The Petraeus Legacy: A Paramilitary CIA?

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/14-6



While much of the media focus on l’affaire Petraeus has centered on the CIA director’s sexual relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, the scandal opens a window onto a different and more consequential relationship—that between the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command. In a behind-the-scenes turf war that has raged since 9/11, the two government bodies have fought for control of the expanding global wars waged by the United States—a turf war that JSOC has largely won. Petraeus, an instrumental player in this power struggle, leaves behind an agency that has strayed from intelligence to paramilitary-type activities. Though his legacy will be defined largely by the scandal that ended his career, to many within military and intelligence circles, Petraeus’s career trajectory, from commander of US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to the helm of the CIA, is a symbol of this evolution.

"I would not say that CIA has been taken over by the military, but I would say that the CIA has become more militarized,” Philip Giraldi, a retired career CIA case officer, told The Nation. “A considerable part of the CIA budget is now no longer spying; it’s supporting paramilitaries who work closely with JSOC to kill terrorists, and to run the drone program.” The CIA, he added, “is a killing machine now.”

As head of US Central Command in 2009, Petraeus issued execute orders that significantly broadened the ability of US forces to operate in a variety of countries, including Yemen, where US forces began conducting missile strikes later that year. During Petraeus’s short tenure at the CIA, drone strikes conducted by the agency, sometimes in conjunction with JSOC, escalated dramatically in Yemen; in his first month in office, he oversaw a series of strikes that killed three US citizens, including 16-year-old Abdulrahman Awlaki. In some cases, such as the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, commandos from the elite JSOC operated under the auspices of the CIA, so that the mission could be kept secret if it went wrong.

[marions ghost]

1. Setting up for the

"expanding global wars" waged by the United States.

[HiPointDem]

2. interesting. i've had this sense of turf war for awhile. i felt something like that was going on

in the valerie plame thing, for example.

[xchrom]

3. agreed. it has had that feel. nt

[HiPointDem]

5. glad i'm not the only one. it would be interesting to know what the real behind the scenes

reasons were, but i don't suppose we ever will.

i've read cia is actually only a small part of the intelligence establishment, & there's turf wars between agencies within the intelligence establishment too. but it's cia we mostly hear about, as if it *were* US intelligence. i wonder why.

peter dale scott had some pithy quote which i can't remember, but the gist was that what's out in the open isn't the real power; the people you read about aren't running the show.

clowns like sarah palin being exhibit A.

[Berlum]

4. "The CIA is a killing machine now.” - Retired CIA agent

[reformist2]

6. In other words, the CIA = Cover for Illegal Activities?