A year after Afghanistan, US spy agency turns to China

A year after the war in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden and top national security officials have spoken less about counterterrorism and more about the political, economic and military threats posed by China and Russia.

There has been a quiet turning point within the intelligence community, with hundreds of officials being redeployed to China-focused positions, including some who have previously worked on terrorism.

Intelligence officials stress that the fight against terrorism cannot be ignored.

Just a week ago, it was revealed that a CIA drone strike had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul.

But days later, China held large-scale military exercises over a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and threatened to cut ties with the United States.

People walk past a billboard welcoming U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Taipei, Taiwan, August 3, 2022. (AP Photo)

It underscores a message from CIA Deputy Director David Cohen at that meeting a few weeks ago: The agency’s first priority is to try to understand and counter Beijing.

The United States has long been alarmed by China’s growing political and economic ambitions.

China has sought to influence foreign elections, launch cyber and corporate espionage, and imprison millions of ethnic Uighurs in concentration camps. Some experts also believe that Beijing will try to seize the self-governing democratic island of Taiwan by force in the coming years.

Intelligence officials say they need to learn more about China, including after it was not clear why Coronavirus disease Pandemic. Beijing has been accused of withholding information about the origin of the virus.

And the war is Ukraine Emphasizes the importance of Russia as a target.

The United States used declassified information to expose Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war plans before the invasion and to garner diplomatic support for Kyiv.

Proponents of the Biden administration’s approach point to the fact that the US was able to track down and kill al-Zawahri as evidence of its ability to target the Afghan threat from abroad.

Critics say al-Zawahiri, who lives in Kabul and is apparently under the protection of the Taliban, signals a resurgence of extremist groups that the United States is powerless to deal with.

Many former intelligence officials and lawmakers on both sides support the shift in priorities, which they say is overdue.

This includes those serving in Afghanistan and other missions against al-Qaeda and other groups
terrorist organization.

Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he believes the U.S. has focused too much on counterterrorism over the past few years.

“The bigger existential threats are Russia and China,” said Crow, a Colorado Democrat who serves on the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees. He said terrorist groups “will not destroy the American way of life like China…” CIA spokesman Tammy Thorpe noted that terrorism “remains a very real challenge.”

“Even if crises such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and strategic challenges such as the People’s Republic of China demand our attention, the CIA will continue to actively track terrorist threats around the world and work with partners to address them,” Thorpe said.

Congress has pushed the CIA and other intelligence agencies to make China a top priority to discuss sensitive intelligence issues, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Pushing resources to China requires cuts in other areas, including counterterrorism. Because the intelligence budget is classified, specific figures are not available.

In particular, lawmakers want more information on China’s advanced technological developments.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has pledged trillions of dollars in investments in quantum science, artificial intelligence and other technologies that could disrupt future warfare and economic structures.

As part of the shift, congressional committees are trying to better track how intelligence agencies spend money on China and seeking more details on how specific programs contribute to that mission, a person familiar with the matter said.

“We’re late, but it’s good that we’re finally turning our focus to the region,” said Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who serves on the House Intelligence Committee. “That means in terms of people, resources, military assets and diplomacy.”

The CIA announced last year that it would create two new “mission centers” — one for China and one for emerging technologies — to focus and improve intelligence gathering on these issues.
The CIA is also trying to recruit more Chinese-speakers and reduce wait times for security clearances to hire new people faster.

Inside the agency, many officials are learning Chinese and moving into new China-focused roles, but not all of those jobs require language training, the people said.

The officials noted that intelligence officers were trained to adapt to new challenges, and that many transitioned to counterterrorism roles more quickly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Advances in counterterrorism efforts — including better use of data and disparate intelligence sources to build networks and identify targets — have also helped counter Russia and China, former officials said.

“Its analysis and targeting machine became extraordinary,” said Douglas Wise, a former senior CIA official and deputy director of operations at the Counterterrorism Center.

The CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, which was renamed the Counterterrorism Mission Center after a 2015 reorganization, remains a source of pride for many who attribute their work to protecting Americans from terrorism after September 11 attack. CIA officials arrived in Afghanistan on September 26, 2001, and were involved in replacing the Taliban and finding and killing al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

Thirteen years later, a double agent tricked the police in pursuit of al-Zawahri and blew himself up, killing seven agency employees and the CIA killed him in an airstrike, with no civilian casualties reported.

The CIA has also been involved in some of the darkest moments in the fight against terrorism.

It operates secret “black field” prisons to hold terrorism suspects, some of which are wrong, and a Senate investigation found it used interrogation methods amounting to torture. Elite Afghan special operations forces, trained by the CIA, have also been accused of killing civilians and violating international law.

There has long been a debate over whether counterterrorism has kept intelligence agencies away from traditional espionage, and whether some of the CIA’s work on terrorists should be done by special forces under the military.

Marc Polymeropoulos is a retired CIA operations officer and former base chief in Afghanistan. He said he supports a greater focus on China and Russia, but added, “There’s no reason to reduce what we have to do.” “The idea that all the CT work we do, is somehow wrong, we put our focus on it.” Focused on the ball – just remember how everyone felt on September 12,” he said.

Repositioning the agencies to focus more on China and Russia will ultimately take years, and will require patience and an understanding that the agency’s culture will take time to change, Wise said.

“We’ve been doing counterterrorism for decades,” Wise said. “We have to have a reasonable plan for this adaptation that doesn’t take long enough for our enemies to take advantage of glacial processes.”