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
Just like in Vietnam. :D
THIS PRESIDENT IS SUPPORTING THE VERY PEOPLE THAT TOOK DOWN THE TWIN TOWERS!!!!!!!! WHERE IS THE f***N OUTRAGE!!
It doesn’t look like bringing down America is going to take quite as long as some of us thought.
The nobama WTF foreign policy is working very well...very very well. WTF! nobama hates you, hates your family, hates Free America, hates Americans, hates the Constitution and hates the Bill of Rights. nobama is a hate crime foisted upon the USA.
U.S. Special Forces already on the ground. Two Marine battalions on the way. Ground action to begin by April 2nd.
And Bin Laden said to the American traitor in 2001, “do you want to be a terrorist, or a fighter”?
Our tax dollars against us.
Funny,..I sortof thought the rebels were CIA.
I guess the CIA practice of protecting it’s ops are over.
But, remember, when some “friendly” just there to give you some info blows them up, killing yet more agents... well we told you so.
Have you noticed our MSM keeps harping on how the rebels have artillery and rocket launchers, but don’t know how to use them?
Obama will be offering “military advisers” before the flowers are gone from the cherry blossoms in DC.
That’s what these CIA guys are. That’s what JFK started with.
I remember.
Instead of the term “CIA”, we should be asking the admin about how many military advisers we have in Libya.
Boots? Mitch Rapp don’t need no steekin’ boots.
LOVE IT!
So true! How could I have forgotten!
The rebels are losing so we are there to lose also? Lose money it appears. Where’s Leon Panetta? Maybe he’s the CIA on the ground.
Beaten and BITTEN to death. Bastards. And walker lindh was just a nice Amerian boy who fell in with a bad crowd. Bastards.
Bahrain, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen (CIA too?) I heard so. What exactly is Pres Hussein trying to do? New World Order on a silver platter maybe.
Beyond wonderful. Freakin’ insane!
LOVES the idea of a caliphate and is doing everything it is now in his power to do to make it happen.
caliphate. he is a muslim. First, last, and always.
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