Nate-ForLiberty
12-17-2010, 02:45 PM
WASHINGTON — The CIA has pulled its top spy out of Pakistan after terrorists threatened to kill him, current and former U.S. officials said, an unusual move for the U.S. and a complication on the front lines of the fight against al-Qaida.
The CIA station chief was in transit Thursday after a Pakistani lawsuit earlier this month accused him by name of killing civilians in missile strikes. The Associated Press is not publishing the station chief’s name because he remains undercover and his name is classified.
CIA airstrikes from unmanned aircraft have killed terrorist leaders but have led to accusations in Pakistan that the strikes kill innocent people. The U.S. does not acknowledge the missile strikes, but there have been more than 100 such attacks this year — more than double the amount in 2009.
The lawsuit blew the American spy’s cover, leading to threats against him and forcing the U.S. to call him home, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
CIA officials’ “serious concerns” for the station chief’s safety led to the decision to bring him home, a U.S. official said. A spokeswoman for the spy agency, Jennifer Youngblood, declined to comment.
The Pakistani lawsuit also named CIA Director Leon Panetta and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The station chief’s name has been published by local media covering the lawsuit and demonstrations related to it. Demonstrators in the heart of the capital have carried placards bearing the officers’s name and urging him to leave the country.
Shahzad Akbar, the lawyer bringing the case, said he got the name from local journalists. He said he named the man because he wanted to sue a CIA operative living within the jurisdiction of the Islamabad court.
A Pakistani intelligence officer said the country’s intelligence service, the ISI, knew the identity of the station chief, but had “no clue” how his name was leaked.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7343928.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+houstonchronicle/topheadlines+(chron.com+-+Top+Stories)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
The CIA station chief was in transit Thursday after a Pakistani lawsuit earlier this month accused him by name of killing civilians in missile strikes. The Associated Press is not publishing the station chief’s name because he remains undercover and his name is classified.
CIA airstrikes from unmanned aircraft have killed terrorist leaders but have led to accusations in Pakistan that the strikes kill innocent people. The U.S. does not acknowledge the missile strikes, but there have been more than 100 such attacks this year — more than double the amount in 2009.
The lawsuit blew the American spy’s cover, leading to threats against him and forcing the U.S. to call him home, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
CIA officials’ “serious concerns” for the station chief’s safety led to the decision to bring him home, a U.S. official said. A spokeswoman for the spy agency, Jennifer Youngblood, declined to comment.
The Pakistani lawsuit also named CIA Director Leon Panetta and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The station chief’s name has been published by local media covering the lawsuit and demonstrations related to it. Demonstrators in the heart of the capital have carried placards bearing the officers’s name and urging him to leave the country.
Shahzad Akbar, the lawyer bringing the case, said he got the name from local journalists. He said he named the man because he wanted to sue a CIA operative living within the jurisdiction of the Islamabad court.
A Pakistani intelligence officer said the country’s intelligence service, the ISI, knew the identity of the station chief, but had “no clue” how his name was leaked.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7343928.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+houstonchronicle/topheadlines+(chron.com+-+Top+Stories)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher