Regarding missiles, Iraq maintains a covert force of several dozen Scud missiles, the C.I.A. said.
Iraq has a small covert force of Al Hussein Scuds, according to American and British intelligence.
The Pentagon had announced that a covert force was hunting Saddam Hussein.
The C.I.A. resisted a proposal to send a covert force into Iraqi Kurdistan to destroy the secret chemical weapons lab.
He and John Voket hoped to find a psychologist who could explain to readers why people insisted that covert forces were at work in the massacre.
Of course, it's supposed to be different this time: "surgical strikes" and covert forces in support of Iraqi and Kurdish troops instead of invasion and occupation.
The A.P., in a report today, called aspects of our involvement an "open secret": Covert forces, private contractors and U.S. intelligence assets were thrown into the fight in an undercover campaign operating separately from the NATO command structure.
An American official in Washington, who said he was not authorized to speak publicly, predicted that American covert forces would get involved if the offensive, which could begin in a few weeks, dislodged Qaeda terrorists.
They lay bare at least some of Washington's "cynical" and "unscrupulous" diplomatic machinations (although the state department's "front office" mischief is mild compared to the "back room" operations of the CIA and other covert forces).
Covert forces of CIA-trained Afghan paramilitaries are being built up to continue the US-led war on the Taliban as thousands of US troops prepare to leave the country.
Mr. Rumsfeld has said that the military campaign, while it may utilize traditional bombs and cruise missiles, will to an unprecedented degree rely on elite covert forces, which may have already engaged in scouting missions in Afghanistan.
