dit alles doet me denken aan de visie van Noam Chomsky op het Amerikaanse buitenlandse beleid.
De CIA heeft had eerst de mujihadeens gesteund met geld en wapens, en nu opeens vechten ze tegen dezelfde mensen, alleen onder een andere naam. Hoe scheef kan een verhouding wel niet zijn.
Amerika heeft er een handje in om iedereen die er niet de amerikaanse neo-liberale visie op nou houd, gelijk militair af te straffen. wanneer hebben de "politici" het nou eindelijk door hoe het echt in elkaar zit?
de oogkleppen worden steeds langer, en hoe bereik je de mensen met de andere kant van het verhaal?
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