Retired general pushes for more U.S. spies
(CNN) -- The retired general who led U.S. troops into war in Afghanistan and Iraq bemoans the lack of international aid in toppling Iraq's dictator and criticizes U.S. investment in surveillance widgets instead of human spies.
Former U.S. Army General Tommy Franks makes the comments in an article slated to appear Sunday in Parade magazine.
"We can't send a Princeton-educated New York lawyer to infiltrate al Qaeda," Franks reportedly says in the interview. "To get information, we have to marry the devil or at least employ him. You have to deal."
Under Franks' leadership, the United States squashed Afghanistan's ruling militant regime, the Taliban, which harbored al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden is the recognized mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
But a British report released Thursday slams post-war conditions in Afghanistan, warning that the country is on the brink of imploding with disastrous results.
Specifically, that British assessment states a failure to disarm warlords, the continued presence of al Qaeda rebels in the southern and eastern portions of Afghanistan and the inability of Britain and its allies to limit opium production. (Full story)
That same British report said porous security provisions in Iraq have allowed criminals and militias to gain footholds in portions of the country.
Franks, who retired last summer four months after the United States invaded Iraq, reportedly expresses his shock at not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and disappointment that more foreign troops were not a part of the war effort.
U.S. war planners expected 150,000 additional troops to aid the U.S.-led operation, Franks says in the interview, but the help never came. The British report concludes that the low number of foreign troops deployed to Iraq has contributed to the deterioration in security.
Franks, 59, said many Middle Eastern leaders, including Jordan's King Abdullah and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, told him that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had, and planned to use, weapons of mass destruction.
Franks states that in January 2003, Mubarak told him, "Saddam has WMD-biologicals, actually, and he will use them on your troops." He also accuses former White House counterterrorism director Richard Clarke of failing to provide him with "a single page of actionable intelligence" and of engaging in "mostly wishful thinking."
Clarke ignited a firestorm in May when he told a a commission investigating the September 11 attacks, that "the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue."
Clarke also asserted that the Bush administration failed to recognize pending terror attacks against the United States and that the president focused too much on Iraq after September 11 -- charges the White House has vigorously disputed. (Full story)
