Afghan soldiers, whose time at Camp Nowruz is up, are flown away from the outpost in Marja, southern Afghanistan, May 14, 2021
New York Times: CIA scrambles for a new approach in Afghanistan
The rapid US military withdrawal from Afghanistan is creating intense pressure on the CIA to find new ways to gather intelligence and carry out counterterrorism strikes in the country, but the agency has few good options.
The CIA, which has been at the heart of the 20-year American presence in Afghanistan, will soon lose bases in the country from where it has run combat missions and drone strikes while closely monitoring the Taliban and other groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The agency’s analysts are warning of the ever-growing risks of a Taliban takeover.
U.S. officials are in last-minute efforts to secure bases close to Afghanistan for future operations. But the complexity of the continuing conflict has led to thorny diplomatic negotiations as the military pushes to have all forces out by early to mid-July, well before President Joe Biden’s deadline of Sept. 11, according to U.S. officials and regional experts.
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WNU Editor: I am sure the CIA is going to keep a presence in Afghanistan. But it is going to be a shadow of what it once was.
