‘CIA should follow British Raj-era type spying techniques to win in Afghanistan’

LONDON - The top US intelligence officer in Afghanistan, Major-General Michael Flynn, has launched a scathing attack, demanding urgent changes to the way the military does business in the country.

Major-General Flynn described the agency as “ignorant”, “disengaged” and unaware of the power structures it seeks to influence after the death of seven CIA agents in Afghanistan, when an al-Qaeda suicide bomber infiltrated their base.

In a report released by a Washington think-tank, he called for a return of district level experts, reminiscent of Britain’s Raj-era political agents, The Times reports.

Major-General Flynn said the work would be “among the most challenging and rewarding … an analyst could tackle.”

“The stakes are too high … for us to fail. Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the US intelligence community is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy. The vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate,” The Times quoted him, as saying.

Major-General Flynn called for teams of analysts to focus on specific areas, and “write comprehensive district assessments covering governance, development and stability”.

His report warned that most of Nato’s intelligence officers were “ignorant of local economics and landowners”.

Only a handful of Nato soldiers speak Pashto, the language of the Taleban, and few spend more than a year in Afghanistan at a time, The Times reports.

Major-General Flynn said that soldiers needed to learn from recent mistakes. (ANI)