US Official Confirms CIA's 3,000 Man Army in Afghanistan
September 22, 2010
ABC News' Luis Martinez reports:
Newspaper stories advancing Bob Woodward's latest book, "Obama's Wars" have focused on the administration's internal battles in the lead-up to last year's strategy for Afghanistan. But one of the more explosive claims in the book is that the CIA maintains a paramilitary army of 3,000 local Afghans known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams (CTPT's) that targets al Qaeda and the Taliban operatives in the border region with Pakistan.
A U.S. official confirms to ABC News the existence of the previously undisclosed CTPT force saying, "This is one of the best Afghan fighting forces and it's made major contributions to stability and security."
The Washington Post says Woodward characterizes this previously undisclosed Afghan force as "elite, well-trained units that conduct highly sensitive covert operations into Pakistan as part of a stepped-up campaign against al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban havens there." The New York Times advancer of the book says the "covert army" captures and kills Taliban fighters and seeks support in tribal areas.
It's no secret that the U. S. wants to see an end to the safe havens for al Qaeda and the Taliban located in the Pakistan border region known as the Tribal Areas.
The CIA's Predator drone program has targeted al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the tribal areas. It appears the CTPT force is another CIA effort to put pressure on the terror groups inside the border region.
Another revelation in Woodward's book is the secret code name for the CIA's Predator missions in the tribal areas, "Sylvan Magnolia".
In addition to its unilateral efforts, the U.S. has constantly urged Pakistan's government to use its military to put even more pressure on the terror groups. Pakistan began military offensives into the Tribal Areas began last summer, but only after the Pakistani government determined that the Pakistan Taliban posed a national security threat when it began targeting the Pakistani government.
The combined efforts appear to be having an effect. Testifying on Capitol Hill today, Michael Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) said that al Qaeda's sense of security and freedom of movement in the Tribal Areas has been restricted to the point where "al Qaeda in Pakistan is at one of its weakest points organizationally."