The CIA, faced with the impossibility of infiltrating white Americans into radical groups in the Middle East, is recruiting Arab-speaking Sudanese citizens, in spite of sanctions against the country over the killings in Darfur, it emerged this week.
Sudanese recruits have been providing information about individuals passing through Sudan to Somalia and elsewhere in the the Horn of Africa and Iraq. The Sudanese government is reported to have detained suspects in Khartoum at the request of the United States.
The US state department issued a report describing Sudan as a “strong partner in the war on terror”. A state department official said the Sudanese had done things that had saved lives, but acknowledged there was a contradiction: “The bottom line is that they are bombing their people … Dealing with Sudan, it seems like they are always playing both ends against the middle.”
A former high-ranking official, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, acknowledged the importance of the intelligence: “If you’ve got jihadists travelling via Sudan to get into Iraq, there’s a pattern there in and of itself that would not raise suspicion. It creates an opportunity to send Sudanese into that pipeline.”
Another ex-CIA official said: “Sudanese can go places we don’t go. They’re Arabs. They can wander around.”
But relations have been soured by Darfur, a high-profile issue in the US, with campaigners calling for sanctions against Khartoum.
Although Bush has taken a lead on sanctions, critics claim he has not gone as far as he could have and blame this on intelligence cooperation. — Â