US agents were in Libya before secret Obama order

WASHINGTON: intelligence officers of the United States were on the ground in Libya before the president Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert support for rebel anti-Qaddafi, U.S. government sources said.

The CIA personnel were sent to communicate with opponents of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and assess their capabilities, two U.S. officials.

"They are trying to determine who might be turned into a military unit and who could not," said Bob Baer, ​​a CIA agent first case, whose memoirs have been turned into a Hollywood thriller "Syriana."

Baer said the workers of the United States most likely entered Libya in the field by neighboring Egypt and are slightly fitted.

The president - who said in a speech Monday that "we would not put ground troops in Libya" - has the legal authority to send intelligence personnel of the United States without having to sign an order of action secret, and former U.S. officials.

Over the last couple weeks, Obama signed a secret "finding" authorizing CIA to conduct a wide range of covert support for the rebels.

intelligence committees of Congress had been informed of the order, which officials said came after some members of the CIA personnel were already in Libya. Neither the CIA nor the White House have commented directly on undercover operations in the United States and plans to Libya.

"I will not and can not discuss intelligence matters," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday. "What the president has made clear is that it will not send not, has not sent and will not send American troops on the ground in Libya. "

A government source in the United States familiar with the policy stated in Libya that the Obama administration is considering plans under which members of U.S. Special Forces experience in the formation of anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan working with agents CIA efforts to organize and train Libyan opposition fighters.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in testimony to Congress Thursday, declined to comment on any activities of the CIA in Libya. The rebels need training and organization, he said, but it was "not a unique capability for the United States. And as far as I'm concerned, someone else should do ". (Reuters)