Posted on 03/30/2011 4:53:24 PM PDT by kristinn
The CIA has sent more than a dozen covert operatives to Libya as part of an escalating U.S. effort to vet the rebels working to oust Libyan strongman Muammar el-Qaddafi and lay the groundwork for funneling American aid to the insurgents, according to a person with direct knowledge of the CIA operations there.
The CIA’s deployment to Libya, which is virtually certain to expand in the coming days, comes amid word that President Obama has authorized U.S. intelligence agencies to provide direct assistance to the Libyan rebels. There are no U.S. military personnel on the ground in Libya yet, though the United Kingdom, America’s closest battlefield ally, has several dozen Special Air Service commandoes and M16 agents already operating there. News of the CIA deployments to Libya was first reported by The New York Times and then independently confirmed by National Journal.
The CIA operations inside Libya highlight the delicate balancing act that the Obama administration is facing when it comes to the U.S.-led military intervention there. Obama has been adamant that there will be no U.S. military "boots on the ground" inside Libya, and U.S. Special Operations personnel in nearby countries have been placed on high-alert but not yet deployed, according to military officials familiar with the matter.
But with the administration openly considering direct assistance to Libya's rebels, the administration appears to have decided that it needed to get CIA operatives into position there to make contact with Libya's disparate insurgents and begin orchestrating the logistics of providing weaponry, money, and other forms of aid to the fighters.
The small teams of CIA operatives are currently clustered primarily in Benghazi, the de-facto rebel capital, according to the person with knowledge of their activities. Beyond the outreach efforts to Libya's rebels, the U.S. personnel are also meant to gather frontline intelligence about possible targets for future coalition airstrikes, this person said.
The CIA declined to comment.
SNIP
Client #9 CNN interview with New Yorker reporter John Lee in Libya says rebels where he is in Benghazi number in high hundreds to 1500, badly outgunned and outnumbered.
nah- they’re too busy whining about GOP budget cuts...
He's playing down reports of al Qaeda in Libya. Says he's seen a few jihadis, but they're nice and appreciative of America's help.
One problem with having a narcissistic psychopath as commander in chief is the seeming need to get all this typically secret information out to try and make the sicko appear tough.
They don’t wear boots??
Hush Puppies on the ground.
Now we are on the ground, actively assisting Al Quida gain control of the country. Wonderful. Just freaking wonderful.
A breakout of the hometowns of Libyan jihadists who showed up in Iraq:
Note that the 84% of the jihadists came from Darnah and Benghazi, both rebel strongholds that were (as pointed out in the West Point study) previously the scene of Islamist uprisings in the mid-1990's.
This is how our involvement in Vietnam started.
Granted, Libya has a relatively small population, but with hostile regimes on the horizon in Egypt and Yemen, along with the ease through which African foreign fighters can enter the country, we’re seeing the unfolding of a quagmire.
And still... we have NO FRIGGING IDEA of the Libyan insurgents’ aims!
I’m very sorry for the families of those troops whose lives will be lost in the coming ground action. How should the notifications be worded... “Please know your son/daughter gave his/her life for the flag of islam?” Because it sure as hell wasn’t for the cause of freedom.
Because Jihadis have every incentive to tell us they’re there and will take over once we do their work [not]
That would be Mike Spann. Jonny Spann is his father.
First American killed in this Afghanistan war. CIA, correct?
I so wish the Libyan Army would pour in there, wipe that contingent out, and moot this whole issue. We have NO business there!!!!!
Thank you for posting those charts
Why are we telegraphing ourselves?
/no need to answer...it was rhetorical.
Mike, right. My bad.
The CIA sent small teams of operatives into Libya after the agency's station in the capital was forced to close, and CIA officers assisted in the rescue of one of the two crew members of an F-15E Strike Eagle that crashed, an American official and a former U.S. intelligence officer told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
SNIP
Any Al Qaeda presence = total Al Qaeda presence. Same thing.
Day late and a dollar short I’d say. Gaddafi closing in for the kill. I had thought this coming weekend we would see Tripoli invested. Instead, Benghazi...
The knives are coming out. Imagine being one of those rebels that gave interviews on CNN/FOX/NBC/ or even appeared on YOUTUBE. I would be Egypt bound, with great rapidity...
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