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CIA Secret Warriors fight a hidden war in Afghanistan

The US CIA has had a clandestine paramilitary unit about 150 strong from its Special Operations Group(SOG) conducting a hidden war in Afghanistan since before the 20th September. It is composed mainly of former US military personnel and it had entered Afghanistan well before any other US forces, paving the way for the arrival of the Special Forces. It has been engaged in actual combat with the Taliban and Al Qaida forces.

The SOG are part of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, whose primary mission is to conduct clandestine intelligence-gathering. This includes traditional case officers, who work out of U.S. embassies or under business or journalistic cover. The Special Activities Division which directly controls the CIA's 'secret soldiers' has been provided with specialized CIA case officers from the agency's Near East Division who speak the local languages and have had previous covert relationships with the Northern Alliance and other anti-Taliban groups since 1994.

The role of the CIA's paramilitary units has been particularly important in Afghanistan because much of the war has turned on intelligence and targeting information.  Indeed recently CIA-operated  Predator UAV's provided intelligence resulting in three days of strikes that killed key Al-Qaida leaders and this capability may have also have played a role in the successful attack on Mohammed Atef, the senior operations adviser to Osama Bin-Laden whose death was later confirmed by the Taliban.

CIA's Private Army

The highly secret CIA capability provided by the Special Activities Division, consists of teams of about half a dozen men who do not normally wear military uniforms. The Division can call upon the services of about 250 covert action specialists,pilots, communications experts and probably still has access to a number of professional assassins.  Most are hardened veterans who have 'retired' early from the Special Forces The division's arsenal includes stealth helicopters, clandestine air assets and the unmanned aerial Predator drones equipped with high-resolution cameras and even Hellfire antitank missiles.  The CIA's Special Operations Group co-operates closely with the British SIS, SAS, and the US SEAL-6 and Delta Force, but has a rather more distant relationship with other US Special Forces such as the Green Berets, Rangers and US Marines who are really superb elite infantry rather than true Special Forces

The SOG  or "snake eaters" are virtually a independent 'secret army' with their own dedicated annual budget of over $4 billion. Depending on the particular unit, they are subjected to a gruelling training regime at 'The Farm' (Camp Peary) and other covert facilities in preparation for a wide variety of missions ranging from hostage rescue to deep-penetration reconnaissance behind enemy lines to small-scale strikes, sabotage, assassination and urban warfare.

Their use for offensive action has in the past required a presidential ``finding,'' such as the wide-ranging 'clear and present danger' declaration signed by President Bush authorizing the CIA to make war on Al-Qaida following the Sept. 11 attacks.  Such findings lay out what activities are permitted and senior congressional leaders should be informed of the covert action as well, however it the light of recent statements restraint may no longer be uppermost in the mindset either at Langley or for that matter the Whitehouse. This carries the inherent risk of a return to the CIA's unbridled used of covert action to destabilize foreign regimes, stage coups and to carry out sabotage and assassination operations that so nearly brought about the destruction of the Agency by President Carter and Admiral Stansfield Turner in the late 1970's.

Britains 'snake-eaters'

Much less attention is paid however, to the role of the 'field officers' provided by the British Intelligence Service, the SIS(MI6). These officers have a reputation for great skill and local knowledge and have proved invaluable to the CIA in Afghanistan. The SIS operations group is made up largely of combat veterans from the SAS & SBS with years of experience in Oman, Yemen, Afghanistan and much of the Middle East. Expert in local traditions, habits, languages and the complicated political, ethnic and religious situation of the region, the SIS have much to offer the United States Intelligence community and will probably be asked to play an increasingly important role as the War on Terrorism spreads to other nations in the Middle East and Asia.

Richard M. Bennett

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