US must boost Afghanistan intelligence: spy chief

The United States must improve its intelligence gathering in Afghanistan, the US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said Thursday. "We need to ramp up the level of intelligence support in Afghanistan," Blair told journalists in his first press conference.
"We know a heck of a lot more on Iraq than on Afghanistan," he said, adding the United States particularly needed "a granular understanding of local power structures." US President Barack Obama has switched the focus of the "war on terror" from Iraq to Afghanistan and ordered 17,000 more US troops for Afghanistan. Obama is expected on Friday to unveil his new strategy for turning the tide in the nearly eight-year-old war, which also includes unleashing a wave of development aid, and bolstering Afghan security forces, the rule of law, and the fragile Kabul government.