The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Troop pullout in Africa hurts U.S. intelligence
Pentagon’s plans to cut back would shut some key doors.
U.S. intelligence agencies face a significant reduction in their counterterrorism collection efforts in Africa if a proposed withdrawal of U.S. military forces is carried out by the Pentagon, intelligence officials said.
The new planning to pull back intelligence officers deployed in Western Africa and other parts of the continent has been partly driven by the troop deployment review, which is expected to reduce U.S. forces in Niger, Nigeria and other countries in the region.
The presence of U.S. troops allows intelligence officers to travel far from traditional diplomatic outposts. The troops also provide protection in the event of spreading chaos or instability. Stark evidence of the risk was seen in the lethal 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, and increased security was ordered for those outposts.
If service members are soon pulled out of Africa, the CIA and other intelligence agencies simply would not be able to safely deploy their officers far beyond embassy walls, officials say.
One intelligence official called the potential shift of CIA officers out of Africa stunningly dangerous. The decision would not just hurt the United States’ ability to detect and stop terrorism threats, the official said, but also hinder its ability to collect intelligence about what rival nations, like Russia and China, are doing in Africa.
While it is difficult to assess how much of an intelligence deficit would follow a troop pullback, the loss would be real, said Nicholas J. Rasmussen,
the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
“With a smaller military and intelligence presence, we limit how much intelligence we collect. Our analysts have a less rich pool of information on which to draw when reaching conclusions and forecasting threat conditions,” said Rasmussen, the acting executive director of Arizona State University’s McCain Institute. “Our confidence levels in the analysis we produce end up being lower.”
Trump administration officials would not say how many intelligence officers could be affected by the changes because the number of officers in the field is a closely guarded secret.
Counterterrorism officials are being asked to rethink their work and narrow their focus to the most dangerous terrorist groups, according to current and former intelligence officials.