Is The CIA Expanding It's Facilities In Iraq's Kurdistan?

Expansion Of ‘Secret’ CIA Post Suggests Closer U.S.-Kurd Ties -- Seattle Times/McClatchy News

Western contractors hired to expand the facility and a local intelligence official confirmed the construction project, which is visible from the main highway linking Irbil to Mosul, the city whose fall June 10 triggered the Islamic State’s sweep through northern and central Iraq.

IRBIL, Iraq — A supposedly secret but locally well-known CIA station on the outskirts of Irbil’s airport is undergoing rapid expansion as the United States considers its options in Iraq, where Sunni militants have seized control in many regions.

Western contractors hired to expand the facility and a local intelligence official confirmed the construction project, which is visible from the main highway linking Erbil to Mosul, the city whose fall June 10 triggered the Islamic State’s sweep through northern and central Iraq. Residents around the airport say they can hear daily what they suspect are U.S. drones taking off and landing at the facility.

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Update: CIA expanding facilities in Kurdistan? -- Hot Air

My Comment: If this report is true .... it tells me that the U.S. intelligence community has given up on Iraq and are now hedging their "bets" with the Kurds. Either way .... this is a seismic change in U.S. policy.

Why The CIA Failed In Iraq

Maliki Compromised CIA Spies in Iraq for Years -- Jeff Stein, Newsweek

U.S. military advisors arriving in Iraq better be careful who they talk to and where they go: Their Iraq ‘allies’ will almost certainly be spying on them.

According to three current and former CIA officers, the Iraqi government, led by Muslim Shiites with close ties to Iran, has waged an aggressive campaign against the spy agency and other U.S. security personnel in the country for several years. “They cover us like a blanket,” says former CIA official John Maguire, who was deputy CIA station chief in Iraq in 2004 and maintains widespread contacts there as an oil business consultant.

The first targets of Iraq’s counterspies were CIA contacts in the fledgling Iraq National Intelligence Service, or INIS, set up by the CIA in 2004, Maguire and others say. Its first chief was a longtime CIA asset, Gen. Mohammed Shahwani, an Iraqi Sunni who had plotted against the late dictator Saddam Hussein. The INIS soon came under assault by the rival, Shiite-led Ministry of Interior, headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

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Update #1:CIA let Iraq spy network wither after troop withdrawal, officials claim -- FOX News/AP
Update #2: Officials Say Iraq Pullout Hurt US Spying -- Newsmax

My Comment: I guess everyone is now looking for an excuse to explain why Iraq is imploding .... the CIA included.

CIA Ups It's Presence In Iraq To Combat Al Qaeda

CIA Ratchets Covert Operations In Iraq To Fight Al Qaeda -- Washington Times

Central Intelligence Agency officials have ramped up covert missions in Iraq to root out al Qaeda operatives who are providing assistance to militant fighters in Syria.

An unnamed U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal that the increased CIA role is aimed at supporting Iraq’s own Counter-terrorism Service, CTS. The CTS targets the group, al Qaeda in Iraq — also called al Qaeda in Mesopotamia — which is a Salafi jihadi militant movement, United Press International reports.

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More News On The CIA Increasing It's Operations In Iraq

CIA Ramps Up Role in Iraq -- Wall Street Journal
Fearing Syria Spillover, CIA Ups Iraq Presence -- Newser
Report: The CIA Increasing Operations in Iraq -- Mother Jones
CIA Boosts Support for Iraqi Militias -- Antiwar.com

My Comment: One of the biggest criticisms of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in December 2011 was the dismantling of it's intelligence assets in the country .... specifically it's counter-terrorism operations. But this was what the Iraqis wanted .... and this is what they got. Hmmmm .... I suspect that they are now regreting making such a decision .... hence the reason why they want this cooperation now.

Update: CIA Plan Shows Mistake of Iraq Withdrawal -- Max Boot, Commentary

CIA Prepares To Drawdown From Iraq

CIA Prepares To Cut Iraq Presence To 40% Of Wartime Level -- FOX News/Wall Street Journal

The CIA is preparing to cut its presence in Iraq to less than half of wartime levels, according to US officials familiar with the planning -- a move that is largely a result of challenges the agency faces operating in a country that no longer welcomes a major US presence.

Under the plans being considered, the CIA's presence in Iraq would be reduced to 40 percent of wartime levels, when Baghdad was the largest CIA station in the world with more than 700 agency personnel, officials said.

