CIA in Iraq fighting al Qaeda
The Washington Times reports today that the CIA is ratcheting up their operations in Iraq. See, I don’t understand that because I was told for years that the only reason that al Qaeda was in Iraq was because US troops were there. And now the troops are out, but al Qaeda is still there.
U.S. intelligence indicates that this al Qaeda affiliate is giving assistance to the Syrian-based rebel group, the al-Nusra Front, that currently controls parts in northern Syria, UPI says. The U.S. State Department lists al Nusra as a foreign terror group, saying it is little more than a front for al Qaeda in Iraq.
White House officials have previously ordered the CIA to help CTS [Iraq’s Counter-terrorism Service]. Now, CIA agents will be upping its role and taking over missions previously run by the U.S. military, UPI reports.
But, we don’t have troops in Syria, either, so I don’t understand how al Qaeda got involved in Syria. Does this mean that everything we were told about timeline withdrawals is wrong? Didn’t al Qaeda just cease operations when we did? It’s all so confusing because this administration “ended the war in Iraq”, they tell me. Wasn’t that one of the big things in the “plus” column during the last campaign? I remember thousands of Democrats applauding on their feet about that.
I’m just asking questions here.
Category: Terror War
Another LIE this administration has told the American people. They have told so many lies that they even believe their own lies. We will never know the truth about anything that goes on and when something major does happen noboduy will believe a word they say. When will people stand up to this adminstration and tell them STOP LYING about everything.
@1: All administrations lie. Or were we greeted as liberators and did the Iraq war only last about three weeks? There is a case to be made that AQ, while everywhere, had a lesser presence in Iraq before the war – Hussein didn’t like them, and our presence there did indeed provide a rallying point for foreign fighters, AQ or affiliated.
That in itself doesn’t mean it was wrong to go there, or bad, or whatever, it just means that trying to over-simplify things by ignoring realities like operational tempo, manpower and motivation when talking about the presence of an ideology and its followers.
Gotta luv all that “transparency” by the administration. Clear as mud.
Anonymous (2): at times, yes – all administrations lie. But the current one rivals those of LBJ, Nixon, and Clinton in doing so consistently, continuously, artfully, and shamelessly.
Hmmm..covert assistance to muslim extremists? Awesome. That can’t possibly backfire on us!
@4: I lean towards the other side of the political spectrum than you, so while I’ll certainly grant you that this administration is considerably less open than most had hoped for, I just don’t see the same level of subterfuge that most here do.
And, more directly to the point, I don’t see how claiming an ‘end to the war in Iraq’ is a lie if we have CIA operations going on. Most people think of ‘the war’ as involving large numbers of military personnel, most of which are gone now – the primary military mission is finished, and THAT’S what people think of as ‘war’. We’re still locked in a war with AQ, certainly, and will be locked into a war with Islamist extremists for the next hundred years at least. This isn’t, to most people, the same as being ‘at war’.
There’s plenty to pick on the Obama administration for, but being angry at them for UPPING the presence of CIA officers to continue taking the fight to AQ even with the military mission over hardly strikes me as one of them. From the beginning, this was largely an intelligence war – this, to me, seems like a natural continuation of the broader conflict.
I think the counter argument would be that we created the power vacuums by taking action in Iraq and perhaps sowing the seeds for destabilizing the Bashar Hafez al-Assad Regime.
Of course, now as opposed to the Cold War, dictactors are even more beloved by the Left.
Also, I don’t think the cooperation between the CIA and CTS exists without OIF/OEF. (Lets table the justification for OIF/OEF – it happened)
WHAT?!?!?!? The government LIED TO US?!?!?!?!?
Don’t those CIA guys have another totally useless country to fuck up and back the wrong dictator that we will have to fight in 30 years. Must be getting crowded at the water cooler at Langley so the Boss told them to find some busy work to look important.
Sorry forgot to say that this would not have anything to do with budget cuts and trying to keep said levels of funding the same.
Two words = “drone strikes”…
The war has “ended” in Iraq? Tell that to the Troops stationed in Baghdad. Or the family of PFC Cortez, who died while “supporting the mission in Iraq” (“in Bahrain”) after the “war ended” and “Troops returned home.” http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2012/02/rip-pfc-cesar-cortez-iraq.html
I’m sure Infantryman, SPC Hickman’s family doesn’t consider his death “non-combat” a year after “combat ended” in Iraq either: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2011/11/rip-spc-david-e-hickman.html
Al-Qaeda IS in Iraq, and WAS in Iraq before the Invasion, in Nasiriyah and in Fallujah, as per agreement between Saddam and OBL, that enemies of enemies were allies. Saddam traded training camps in Iraq for retaliatory strikes on retaliatory cruise missile strikes (Clinton era), PRIOR to 9/11.
Now, in Syria, we find a battlefield that pits Iran v. Al-Qaeda, despite finding al-Qaeda agents in Iran. The opportunity to remove Assad, without aiding al-Qaeda bypassed this Administration more than a year ago. It failed then, and it is failing now, by supporting factions that include AQ, directly, and through surrogates.
Sound convuluted? Yeah, the reality is worse.