Page 2 - aruba-today-20220809

A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 9 augusT 2022
Continued from Front pride for many people who
There's been a quiet pivot credit its work for keeping
within intelligence agen- Americans safe from ter-
cies, which are moving rorism after Sept. 11. CIA
hundreds of officers to officers landed in Afghani-
China-focused positions, stan on Sept. 26, 2001, and
including some who were were part of operations to
previously working on ter- displace the Taliban and
rorism. find and kill leaders of al-
Intelligence officials stress Qaida including Osama
that the counterterrorism bin Laden. And 13 years af-
fight is hardly being ig- ter a double agent tricked
nored. Just a week ago it officers pursuing al-Zawahri
revealed a CIA drone at- and blew himself up, killing
tack killed al-Qaida leader seven agency employees,
Ayman al-Zawahri in Ka- the CIA killed him in a strike
bul. But days later, China with no reported civilian
staged large-scale military casualties.
exercises and threatened The CIA was also involved
to cut off contacts with the in some of the darkest mo-
U.S. over House Speaker ments of the fight against
Nancy Pelosi's visit to Tai- terrorism. It operated se-
wan. It underscored the Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen testifies on Capitol cret "black site" jails to hold
message CIA deputy direc- Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Iran terrorism suspects, some
tor David Cohen had deliv- sanctions. wrongly, and was found
ered at that meeting weeks Associated Press by a Senate investigation
ago: the agency's top pri- to have used interrogation
ority is trying to understand that America is ill-equipped to several people familiar two new "mission centers" methods that amounted to
and counter Beijing. to counter. with the matter who spoke — one on China, one on torture. Elite Afghan special
The U.S. has long been The shift in priorities is sup- on condition of anonymity emerging technologies — operations units trained by
alarmed by China's grow- ported by many former to discuss sensitive intelli- to centralize and improve the CIA were also accused
ing political and economic intelligence officers and gence matters. Pushing re- intelligence collection on of killing civilians and violat-
ambitions. China has tried lawmakers from both par- sources toward China has those issues. The CIA is also ing international law.
to influence foreign elec- ties who say it's overdue. required cuts elsewhere, trying to recruit more Chi- There's long been a debate
tions, mounted campaigns That includes people who including in counterterror- nese speakers and reduce over whether counterter-
of cyber and corporate es- served in Afghanistan and ism. Specific figures were wait times on security clear- rorism pulled intelligence
pionage, and detained mil- other missions against al- unavailable because intel- ances to hire new people agencies too far away
lions of minority Uyghurs in Qaida and other terrorist ligence budgets are classi- faster. from traditional spying and
camps. Some experts also groups. fied. Inside the agency, many whether some of the CIA's
think Beijing will in coming Rep. Jason Crow, a former In particular, lawmakers officers are learning Chi- work in targeting terrorists
years try to seize the self- Army Ranger who served in want more information nese and moving into new should instead be done by
ruled democratic island of Afghanistan and Iraq, said about China's develop- roles focused on China, special forces under the
Taiwan by force. he believed the U.S. had ment in advanced tech- though not all of those jobs military.
Intelligence officials have been overly focused on nologies. Under President require language training, Marc Polymeropoulos is a
said they need more in- counterterrorism over the Xi Jinping, China has com- people familiar with the retired CIA operations offi-
sights on China, including last several years. mitted trillions of dollars in matter said. cer and former base chief
after being unable to defin- "A far greater existential investment on quantum Officials note that intelli- in Afghanistan.
itively pinpoint the cause of threat is Russia and China," science, artificial intelli- gence officers are trained He said he supports a great-
the COVID-19 pandemic. said Crow, a Colorado gence and other technolo- to adapt to new challeng- er focus on China and Rus-
Beijing has been accused Democrat who serves on gies that are likely to disrupt es and that many were sia but added, "There's no
of withholding information the House Intelligence and how future wars are fought moved more quickly into reason to diminish what we
about the origins of the vi- Armed Services commit- and economies are struc- counterterrorism roles af- had to do."
rus. tees. Terrorist groups, he tured. ter the attacks of Sept. 11, "This notion that somehow
And the war in Ukraine has said, "will not destroy the As part of the shift, congres- 2001. Advances from coun- all the CT work we did,
underscored Russia's impor- American way of life ... the sional committees are try- terterrorism work — includ- somehow that was wrong,
tance as a target. The U.S. way China can." ing to better track how in- ing better use of data and that we took our eye of
used declassified informa- CIA spokesperson Tammy telligence agencies spend different sources of intel- the ball — just remember
tion to expose Russian Presi- Thorp noted that terrorism their funding on China, ligence to build networks on Sept. 12 what everyone
dent Vladimir Putin's war "remains a very real chal- seeking more detail about and identify targets — are was feeling," he said.
plans before the invasion lenge." how specific programs also useful in countering Re-orienting the agencies
and rally diplomatic sup- "Even as crises such as Rus- contribute to that mission, Russia and China, former toward more of a focus
port for Kyiv. sia's invasion of Ukraine one person familiar with the officers said. on China and Russia will
Supporters of the Biden and strategic challenges matter said. "It's the analytics and tar- ultimately take years and
administration approach such as that posed by the "We are late, but it's good geting machine that has require both patience and
note that the fact the U.S. People's Republic of China that we're finally changing become extraordinary," recognition that the agen-
was able to track and kill demand our attention, CIA our focus into that region," said Douglas Wise, a former cy's culture will take time to
al-Zawahri is evidence of will continue to aggres- said Rep. Chris Stewart, CIA senior officer who was change, Wise said.
its capabilities to target sively track terrorist threats a Utah Republican who deputy chief of operations "For decades, we have
threats in Afghanistan from globally and work with serves on the House Intel- at the counterterrorism been doing counterterror-
abroad. Critics say the fact partners to counter them," ligence Committee. "That center. ism," Wise said. "We've got
that al-Zawahri was living in Thorp said. means in people, in re- The CIA's Counterterror- to have a rational plan
Kabul, under the apparent Congress has pushed the sources, in military assets, ism Center, renamed the to make this adaptation,
protection of the Taliban, CIA and other intelligence and in diplomacy." Counterterrorism Mission which doesn't take so long
suggests there's a resur- agencies to make China The CIA last year an- Center in a 2015 reorgani- that our enemies can ex-
gence of extremist groups a top priority, according nounced it would create zation, remains a point of ploit a glacial process."q