Amygdala excerpts and links to a report on the state of the CIA in Iraq & Afghanistan. It's not a comfortable read, but it is enlightening.
This situation has been developing since the mid-70s, and post-9/11 criticisms from ex-agents like Robert Baer and Reuel Marc Gerecht were unsparing and accurate. While CIA Director Tenet's Georgetown speech trumpeted significantly improved human intelligence capabilities, the truth is that even an incomplete fix will probably take at least five years. Until then, this is what things will often look like on the ground.
UPDATE: StrategyPage adds some further thoughts on the CIA's "human intelligence" difficulties. It also offers a very vivid look at the moral and political challenges inherent to this kind of intelligence work, especially when viewed from a left-lib perspective. I suspect this is why my colleague Armed Liberal is always so stunned when he hears other liberals blithely propose extensive covert action, SOG teams, etc. as the preferred way to deal with al-Qaeda - so if you're one of those, please read it.
After reading tthe Strategy Page stuff it becomes easier to understand why the CIA in part deals drugs.
Just business as usual.
Yes.
I understand why they have these affiliations, too - after all, a few opium dealers would have been damn useful in Afghanistan pre-9/11.
I also understand why these kinds of involvements can become a long-term problem. We may have to work with such people on occasion. But we shouldn't forget that they can become long-term security threats too.