Summary
The CIA and other agencies are scrambling to close intelligence gaps as they seek to support possible military or covert action against leaders of the Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group that has seized parts of Iraq and threatens Baghdad.
It's unclear whether the CIA and the NSA have been able to locate the top insurgent figures, such as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS' leader.
Those efforts are now intensifying, U.S. officials say.
Despite challenges, intelligence agencies know "quite a bit" about the current organization and its leadership, said a senior U.S. intelligence official, expressing a widely held view within the CIA and other agencies.
One hurdle is that much of the intelligence network the U.S. built up during eight years of fighting in Iraq has been dismantled, including a network of CIA and Pentagon sources and an NSA system that made available the details of every Iraqi insurgent email, text message and phone-location signal in real time, said John "Chris" Inglis, who recently retired as the NSA's top civilian.
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