With The U.S. Military Gone, The CIA Faces Tough Challenges In Afghanistan
The CIA and the military depend on each other in war zones like Afghanistan. Now that U.S. forces have pulled out almost entirely, the spy agency will have a harder time keeping tabs on the Taliban.
Just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, a handful of CIA officers were the first Americans sent into Afghanistan. was one of them, and he recalled his marching orders. "Link up with the Northern Alliance [rebels], get their cooperation militarily, and they will take on the Taliban," he said in a with NPR. "And when we break the Taliban, your job is to capture [Osama] bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box on dry ice." CIA paramilitary operations date back to the But with the U.S. military all but gone from Afghanistan, and with the Taliban rapidly gaining ground on the battlefield, the CIA faces a new set of challenges as it attempts to monitor developments in that country.
