WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The effort President Bush authorized to fight al-Qaida shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, reportedly is the largest CIA covert action since the Cold War.

It has expanded in size and ambition despite a growing outcry at home and abroad over its clandestine tactics, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) said, quoting former and current intelligence officials and congressional and administration sources.

The broad-based effort, known within the agency as GST, is broken down into dozens of highly classified individual programs.

The newspaper said GST programs allow the CIA to capture al-Qaida suspects with help from foreign intelligence services, to maintain secret prisons abroad, to use interrogation techniques that some lawyers say violate international treaties and to maintain a fleet of aircraft to move detainees around the globe.

Over the past two years, as aspects of this umbrella effort have burst into public view and prompted protests and official investigations, virtually all the programs continue to operate largely as they were set up, sources told the Post.