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CIA inducts special forces for Iraq

As part of its preparations for a possible attack on Iraq, the Central Intelligence Agency has drafted special operations forces to carry out covert counter-terrorism missions in the country, a move that will allow the Pentagon to maintain that the US Army is not in action, a media report said on Monday.

"In one of the most significant steps, elite special operations troops have been told to separate from the military temporarily and join CIA units that could be used in any campaign," The New York Times said quoting senior military officers.

They said several steps had been taken by US commanders to prepare and deploy their forces for a probable attack, but steps had been "calculated" not to interfere with the George W Bush administration's campaign to build diplomatic and political support for taking action, the paper said.

In interviews to the paper, these officers described several important steps that the US had taken to prepare for battle without going on a full war footing. They said no American military forces were operating in southern or western Iraq, although they would not say whether the CIA was already undertaking missions there.

One senior officer said a number of Americans from several federal agencies had flown in and out of the Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq to co-ordinate with opposition groups there.

The navy has accelerated training and maintenance schedules for many ships, including three carrier battle groups based on the West Coast, so that they can be ordered to steam toward the Persian Gulf on short notice.

Several thousand Marines and army ground forces, being deployed with heavy armour, are flowing into Kuwait as part of regularly scheduled exercises or troop replacements. But senior officials acknowledge that fresh units or others timed to rotate out could be ordered to remain along the front with Iraq, the Times said.

Preparations involving the special operations units, the paper said, reflect their decisive role during the war in Afghanistan, where they worked closely with intelligence agencies.

Senior officials who discussed their role in general terms with the paper said it was standard procedure to prepare the units for contingencies, citing their particular combat skills. But the officials did not disclose details.

A senior defence department official was quoted as saying that "some small handfuls" of special operations forces offered the kinds of abilities that would be useful to the CIA. Their missions, the paper said, would fall into broad categories like what the military calls "preparing the battlefield".

Unclassified texts on military doctrine say that could include solidifying ties with opposition forces, scouting for arsenals of biological and chemical weapons and the artillery or missiles that would launch them, and mounting sabotage raids against prized targets.

The Pentagon last week resumed inoculating certain troops for anthrax, General Richard B Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has told Congress. To some extent, the latest disclosures serve the military's purposes by indicating the readiness and resolve of American forces, the paper added.

PTI

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