CIA Bought Foreign Cooperation Against Terrorism, Says Report

The CIA set up a network of secret joint operations centres with two dozen foreign intelligence agencies to hunt down suspected terrorists in the years after September 11 2001, it was reported yesterday.

According to the report in the Washington Post, the cooperation of foreign agencies was bought with hi-tech gadgetry to help them conduct wiretaps and other surveillance, shared intelligence, and occasional personal favours.

In the case of the Indonesian spy chief, Lieutenant General Abdullah Hendropriyono, the CIA arranged for his son to attend the US National War College, despite poor grades, the report alleges, citing four unnamed sources.

The generosity appears to have reaped rewards. According to classified testimony to congress, the CIA claims that almost all the 3,000 suspected terrorists captured or killed outside Iraq since the 2001 al-Qaida attacks were the result of cooperation with foreign agencies.

In many cases, the intelligence pinpointing the suspect's location came from the CIA, while the local agency went after the target. In the words of one unnamed former counter-terrorist official quoted in the report: "The boot that went through the door was foreign."

Secret counter-terrorist intelligence centres (CTICs) are scattered around the world, and demonstrate that intelligence cooperation often bears no resemblance to the public relations between governments. The CIA and French intelligence appear to have worked hand in hand to set up the only multinational CTIC, in Paris. The centre, codenamed "Alliance Base" also reportedly involves intelligence officials from Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia.