An interesting piece by Greg Miller and Julie Tate in today's Washington Post on the transformation within the CIA from strictly gathering intelligence and providing policymakers with analysis to increasingly devoting personnel and resources to capture or kill operations. Money quote from a "former senior U.S. intelligence official": You've taken an agency that was chugging along and turned it into one hell of a killing machine. (Another CIA veteran quoted the head of the Counter Terrorism Center as saying "We are killing these sons of bitches faster than they can grow them now.") Undoubtedly, the CTC, especially in coordination with Joint Special Operation Command forces has become incredibly efficient at targeting al-Qa'ida leaders and reducing the networks threat to the U.S. homeland.
In addition to describing the CTC's growth in personnel and resources, the article also echoes a concern I've heard from some friends in the intelligence community that these types of operations should fall under the purview of the JSOC so that the CIA can return to its core mission of gathering intelligence on broader strategic issues and offering neutral assessments/analysis to policymakers. To be honest, given how complex the underlying issues and authorities are (something Miller and Tate make clear), I'm hesitant to offer an opinion. But whether so much lethality should be invested in a covert organization is a legitimate line of inquiry, I think.
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