The Central Intelligence Agency is preparing to cut its presence in
Iraq to less than half of wartime levels, according to U.S. officials familiar
with the planning, a move that is largely a result of challenges the CIA faces
operating in a country that no longer welcomes a major U.S.
presence.
Under the plans being considered, the CIA's presence in Iraq would be
reduced to 40% of wartime levels, when Baghdad was the largest CIA station in
the world with more than 700 agency personnel, officials said.
The CIA had already begun to pull back in Iraq since the height of
the war, officials said. But the drawdown, coming six months after the departure
of American military forces, would be significant. The officials declined to
provide exact numbers, give a breakdown of levels of analysts versus covert
operators or say where agency workers would be redeployed, all of which are
classified.
The move comes amid worries over possible gaps in U.S. intelligence
about the threat posed by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Administration officials, diplomats
and intelligence analysts have in recent weeks debated whether the organization
is a growing threat after an internal government report pointed to a rise in the
number of attacks this year, officials said. Wall Street Journal
Proponents argue that al-Qaeda in Iraq no longer directly threatens
the United States and the CIA could instead boost its presence in hotspots such
as Yemen. rferl.org The CIA does not mention a timetable for implementing the plan, but
quotes officials as saying that a CIA drawdown has already begun.
rferl.org The planned reductions at the CIA represent a major shift from the
approach under consideration just six months ago. Late last year, the CIA and
Pentagon were considering several options for CIA and special-operations
commandos to team up in Iraq, according to current and former officials. One
option was to have special-operations forces operate under covert CIA authority,
similar to the arrangement used in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in
Pakistan. "There was a general consensus," said a former intelligence official,
"that there was a need for this in Iraq." WSJ But as it became clear that the U.S. would withdraw all troops and
that the Iraqi government was less inclined to accept an expansive CIA-special
operations role, those plans were tabled. "It's not going to happen," said a
U.S. official. WSJ
SM/KA
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