The CIA is planning to close its satellite bases in Afghanistan and pull all its personnel back to Kabul by early summer in an unexpectedly abrupt withdrawal, according to a newspaper report.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the US military fears the quick withdrawal will deprive it of vital intelligence while thousands of American troops remain in the country.
Citing unnamed US officials in its report, the report noted that CIA Director John Brennan informed US military commanders in March that his agency would close operations outside Kabul, removing CIA case officers and analysts as well as National Security Agency specialists responsible for intercepting insurgent phone calls and other communications, a rich source of daily intelligence.
“Pentagon officials warn that the CIA drawdown after 12 years of war is coming just as insurgent attacks are normally at their peak. As a result, the CIA withdrawal has strained relations between the agency and military commanders in Kabul,” the officials said, according to the newspaper report.
The newspaper said intelligence officials confirmed the drawdown, but said the pace is still uncertain. They linked the CIA move to the steady pullout of US military forces who normally provide protection and logistical support for the network of intelligence-gathering outposts, which often are hidden inside US military bases. Hundreds of those forward operating bases have now closed, although dozens are still operating.
“There is no stomach in the building for going out there on our own,” said a former CIA operator who has spoken to current officers about the pullback. “We are not putting our people out there without US forces.”
The CIA, the report says, also plans this summer to stop paying the salaries of Afghan paramilitary forces that it has armed and trained for more than a decade to help fight the Taliban-led insurgency in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. It’s unclear what will happen to the militias.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is seeking to persuade the CIA to slow its withdrawal, arguing that keeping CIA and NSA operators in the field as long as possible will help prevent a surge in insurgent attacks before the end of 2014, when most US troops are due to leave.