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American Morning
Surprising War of CIA's Secret Army
Aired January 27, 2003 - 07:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Over the past few months to the north of our location here, a specially trained group of U.S. operatives has been working inside of Iraq, said to be organizing opposition groups in the north and in the southern part of Iraq in advance of a possible war. This elite group is not military, they're CIA.
This week's cover story in "Time" magazine is about the surprising war of the CIA's secret army.
And the man who wrote it, Douglas Waller, is our guest now from Washington, D.C.
We welcome you, Doug, to AMERICAN MORNING.
Tell us more about the mandate for this special group. Is there anything right now that is off limits for these men?
DOUGLAS WALLER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Not a whole lot. It's called the special operations group. It's a highly clandestine unit within the CIA. It's made up of about seven -- several hundred paramilitary operatives. These are people that are trained in guerrilla warfare, sabotage, commando type attacks. And since 9/11, its program has been ramped up quite a bit.
President Bush has given it basically a green light to get tough with al Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the world and it has authority to use lethal force and also, in the case of breaking up terrorist cells, to even kidnap or kill terrorists.
HEMMER: Go back to 9/11, Doug. What is the best example you can cite about how this SOG, as you describe them, the SOGs have been in use around the world?
WALLER: Fifteen days after the September 11 attack, a team of CIA operatives infiltrated into Afghanistan by helicopter. It was a Russian made helicopter, incidentally. In that group were special operations group paramilitary soldiers who went in to set up landing zones for future CIA planes to come in, to hook up with the Northern Alliance. This is the Afghan guerrilla group that was fighting the Taliban then. They also had $3 million in cash to be able to bribe Afghan warlords so they could switch sides and join the CIA in the fight.
HEMMER: Yes, take it to the present day situation in Iraq. Throughout your reporting, did you find any measure of success to this point for these groups? WALLER: It's hard to say at this point. They're trying to organize guerrilla resistance, particularly in the north. They're up in the northern enclaves, the Kurdish enclaves. They're doing a lot of other kind of basic combat or pre-combat work like setting up exfiltration routes and networks to hide U.S. pilots in case they get shot down, setting up guides to guide in U.S. forces and also looking for targets for U.S. weapons to bomb.
HEMMER: Interesting.
As that operation continues, you can check it out in "Time" magazine.
Doug Waller wrote it.
Thanks for your time, Doug.
WALLER: Sure, Bill.
HEMMER: Many thanks to you this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 27, 2003 - 07:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Over the past few months to the north of our location here, a specially trained group of U.S. operatives has been working inside of Iraq, said to be organizing opposition groups in the north and in the southern part of Iraq in advance of a possible war. This elite group is not military, they're CIA.
This week's cover story in "Time" magazine is about the surprising war of the CIA's secret army.
And the man who wrote it, Douglas Waller, is our guest now from Washington, D.C.
We welcome you, Doug, to AMERICAN MORNING.
Tell us more about the mandate for this special group. Is there anything right now that is off limits for these men?
DOUGLAS WALLER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Not a whole lot. It's called the special operations group. It's a highly clandestine unit within the CIA. It's made up of about seven -- several hundred paramilitary operatives. These are people that are trained in guerrilla warfare, sabotage, commando type attacks. And since 9/11, its program has been ramped up quite a bit.
President Bush has given it basically a green light to get tough with al Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the world and it has authority to use lethal force and also, in the case of breaking up terrorist cells, to even kidnap or kill terrorists.
HEMMER: Go back to 9/11, Doug. What is the best example you can cite about how this SOG, as you describe them, the SOGs have been in use around the world?
WALLER: Fifteen days after the September 11 attack, a team of CIA operatives infiltrated into Afghanistan by helicopter. It was a Russian made helicopter, incidentally. In that group were special operations group paramilitary soldiers who went in to set up landing zones for future CIA planes to come in, to hook up with the Northern Alliance. This is the Afghan guerrilla group that was fighting the Taliban then. They also had $3 million in cash to be able to bribe Afghan warlords so they could switch sides and join the CIA in the fight.
HEMMER: Yes, take it to the present day situation in Iraq. Throughout your reporting, did you find any measure of success to this point for these groups? WALLER: It's hard to say at this point. They're trying to organize guerrilla resistance, particularly in the north. They're up in the northern enclaves, the Kurdish enclaves. They're doing a lot of other kind of basic combat or pre-combat work like setting up exfiltration routes and networks to hide U.S. pilots in case they get shot down, setting up guides to guide in U.S. forces and also looking for targets for U.S. weapons to bomb.
HEMMER: Interesting.
As that operation continues, you can check it out in "Time" magazine.
Doug Waller wrote it.
Thanks for your time, Doug.
WALLER: Sure, Bill.
HEMMER: Many thanks to you this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
