CIA Is Back

Long War: After David Petraeus was eliminated last year as CIA Director the agency went through a long walk through the wilderness, not sure if a hawk or a dove would be appointed as the next director. Not surprisingly, the bad guys made huge progress in the global struggle during this period of inactivity on the part of Langley. Specifically, AQIM (Al-Qaeda North Africa) decided to take over the other half of Mali that it didn't already own. Fortunately Obama did appoint a hawk to take over the CIA, a firebreather in fact. John Brennan is the architect of the CIA's drone program, the best of the best.

And with the appointment of Brennan, even though the Senate has not yet confirmed him, like a coiled spring Langley sprang into action. A coup was staged against the jihadist state of Eritrea. The coup did not succeed in overthrowing the government of Eritrea but now that evil little country has a permanent opposition agitating for change night and day, forcing the jihadist government to turn inward; this is a bigger deal than it sounds because it sends a message to bad guys everywhere: the CIA is back.

France sent the Foreign Legion into action against Al-Qaeda in Mali, knocking the bad guys out of all population centers. At first the Obama Administration said it wasn't helping France at all. But the French told the media that they were receiving all sorts of help from "American Intelligence." Then Obama said a CIA drone base was being built in Algeria to go after AQIM on a long term basis. Right before that announcement Algeria attacked Al-Qaeda hostage-takers along the border of Algeria and Mali. Algeria didn't even try to rescue the hostages, no it just wiped out everybody, good, bad and indifferent. This attack had big CIA fingerprints on it. The attack was a monster body blow to Al-Qaeda. President Obama's change of heart probably came from Hillary Clinton holding his fingers to the fire, dragging him kicking and screaming back to fighting the Long War.

France continues to attack Al-Qaeda in North Africa, acting with unusual aggression. They wouldn't be that tough on their own. They are certainly being led by the CIA. For one thing France is obviously using US satellite imagery for its current bombing campaign, which means NSA and CIA are knee deep in the war.

While all this was going on the CIA began intercepting Iranian missile shipment across the Mideast, acting through the US Navy and local Arab allies.

This is all very promising. Still, there is a lot of Long War to fight. The USMC and US Army are going to leave Afghanistan much more quickly than anyone imagines. The CIA has the right leadership to take over. As always, it just needs civilian leadership to get out of the way.