U.S. Spy Effort In Afghanistan "Ignorant": U.S. Report

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Reuters

By REUTERS
Published: January 4, 2010
Filed at 7:52 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's intelligence chief in Afghanistan sharply criticized the work of U.S. spy agencies there on Monday, calling them ignorant and out of touch with the Afghan people.

In a report issued by the Center for New American Security think tank, Major General Michael Flynn, deputy chief of staff for intelligence in Afghanistan for the U.S. military and its NATO allies, offered a bleak assessment of the intelligence community's role in the 8-year-old war.

He described U.S. intelligence officials there as "ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced ... and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers."

An operations officer was quoted in the report as calling the United States "clueless" because of a lack of needed intelligence about the country.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/01/04/news/news-us-afghanistan-usa-intelligence.html

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When we fought the 'ghost war' aiding the Afghans against the Soviets, we had good intelligence. Now it appears we have been sucked into a quagmire by interposing the Afghan government between us and the people of Afghanistan.

[bertman]

1. Whoa Nelly!! If that was the assessment stated publicly by the chief, you can bet it's a

fuck of a lot worse than that. Those guys generally do not like to let on how bleak it REALLY is.

There are a LOT of independent intelligence contractors on our payroll now. I wonder how many of them are in Afghanistan and how much they have to do with this cluster fruck.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Link to the report and the think tank (one of the blogs at it)

http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2010/01/most-important-thing-youll-read-afghanistan-month.html

The Most Important Thing You'll Read on Afghanistan This Month

January 4, 2010 | Posted by Abu Muqawama - 5:54pm | 3 Comments

This summer, as Gen. McChrystal took command in Afghanistan, it became clear to both him and his intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Mike Flynn, that the way we gather and process intelligence in Afghanistan was broken. Yesterday, Maj. Gen. Flynn issued a new directive to all intelligence officers and their commanders in Afghanistan outlining a new way forward. He asked the gang at the Center for a New American Security to simultaneously publish a copy for public consumption, and after running the paper through an internal and external review process, we did so today. You can and should read it here. Matt Pottinger, once a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in China and now considered one of the best young intelligence officers in the Marine Corps, was one of the co-authors of this text, and it makes for entertaining if somewhat depressing reading. After eight years in Afghanistan, we really are starting near zero in our efforts to understand the environment.

Seriously, if you have any interest in the war in Afghanistan, read this tonight.

[Flaneur]

3. This report needs to be read by anyone serious about Afghanistan.

It's a pretty harsh indictment of on-the-ground US intelligence there.

And given the Taliban's apparent ability to penetrate Afghan police and military forces, the report's call for more people out in the field in Afghanistan is going to be difficult to pull off. How do you go out in the field if you have to worry about some guy walking up and blowing up on you?

[pundaint]

4. Hey it's tough on them, so many power centers - who should they kill first?

It's so much easier with just one democratically elected government to overthrow, and just one revolutionary group or puppet to install.

[boppers]

5. Sadly that's not far from the truth.

Afghanistan is complex, and we're used to overthrowing simple dictators, socialists, etc., when their society is more like a 100 (or 1000) party system.

[gratuitous]

6. Be fair

They've only had eight years to familiarize themselves with the situation. Besides, every time they figured out where some guy fit into the power structure, he'd get inconveniently killed. "Okay, we got Iqbal here, and he sort of runs this area." *BOOM!* "Uh, okay. Iqbal isn't in this area anymore. It's not clear who's in charge here anymore. Maybe it's Abdullah." *BOOM!* "Hmmm, it seems that Abdullah isn't in line for anything now."