NY Times: Administration at Odds Over CIA in Afghanistan

Members of the Trump administration are at odds over whether to expand the CIA's presence in Afghanistan to back militia counterterrorism forces, should the United States and other countries pull out of the country, according to inside sources. 

CIA and military officials are expressing concerns about calls from senior White House advisers to expand the agency's presence to keep ISIS or al -Qaida from regaining control in Afghanistan as U.S. troops pull out, reports The New York Times, citing current or former officials who have been briefed on administration discussions. 

Director Gina Haspel has said she has concerns about the plan because the agency operatives who supervise the militias depend on military backup for their actions, and skeptics say ISIS' presence in Afghanistan doesn't justify increasing resources, report the sources. The CIA and the White House declined to comment on the issue. 

Increasing the CIA's presence may create problems while U.S. and Taliban negotiators work to hammer out a deal ending the war in Afghanistan, which has been the longest in U.S. history.

However, the Taliban says it does not see much difference between U.S. troops and the CIA-backed forces and insisting that the CIA leaves when international troops pull out. 

“The high-end forces, including CIA-supported forces, are not going to win any war for you, but they may degrade the capability of terrorist groups,” said Seth G. Jones, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former adviser to the commanding general of American Special Operations forces in Afghanistan. He agreed that the militias will not be effective without the U.S. military backup. 

He also warned that a deal that doesn't disarm the Taliban will allow it to create a home for terrorist groups in Afghanistan. 

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