CIA Denies Keeping Military in Dark in Afghanistan
By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA (news - web sites) on Sunday dismissed as groundless claims that it had kept the U.S. military in the dark while carrying out an expanded paramilitary operation in Afghanistan (news - web sites), which has included air strikes by the spy agency's own surveillance drones.
``There has never been a better relationship between the CIA and the military,'' said a Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) spokeswoman.
CIA paramilitary units, made up chiefly of U.S. military veterans, have taken on what amounts to a central combat role in the unconventional U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said, confirming a Washington Post report.
On Sept. 27, one of the CIA units, drawn from the so-called Special Activities Division, established a bridgehead for the U.S. military special operations forces that followed, the Post reported on Sunday, citing well-placed sources.
In a companion piece the Post also cited two unidentified Air Force officials as accusing the CIA of failing to share information about its operations in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks that killed some 4,600 people in the United States.
Despite the presence of Air Force liaison officers at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Air Force officers monitoring Kabul and other spots in Afghanistan occasionally have been ``surprised to see an explosion, only to learn later that the CIA was firing a missile,'' the newspaper reported.
``Something would happen, and we would say, 'What was that?','' the Post quoted one Air Force officer as saying.
However, a spokeswoman for the CIA said the relationship between the agency and the U.S. military's Central Command, based in Tampa, Florida had never been better.
``We are sharing all information with the Central Command on this issue and any suggestion that we are not is ludicrous,'' the spokeswoman said.
FRICTION BETWEEN MILITARY AND CIA IS COMMON
The Air Force and Central Command, which is run by Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the overall commander of the military campaign in Afghanistan, had no immediate comment.
Friction between the military and the CIA, which is duty bound to protect intelligence sources and methods, is common in wartime. In Afghanistan, it has been exacerbated by the CIA's maiden use of unmanned aircraft, called Predators, armed with ''Hellfire'' anti-tank missiles, the Post reported.
``That's the way they operate,'' another Air Force officer was quoted as saying of the spy agency. ``It's getting better. It's not fixed.''
Over the last month, CIA drones have fired about 40 missiles in Afghanistan, the Post reported -- the first time remotely piloted aircraft have been able to do so.
Separately, a CIA-run Predator provided the intelligence that led to three days of strikes last week which killed leaders of the al Qaeda network headed by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, the Post said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the CIA was working well with the military in the current campaign.
``I don't want to confirm what the CIA does or does not do,'' he said on the ABC television program ``This Week.''
``Let me just say that they have been doing some rather splendid work with respect to our activities in Afghanistan, working alongside our military forces that are inside Afghanistan,'' Powell said.
``I think we have a very fine linkup between our intelligence assets, our military assets, all within the framework of a good political and military strategy, and it's now starting to show rather significant results.''