Ente transparente

The Obama administration’s shadow war against Al Qaeda and its allies, in roughly a dozen countries — from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife — has significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists.

While the stealth war began in the Bush administration, it has expanded under President Obama, who rose to prominence in part for his early opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Virtually none of the newly aggressive steps undertaken by the United States government have been publicly acknowledged. In contrast with the troop buildup in Afghanistan, which came after months of robust debate, for example, the American military campaign in Yemen began without notice in December and has never been officially confirmed.

Obama administration officials point to the benefits of bringing the fight against Al Qaeda and other militants into the shadows. Afghanistan and Iraq, they said, have sobered American politicians and voters about the staggering costs of big wars that topple governments, require years of occupation and can be a catalyst for further radicalization throughout the Muslim world. Instead of “the hammer,” America will rely on the “scalpel.”

Yet such wars come with many risks: the potential for botched operations that fuel anti-American rage; a blurring of the lines between soldiers and spies that could put troops at risk of being denied Geneva Convention protections; a weakening of the Congressional oversight system put in place to prevent abuses by America’s secret operatives; and a reliance on authoritarian foreign leaders and surrogates with sometimes murky loyalties.

The administration’s demands have accelerated a transformation of the C.I.A. into a paramilitary organization as much as a spying agency, which some critics worry could lower the threshold for future quasi-military operations. In Pakistan’s mountains, the agency had broadened its drone campaign beyond selective strikes against Qaeda leaders and now regularly obliterates suspected enemy compounds and logistics convoys, just as the military would grind down an enemy force.

For its part, the Pentagon is becoming more like the C.I.A. Across the Middle East and elsewhere, Special Operations troops under secret “Execute Orders” have conducted spying missions that were once the preserve of civilian intelligence agencies.

Do the selective hits make the United States safer by eliminating terrorists? Or do they help the terrorist network frame its violence as a heroic religious struggle against American aggression, recruiting new operatives for the enemy? “I’m concerned that counterterrorism is defined as an intelligence and military program. To be successful in the long run, we have to take a far broader approach that emphasizes political, social and economic forces.”

Barack Obama ha lanzado de forma callada, durante su primer año y medio de Gobierno, una gran estrategia contrainsurgente contra radicales islamistas en una zona que abarca desde el Magreb a Pakistán, incluyendo Yemen, refugio recientemente preferido por los terroristas, y zonas distantes en África como Somalia y Kenia.

La nueva guerra contra Al Qaeda no se está librando con batallas tradicionales, sino utilizando nuevas y sofisticadas técnicas que no implican un combate cuerpo a cuerpo en el sentido habitual. Se trata de operaciones de espionaje, en unas ocasiones acometidas en secreto por comandos del Pentágono y en otras asumidas por empresas de seguridad subcontratadas por la CIA; de labores de entrenamiento de cuerpos de seguridad locales para que acosen por sí mismos a los terroristas; y de ataques con misiles lanzados desde avionetas no tripuladas.

El pasado 17 de diciembre, un misil aniquiló a 55 personas -49 de ellas civiles- en la localidad rural de Al Maajala, al sur de Yemen. El Gobierno de aquel país dijo ser el responsable del ataque, dirigido contra una base de Al Qaeda y en el que se usaron bombas fragmentarias o de racimo. Pero una investigación de Amnistía Internacional reveló en junio que en realidad el misil, un Tomahawk fabricado en Estados Unidos, había sido lanzado desde un navío del Pentágono. Desde entonces ha habido al menos otros dos ataques similares.

El reportaje del The New York Times publicado ayer tildaba la nueva estrategia asumida por Obama de nueva guerra fría, en referencia a un conflicto en el que EE UU acometía operaciones encubiertas contra el entorno de la Unión Soviética y luchaba a la vez guerras subsidiarias con países satélite de Moscú, como Vietnam.