WASHINGTON—CIA officers are on the ground in Libya, coordinating with rebels and sharing intelligence, US officials say, but the Obama administration has not yet decided whether to take the further step of providing weapons to those trying to oust dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
The issue of whether to provide the rag-tag rebel forces with arms has been controversial in Washington. On Wednesday two key lawmakers came out against the idea.
“We don’t have to look very far back in history to find examples of the unintended consequences of passing out advanced weapons to a group of fighters we didn’t know as well as we should have,” said US Rep. Mike Rogers, in an apparent reference to US aid to Afghans fighting the Soviet Union during the Reagan administration.
“We need to be very careful before rushing into a decision that could come back to haunt us,” said Rogers, who chairs the House intelligence committee and who thus far has supported the US intervention.
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, echoed that in an interview. “I think at this point we need more information,” he said. “We don’t know enough about who they are.”
Rogers issued his statement shortly before a meeting of the committee in which administration officials briefed congressional leaders about the status of CIA activities in Libya. Later on Wednesday the White House issued a statement repeating that “no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya.”
“We’re not ruling it out or ruling it in,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
The White House had no comment on a report by Reuters that said Obama signed a presidential finding authorizing secret aid to the rebels within the last two or three weeks.
US officials familiar with covert actions noted that a presidential finding can authorize a variety of steps that may or may not ultimately be taken. Members of Congress who would have been briefed on the finding would neither confirm nor deny its existence on Wednesday.
The CIA has been on the ground in rebel-held areas of Libya since shortly after the US embassy in Tripoli was evacuated in February, US officials say. They have been meeting with rebels in an effort to learn more about them, and in some cases they are providing rebels with information about Qaddafi forces.
The CIA sees no significant role being played by Islamic extremists among the rebels, US officials say, but a Nato admiral told Congress this week there were “flickers” of al-Qaeda sympathizers among the movement.
Obama has made clear the US had not ruled out providing military assistance to the opposition. The rebels have been routed in recent days by Qaddafi’s better armed forces, even as US and Nato war planes are bombing Qaddafi’s tanks and ammunition storage depots. --MCT
