‘CIA Operating in Libya’
March 31st, 2011This story is a month old:
“We’ve been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and, as the revolution moves westward, there as well,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said en route to Geneva for talks on Libya. The U.S. will provide “any kind of assistance” to those seeking to end Qaddafi’s 41-year dictatorship, she said.
Via: NPR:
The CIA has sent a small, covert team into rebel-held eastern Libya while the White House debates whether to arm the opposition, NPR has confirmed.
The operatives are in Libya to gather intelligence to help direct NATO airstrikes and to help train inexperienced rebel fighters.
“The CIA team is there to train them how to shoot, how to fight, how to have military discipline,” NPR’s Deborah Amos reported from Cairo. “They are joining a team of former Libyan military officers who are now training about 30,000 young Libyans in the rebel stronghold to also improve discipline, improve communications and make it into a more coherent fighting force.”
The team’s deployment was authorized after President Obama signed what’s called a “finding,” a legal step necessary before the CIA can carry out secret operations, NPR’s Tom Bowman reported. The move puts the U.S. squarely on the side of the rebels.
“They’ll no longer be able to say that the coalition is there only to protect civilians,” Bowman said.
