Citing unnamed current and former US officials, the newspaper said President Barack Obama had not authorized any drone missile strikes in Syria yet, and none were under consideration.
However CIA's Counterterrorism Center, which runs drone programs targeting militants in Pakistan and Yemen, had recently shifted several targeting officers to improve intelligence gathering on militants in Syria.
The targeting officers have formed a unit with colleagues who were tracking Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq.
Veteran militants from Iraq are believed to have moved to Syria and joined anti-government Islamic militias there, the report said.
The targeting officers focusing on Syria are based at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the paper said.
But the agency is working closely with Saudi, Jordanian and other regional spy services active in Syria, according to The Times.
The preparations come as radical Islamic fighters have won a growing share of rebel victories in Syria, the paper said.
The State Department believes that one of the strongest Syrian opposition militias, Al Nusra Front, is a terrorist organization that is indistinguishable from the group Al-Qaeda in Iraq, The Times noted.
Source: AFP
With "Friends" like that, who needs enemies?*
After all, the CIA/NATO imported all those "extremists" there. Maybe it was planned in advance as target practice? Then we'll say to Syria's legitimate ruler - (at least more legitimate than any US ruler has been for years and years**) - Assad?, "Sorry about the misunderstanding. No hard feelings?"
No problems?
Don't worry. We'll create them, then create the reaction and "solution."** But isn't that rather dialectical/marxist, and also standard PTB Imperialism, too.
The common factor? Authoritarianism.
R.C.
* Apparently, "we" do. (Said "we" being the PTB that run "our" Governments.)
** Not very high of a standard, I grant you.
*** (And bill it to each of us and do it in our name.)
RC