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Washington Post: CIA Shifts Focus to Killing Targets

Authors: Greg Miller, and Julie Tate
September 1, 2011

The CIA has expanded its focus to include more paramiliary missions rather than intelligence collection, write Greg Miller and Julie Tate of The Washington Post.

Behind a nondescript door at CIA headquarters, the agency has assembled a new counterterrorism unit whose job is to find al-Qaeda targets in Yemen. A corresponding commotion has been underway in the Arabian Peninsula, where construction workers have been laying out a secret new runway for CIA drones.

When the missiles start falling, it will mark another expansion of the paramilitary mission of the CIA.

In the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the agency has undergone a fundamental transformation. Although the CIA continues to gather intelligence and furnish analysis on a vast array of subjects, its focus and resources are increasingly centered on the cold counterterrorism objective of finding targets to capture or kill.

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