KABUL (AP) — A senior intelligence official for the international force in Afghanistan says the U.S. intelligence community is only “marginally relevant” to the overall mission eight years into the war.
In a report released less than a week after seven CIA employees were killed in a suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn says that U.S. intelligence analysts often have inadequate knowledge about the Afghan people, the economy and powerbrokers.
He says they often can do little but shrug in response when high-level decision makers seek information they need to wage a successful counterinsurgency.
The report by Flynn, deputy chief of staff of intelligence in Afghanistan, was released Monday by the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington.