CIA Sending More Spies to Afghanistan

The CIA is upping its deployment of personnel in Afghanistan to combat a widespread resurgence of Taliban forces, reports the Los Angeles Times. The new spies, analysts, and paramilitary operatives will team up with special forces squads as part of an intelligence surge likely to rival the agency's numbers in Iraq and Vietnam during the height of those wars.

Taliban roadside bombings have increased in recent months, as have the intensity and sophistication of attacks, said US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The Taliban appear to have perfected an "assembly-line approach" to recruiting and churning out suicide bombers. The Obama administration estimates it has less than a year before US support for the war collapses.
(More Central Intelligence Agency stories.)