I certainly hope the CIA will take a comprehensive UW approach to
the problem. I hope they will focus on the underground and auxiliary and
not just on training and equipping fighters. It is only through a
comprehensive UW approach can we gain and sustain access and influence, the
important task being the ability to have sustained influence over the
leadership whom we are supporting. But of course I would not expect the
press to understand this and ask the right questions.
And of course the question should be asked why are their
separate CIA and DOD efforts? (if what is implied in the article is accurate).
The proposed CIA buildup
would expand a clandestine mission that has grown substantially over the past
year, U.S. officials said. The agency now vets and trains about 400 fighters
each month — as many as are expected to be trained by the Pentagon when its
program reaches full strength late next year.
Why is there not a single integrated strategy? Why are their
separate "programs?"
U.S. weighs expanded CIA training, arming
of Syrian allies struggling against Assad
A rebel fighter readies a mortar during clashes with regime forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on October 31, 2014. Syria accused Turkey on October 30, of a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty, as Ankara allowed Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and opposition rebels to cross its border to battle jihadists. AFP PHOTO/KARAM AL-MASRIKARAM AL-MASRI/AFP/Getty Images (Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images)
The Obama administration has been weighing plans to escalate the CIA’s role in arming and training fighters in Syria, a move aimed at accelerating covert U.S. support to moderate rebel factions while the Pentagon is preparing to establish its own training bases, U.S. officials said.
The proposed CIA buildup would expand a clandestine mission that has grown substantially over the past year, U.S. officials said. The agency now vets and trains about 400 fighters each month — as many as are expected to be trained by the Pentagon when its program reaches full strength late next year.
The prospect of expanding the CIA program was on the agenda of a meeting of senior national security officials at the White House last week. A White House spokesman declined to comment on the meeting or to address whether officials had reached a decision on the matter.
Others said the proposal reflects concern about the pace of the Pentagon’s program to bolster moderate militias, which so far have proved no match for al-Qaeda offshoots including the Islamic State.
“We need a little more urgency in helping the moderates, and the agency was viewed as the best way to get that going fast,” said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the Syria debate.
A decision to expand the CIA program would deepen U.S. involvement in Syria, where the United Nations says 200,000 people have been killed during more than three years of civil war. The agency’s mission is a central but secret component of a broader U.S. effort that also involves airstrikes and an influx of U.S. military advisers into Iraq.
(Continued at the link below)
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