CIA Struggles to Spy in Iraq, Afghanistan

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040220/ts_latimes/ciastrugglestospyiniraqafghanistan&cid=2026&ncid=1480

<Snip>
The previously undisclosed moves underscore the problems affecting the agency's clandestine service at a time when it is confronting insurgencies and the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, current and former CIA officers say. They said a series of stumbles and operational constraints have hampered the agency's ability to penetrate the insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites), find Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and gain traction against terrorism in the Middle East.


The CIA's Baghdad station has become the largest in agency history, eclipsing the size of its post in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War, a U.S. official said. But sources said the agency has struggled to fill a number of key overseas posts.

Many of those who do take sensitive overseas assignments are willing to serve only 30- to 90-day rotations, a revolving-door approach that has undercut the agency's ability to cultivate ties to warlords in Afghanistan or collect intelligence on the Iraqi insurgency, sources said.

There is such a shortage of Arabic speakers and qualified case officers willing to take dangerous assignments that the agency has been forced to hire dozens — if not hundreds — of CIA retirees, and to lean heavily on translators, sources said. The agency has also had to use soldiers for tasks that CIA officers normally perform, sources said.

[gandalf]

1. What exactly would be the work of the CIA in Iraq?

Besides finding "terrorists"? Or is that they key task?

[Barrett808]

2. "lean heavily on translators"

Great oppotunity for infiltration by the insurgency...