The Latest Secret War of the CIA

Special agents are on the ground to guide the bombers. In small teams, they infiltrate the lines to gather information. Where there are typically “smart weapons,” they are there to guide them to their targets.

America is in Libya as in Afghanistan, hoping for better results. The well-known scenery of a small war is being entrusted to small commandos. The mission is the same that was created to overthrow the Taliban 10 years ago: for the CIA to influence events in America’s favor.

American and British special forces – under the CIA’s operational control – have been active in Libya for weeks to guide the bombers, find Gadhafi and support the march of the rebels and then leave the clans to proclaim victory. It is not the “long arm of the CIA” or of the British MI6 to pull the strings of the puppets, as in the coup against Allende in Chile, against Diem in Vietnam or against Mossadegh in Iran. It was the unexpected revolt that moved the CIA to action.

It is an obligatory choice that the American government gives to newspapers such as the New York Times, so that they can reveal what everybody was suspecting. This has happened for decades, and long before Bush Jr.’s wars; it is the modus operandi of the U.S. when it wants to lead proxy wars and maintain the “deniability” of their official presence. Therefore, they would not be the ones to lose the war, if it ends badly.

The Pentagon’s generals and admirals were clear and Obama gathered their refusals to be dragged into another undertaking for “regime change”: “No boots on the ground.” Obama promised that no American soldiers would be on the ground of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. Defense minister Robert Gates and the administration showed serious doubts about the no-fly zone: “It is not a video-game,” said White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.

Only the possibility of a “Plan B” remained, which was the less involved solution: the insertion, which usually is carried out by submarines that approach enemy shores, as happened in Somalia. “Divers” also reappeared in the Mediterranean, which is not patrolled as regularly. Teams of Special Forces land on the ground. They are special units, rangers from the army, Navy SEALs, Delta Forces and officers generally trained for intelligence tasks and political analysis and at times civilians. They are under the control of the Central Intelligence Agency. This method was used in Afghanistan, where the U.S. army did not want to enter with force in first person.

Reliable indicators of the presence of these small teams – often no more than three people trained to “live on the ground,” eating, drinking and getting by – are called “smart” bombs. To ensure better precision in attacks, planes need a designator, namely someone that from the ground signals the difference between friends and enemies to avoid tragic friendly fire. They need a pointer with a laser that illuminates the target. Of course head of State and commander in chief Barack Obama, authorized by a finding – a measure he managed and signed – the infiltration of assets or friendly forces in Libya. For this kind of intervention, the complex, often impossible imprimatur of Congress for open and official wars is not needed. The CIA is a civilian agency that depends directly on Obama.

This is nothing new, as there is nothing new in the debate on whether modern weapons should be provided or denied to rebels. This is a debate that has strong opponents in the government. Head of House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers (R-MI) said, “We need to understand more about the opposition before I would support passing out guns and advanced weapons to them.” This is the most political and complex office of these soldiers, lent to the CIA or the British MI6 by London’s commandos, the SAS.

It is easy to distinguish a Gadhafi tank that guns down rebels’ trucks and cars. It is hard to understand – often without speaking the language – if the person who stands before you is a clan leader or a boaster, a double-crosser or an officer deserter. In Afghanistan, it was simple. Gang leaders and warlords that patrolled and are still patrolling valleys moved en masse to areas with opponents to begin the fruitful double-cross that they are still continuing. In Vietnam, it was a desperate and ruinous enterprise. Pro-government village leaders in the morning revealed themselves to be Vietcong masters in the evening. Those responsible for infiltration were often the first to be infiltrated.

In Europe, the Maquis in France, the Polish patriots and the Italian Resistenza were more reliable for the men of the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA in World War II. In Iraq in 1990 and 1991, when the same operations carried out today in Libya were launched to guide Allied bombers on the ground and to rescue downed pilots, the Coalition knew that it could rely on the Shiite population in the fight against their slaughterer and oppressor, Hussein, a Sunni. Washington had a thorough report about the internal situation in Iraq; the U.S. relied on double-crossing generals and officers. For years, they supported Saddam himself as a rampart-barrier against Iran.

Libya – admitted General Carter Ham, who passed, or rather finished passing, the control of the operation to NATO – is a book without words. After Gadhafi’s public and solemn renunciation of nuclear and chemicals arsenals, Washington substantially ignored this marginal, distant and irrelevant nation. Today spy agencies admit in their jargon, there is no human intelligence there. With human eyes and ears and satellites, intelligence agents can reveal where armies are, but not what their chiefs’ intentions are. Therefore, America entered this fight in the dark, a darkness that is now daring the Special Forces to illuminate — without being captured.