The CIA is greatly expanding its presence in Afghanistan as part of a large-scale intelligence “surge” that will see the agency’s station there become among the largest in its history, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.
The US intelligence agency is deploying teams of spies, analysts and paramilitary operatives — on top of the nearly 700 employees it already has in the war-torn country — in parallel with a military expansion that will see 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan by year’s end.
Once the influx is complete, the CIA’s presence will likely rival that of its massive stations in Iraq and Vietnam at the height of the wars there, the newspaper said. It comes amid waning public support for the war and at a time of critical need for improved intelligence as General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and NATO troops in the country, faces an increasingly sophisticated Taliban fueling spiraling violence nearly eight years into the US-led war.
The incoming spies are receiving a broad range of assignments, including working in tandem with special forces units hunting high-value targets, tracking public sentiment in regions seen as shifting support toward the Taliban and gathering intelligence on corruption in the Afghan government, the Times said.
The increase of intelligence personnel, it said, involves not only the CIA but every major spy service, including the National Security Agency, which intercepts calls and e-mail, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which keeps a tab on military threats.
“The Taliban is at its most capable level since 2001, when it was ejected from the country,” an unnamed US Defense Department official told the Times.
The paper cited officials as saying the insurgency now numbers between 15,000 and 20,000 fighters.
The Taliban have already gained a foothold in almost every region home to a significant population of Pashtun tribes.
“They seem never to have a shortage of manpower,” the official said. “And there doesn’t appear to be any shortage of funding.”
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS