A special operations plane is readied for a mission in Afghanistan. The U.S. may expand the use of teams that combine CIA operatives and special operations soldiers. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press / September 5, 2009)US Spies In Afghanistan Are Clueless, Says Intelligence Chief -- Times Online
America's deputy chief of military intelligence in Afghanistan has issued a damning indictment of the work of US spy agencies, calling them clueless and out of touch with the Afghan people.
Major General Michael Flynn described US spies as “ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced... and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers”.
The bleak assessment of the intelligence community’s role in the eight-year-old war came in a report issued by the Center for New American Security, a US think tank. It comes less than a week after the CIA suffered one of the most damaging blows in its history, when a suicide bomber killed seven of its operatives at Camp Chapman, a high security CIA base near Khost in eastern Afghanistan.
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Update: Intelligence overhaul ordered for Afghanistan -- L.A. Times
My Comment: If U.S. Intelligence agencies have failed in Afghanistan, one will have to question to what extent was their information then used by President Obama to determine the level of commitment to the surge in Afghanistan. For the moment we do not know .... I can only hope that more questions and answers will be forth coming in the next few days.