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Update #1: Report Says CIA Planning Large Drawdown In Iraq -- Radio Free Europe
Update #2:
Now the CIA joins the Obama retreat from Iraq -- Marc Thiessen, the American

My Comment: A few months ago the U.S. administration was claiming that a heavy and entrenched CIA presence (with special forces) would be a cornerstone of U.S. counter-terrorism operations in Iraq .... and now they are withdrawing? There is more to this story than what they are telling us.

Errors On Iraq's WMDs Still Haunts The CIA

Ghosts Of Iraq Haunting C.I.A. In Tackling Iran -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — At the nation’s top spy agency, the ghosts of Iraq are never far away.

One C.I.A. analyst who had helped develop some of the intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction had a breakdown months after the Iraq war began; he had participated in the post-invasion hunt there that found the weapons did not exist. When he eventually was given a new assignment assessing Iran’s nuclear program, he confided a fear to colleagues: that the intelligence community might get it wrong again.

“He felt enormous guilt that he had gotten us into the war,” said one former official who worked with the analyst. “He was afraid it was going to be déjà vu all over again.”

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Update: U.S. Intel Undermined by Iraq, Obama -- Omri Ceren, Commentary

My Comment: I expect this mindset of skepticism, fear of being wrong, being cautious, etc. .... will be present in Langley (and the politicians who listen to them) for a very very long time.

U.S. Intel Operations In Iraq Blinded With U.S. Military Withdrawal

Iraq Pullout Blinds U.S. Intel Operations -- UPI

BAGHDAD, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq is cutting off vital intelligence bases and listening posts that have played a key role in clandestine operations that have scored major successes in the global counter-terrorism campaign.

The Central Intelligence Agency, which until recently operated outside the military establishment, is expected to stay on in various guises within the 17,000 U.S. personnel who will remain under State Department jurisdiction.

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My Comment: Hiring more private contractors is not going to cut it.

Will The CIA Still Remain In Iraq After The U.S. Military Leaves At The End Of This Year?

CIA's Covert Iraq Mission -- Eli Lake, Daily Beast

Obama says U.S. troops are leaving Iraq, but the future of secret counterterrorism and intelligence programs inside the country is still being hashed out. Eli Lake reports on how big a footprint the CIA will leave behind.

As the U.S. military departs Iraq, the CIA is looking at how it can absorb and continue secret counterterrorism and intelligence programs run inside that country for years by the Joint Special Operations Command and other military organizations, officials tell The Daily Beast.

The programs involve everything from the deployment of remote sensors that scan the wireless spectrum of terrorist safe havens to stealth U.S.-Iraqi counterterrorism commando teams, and their status is uncertain as a U.S. diplomatic team negotiates with Iraqi leaders, according to officials, who made clear the CIA intends to keep a footprint inside the country even as troops leave by Dec. 31.

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My Comment: I read a lot of "ifs and buts" in this report .... but it appears that the Iraqi government has little if any interest for any US presence in the country .... and the White House has little if any interest to push the Iraqis to reconsider (at least publicly). Will the CIA remain in Iraq .... probably .... but it will definitely not have the presence and resources that it has had for the past few years. As for counter-terrorism operations continuing .... the thought that such a question is even being asked is troublesome .... and worrisome if Iraq does not step up to put a check on groups like Al Qaeda and its affiliates.

CIA Sacked Baghdad Station Chief After Deaths Of 2 Detainees

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON — The CIA removed its station chief in Iraq and reorganized its operations there in late 2003 following "potentially very serious leadership lapses" that included the deaths of detainees in the U.S. custody, according to a newly released document and former senior officials.

The memorandum and other partially declassified documents shed a rare light on the abuse and death of detainees in CIA custody, a subject the agency has long sought to shield from public view.

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My Comment: There are going to be more stories like this one being made public in the next few weeks/months.

The Secret American Army In Iraq

From Strategy Page:

The United States now has thousands of spies inside Iraq. This didn't happen overnight. For the last five years, the U.S. has been building an informant network there. This sort of thing takes time, and knowledge of how Arab culture works, and how to work it. The U.S. Army Special Forces, the CIA, reservist cops and Israel were key components. The results (mostly classified) have been impressive. For example, last year, tips from Iraqis led to the discovery of 6,963 weapons caches, plus similar information on safe houses and terrorists themselves. During the first half of 2009, tips led to finding nearly 5,000 weapons caches.

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My Comment: One of my first posts in this blog was a rant on what I felt was an absence of intelligence resources in Iraq. Things have clearly changed in the past year.