CIA’s Big Afghanistan Problem
Biden's withdrawal agreement likely leaves U.S. spies without an Afghan base
Jeff Stein
Apr 13
This day was going to come—it had to come someday. Now the CIA can start ticking off the days to its eviction from Afghanistan, set cruelly for the 2Oth anniversary of the 9/11 calamity that brought it there in the first place.
Judging by the withdrawal plan President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday, the CIA won’t have anybody reliable to protect itself come September. All U.S. troops will be gone on September 11, leaving the future of a CIA presence in Afghanistan—and a check on a resurgent al-Qaeda—in grave doubt and, for ever how long the spy agency remnants try to hang on, to the mercy of the Taliban, the Islamic State and assorted outfits like the vicious Haqqani network.
Once U.S. troops leave, CIA operators hunkered down in Kabul and Bagram air base can’t count on the beleaguered, largely corrupt Afghan army or police forces to defend them. Afghan security forces "remain tied down in defensive missions and have struggled to hold recaptured territory or reestablish a presence in areas abandoned in 2020," according to a national intelligence report released Tuesday.
"The Taliban is likely to make gains on the battlefield," it added, cautioning that "the Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support."
https://www.spytalk.co/p/cia-is-so-fcked-in-afghanistan
