CIA support to Operation Enduring Freedom - Brief Article

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, July-Sept, 2002 by J. Daniel Moore

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intelligence support to the U.S. military in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM played a decisive role in the defeat of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. This added a new dimension to the long relationship of intelligence-sharing.

The Agency's primary missions have historically focused on strategic warning and coordination of clandestine activities abroad. During and after the Cold War, Agency intelligence collectors and analysts increased the confidence with which our leaders made decisions that helped maintain the peace between the United States and the Soviet Union. The CIA continues to perform these missions, but in recent years the Agency has acquired increased responsibility to provide direct support (DS) to military operations and deployments. Indeed, the Agency's close and innovative interface with military intelligence and U.S. Special Forces made a major contribution to our first battlefield victory in the war against terrorism.

The CIA's history of support to the U.S. military originated during World War II with the Office of Strategic Services OSS) two-thirds of which included U.S. military personnel on rotation to the fledgling intelligence service. Many of these officers stayed on when, in 1947, Congress created the CIA. Established in 1942 by William J. Donovan on orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the C)SS soon built for itself a covert paramilitary force. OSS officers served as guides in the Allied landings in North Africa in 1942, established productive intelligence networks, and ran commando operations with resistance fighters in Europe, Africa, and the China-Burma Theater. OSS commandos also teamed up with the French Resistance, collected intelligence, and conducted sabotage to support Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944.

In addition to the tactical and strategic intelligence support provided to the U.S. military by the CIA since 1947, CIA paramilitary teams have operated with U.S. military forces in many conflicts, including those in Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf. Some CIA commando teams collected intelligence on North Korean and Chinese forces and set up escape and evasion routes for airmen shot down over Korea. During the Vietnam era, the CIA conducted counterterrorist and counterinsurgency operations in support of the U.S. effort. The CIA supported Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM through intelligence briefings in Washington, generated operationally derived intelligence in DS of military planning, and defended the political and diplomatic flanks of the Coalition by suppressing planned Iraqi terrorist activities.

Joint CIA-U.S. military strategy and combat operations in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM have transformed unconventional warfare. CIA paramilitary teams familiar with the local terrain and culture teamed with U.S. Army Special Forces and linked up with anti-Taliban Afghan commanders on the ground. The synergy created by CIA paramilitary specialists and U.S. Special Forces exceeded expectations. Intelligence collected by the CIA teams, coupled with the lethal combat arms capabilities of the Special Forces, wreaked havoc with Al Qaeda and Taliban ground forces, first demoralizing, then routing them.

Joint operations involving fast-moving CIA paramilitary teams and specialized U.S. military forces in Afghanistan may well serve as a model for future encounters against terrorism in other parts of the world. The dramatic success of specialized use of reconnaissance weapons and a dynamic, small-unit combat strategy obviated a deployment of large numbers of U.S. ground troops. Although the environment and circumstances in which terrorists operate today varies from one part of the world to another, CIA-U.S. military intelligence cooperation with local allies may well become a template for counterterrorist efforts elsewhere.

Daniel Moore currently works for the Center for the Study of Intelligence. Readers can reach the author through CIA Public Affairs Office (PAO) at (703) 613-1779.