Violence, Turnover Blunt CIA Effort in Iraq

[kskiska]

Thursday, March 4, 2004; Page A01

The CIA has rushed to Iraq four times as many clandestine officers as it had planned on, but it has had little success penetrating the resistance and identifying foreign terrorists involved in the insurgency, according to senior intelligence officials and intelligence experts recently briefed on Iraq.

The CIA mission in Iraq, originally slated to have 85 officers, has grown to more than 300 full-time case officers and close to 500 personnel in total, including contractors and people on temporary assignment. It is widely known among agency officials to be the largest station in the world, and the biggest since Saigon during the Vietnam War 30 years ago.

Despite the size of the contingent, the agency's efforts to penetrate Iraq's ethnic factions and gain intelligence about the insurgency have been hampered by continued violence, the use of temporary and short-term personnel, and the pressing demands of military commanders for tactical intelligence they can use in daily confrontations with armed insurgents.

In December, the CIA station chief was replaced with a more experienced officer to handle the unexpected challenges, according to intelligence officials.

(snip)

With the Bush administration's war on terrorism spread over five continents, and the hunt for Osama bin Laden intensifying as spring approaches, the agency "is stretched beyond their limits," even as it makes a historic drive for recruits, one senior CIA veteran said.

The violence is making it far more difficult for the CIA to operate. A CIA directive requires case officers to travel only with armed bodyguards, making it nearly impossible to conduct discreet meetings with Iraqis on their own turf, according to intelligence experts briefed on the Iraq mission. The agency operates from more than half a dozen bases around the country.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28562-2004Mar3.html

[hang a left]

1. So that is where all the bombings are coming from.

[displacedvermoter]

2. Was there a single thing that they took into consideration

when "planning" this fiasco? Nothing has gone right, nothing has happened on schedule, no contingencies were accounted for, all intelligence has proved faulty or insufficient or flat-out phony!

This alone should -- in a sane world -- be more than enough to shitcan this whole crew come November!

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. four times as many clandestine officers as it had planned on

All wearing sunglasses, white suits, tans, with the name Felix no doubt.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more ridiculous.

[SoDesuKa]

4. Bush Doesn't Want the Truth

If the Bush Administration rewarded truth-telling the status of the CIA would be elevated. But Bush wants to be told what he wants to hear.

[Barrett808]

5. kick