Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Does CIA Covert Aid Ever Work?

C.I.A. Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency has run guns to insurgencies across the world during its 67-year history — from Angola to Nicaragua to Cuba. The continuing C.I.A. effort to train Syrian rebels is just the latest example of an American president becoming enticed by the prospect of using the spy agency to covertly arm and train rebel groups.

An internal C.I.A. study has found that it rarely works.

The still-classified review, one of several C.I.A. studies commissioned in 2012 and 2013 in the midst of the Obama administration’s protracted debate about whether to wade into the Syrian civil war, concluded that many past attempts by the agency to arm foreign forces covertly had a minimal impact on the long-term outcome of a conflict. They were even less effective, the report found, when the militias fought without any direct American support on the ground.

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My Comment: After being involved in countess wars. Spending untold amounts of money. Making foreign policy decisions based on CIA covert aid. Untold lives lost. They are now coming out and saying that this rarely works?!?!?!?!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It works.

It works depending on how well the political establishment backs it.

Does half the political establishment back the CIA?