BanglaBhoot
RETIRED TTA
PESHAWAR, Pakistan The top American spy in Pakistan left the country on Thursday amid threats to his life after his name was revealed in a lawsuit over alleged American drone attacks, United States intelligence officials said Friday.
The C.I.A. station chief in Islamabad is perhaps the agencys most important undercover assignment overseas because that person helps oversee its secret war in Pakistan using armed drones that target Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The suit that named the C.I.A. station chief, who was working undercover and whose name is classified, was filed over attacks that killed at least two Pakistanis.
The breach of security comes as attacks attributed to American drones in Pakistans lawless tribal areas continued to intensify, with three strikes on Friday killing 26 militants.
The threats against the station chief were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act, according to one American intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
C.I.A. spokesman George Little would not confirm that the station chief had to leave Pakistan, but did say that station chiefs routinely encounter major risk as they work to keep America safe, and that their security is obviously a top priority for the C.I.A., especially when theres an imminent threat.
Mirza Shahzad Akbar, the lawyer who brought the suit that named the station chief, said in an interview that he did not believe security was the reason for the C.I.A. agents leaving. Obviously, his name had come out in the open and maybe he feared police action or an action by the Supreme Court, Mr. Akbar said.
The police in Islamabad this week had registered a criminal complaint against the C.I.A. station chief.
Mr. Akbar, who said the case would continue despite the station chiefs absence, is representing Kareem Khan, a resident of North Waziristan who claimed that his son and brother were killed in a drone strike. The lawsuit also named Leon Panetta, the agency director, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Mr. Khan, a resident of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, which has often been a target of drone strikes, is seeking $500 million as compensation for the deaths, accusing the C.I.A. officer of running a clandestine spying operation out of the United States embassy in Islamabad. He also alleged that the C.I.A. officer was in the country on a business passport.
My brother and son were innocent, Mr. Khan had said in a recent interview. There were no Taliban hiding in my house.
For several years, drone attacks have been a regular element of American tactics to counter militants in Pakistans tribal areas, but the number of such strikes has increased markedly this year.
Two British converts to Islam appeared to be among many killed in drone attacks in recent days, officials in North Waziristan said on Friday.
I think its pretty much confirmed now, said a senior Pakistani official in Peshawar, who spoke in return for anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. He said the Britons were believed to have assumed Islamic names Abu Bakar, said to be his late 40s, and Mansoor in his mid-20s after their conversion to Islam in Britain a few years ago.
They traveled to North Waziristan a year ago to join Al Qaeda, the official said, and died when a missile struck the vehicle in which they were traveling along with two local militants who were also killed.
The official said the vehicle seemed to have been electronically tracked as it traveled from Afghanistan. The attacks took places in the Dattkhel area, well inside Pakistan.
The report was the second in recent months suggesting the presence of some foreigners among militants fighting American forces in the border area. In July, American forces in Afghanistan detained a German citizen, Ahmed Sidiqi, 36, said to have ties to the men who helped plot the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Then in October, Pakistani officials said that several German citizens were killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.
The attack earlier this week was followed on Thursday by a drone strike in the Terah valley in the Khyber region along the Afghan border where Pakistani militants have fled to escape military operations in the Swat, Khyber, Orakzai and South Waziristan tribal regions.
In three more strikes in the same area on Friday, a government official said 26 militants were killed, the fourth attack in the area two days.
Almost all American drone attacks this year have been in the North Waziristan tribal region, a known sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The attacks in Khyber are uncommon. The area is home to Lashkar-e-Islami, a militant organization sometimes allied with the Pakistani Taliban, but which has often clashed with other groups.
As it published its year-end review of its Afghan war strategy on Thursday, the Obama administration indicated that it planned to step up attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the area.
That would mean using Predator and Reaper drones in Pakistans tribal areas, and possibly carrying out Special Forces operations along the border, officials indicated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/world/asia/18pstan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
The C.I.A. station chief in Islamabad is perhaps the agencys most important undercover assignment overseas because that person helps oversee its secret war in Pakistan using armed drones that target Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The suit that named the C.I.A. station chief, who was working undercover and whose name is classified, was filed over attacks that killed at least two Pakistanis.
The breach of security comes as attacks attributed to American drones in Pakistans lawless tribal areas continued to intensify, with three strikes on Friday killing 26 militants.
The threats against the station chief were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act, according to one American intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
C.I.A. spokesman George Little would not confirm that the station chief had to leave Pakistan, but did say that station chiefs routinely encounter major risk as they work to keep America safe, and that their security is obviously a top priority for the C.I.A., especially when theres an imminent threat.
Mirza Shahzad Akbar, the lawyer who brought the suit that named the station chief, said in an interview that he did not believe security was the reason for the C.I.A. agents leaving. Obviously, his name had come out in the open and maybe he feared police action or an action by the Supreme Court, Mr. Akbar said.
The police in Islamabad this week had registered a criminal complaint against the C.I.A. station chief.
Mr. Akbar, who said the case would continue despite the station chiefs absence, is representing Kareem Khan, a resident of North Waziristan who claimed that his son and brother were killed in a drone strike. The lawsuit also named Leon Panetta, the agency director, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Mr. Khan, a resident of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, which has often been a target of drone strikes, is seeking $500 million as compensation for the deaths, accusing the C.I.A. officer of running a clandestine spying operation out of the United States embassy in Islamabad. He also alleged that the C.I.A. officer was in the country on a business passport.
My brother and son were innocent, Mr. Khan had said in a recent interview. There were no Taliban hiding in my house.
For several years, drone attacks have been a regular element of American tactics to counter militants in Pakistans tribal areas, but the number of such strikes has increased markedly this year.
Two British converts to Islam appeared to be among many killed in drone attacks in recent days, officials in North Waziristan said on Friday.
I think its pretty much confirmed now, said a senior Pakistani official in Peshawar, who spoke in return for anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. He said the Britons were believed to have assumed Islamic names Abu Bakar, said to be his late 40s, and Mansoor in his mid-20s after their conversion to Islam in Britain a few years ago.
They traveled to North Waziristan a year ago to join Al Qaeda, the official said, and died when a missile struck the vehicle in which they were traveling along with two local militants who were also killed.
The official said the vehicle seemed to have been electronically tracked as it traveled from Afghanistan. The attacks took places in the Dattkhel area, well inside Pakistan.
The report was the second in recent months suggesting the presence of some foreigners among militants fighting American forces in the border area. In July, American forces in Afghanistan detained a German citizen, Ahmed Sidiqi, 36, said to have ties to the men who helped plot the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Then in October, Pakistani officials said that several German citizens were killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.
The attack earlier this week was followed on Thursday by a drone strike in the Terah valley in the Khyber region along the Afghan border where Pakistani militants have fled to escape military operations in the Swat, Khyber, Orakzai and South Waziristan tribal regions.
In three more strikes in the same area on Friday, a government official said 26 militants were killed, the fourth attack in the area two days.
Almost all American drone attacks this year have been in the North Waziristan tribal region, a known sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The attacks in Khyber are uncommon. The area is home to Lashkar-e-Islami, a militant organization sometimes allied with the Pakistani Taliban, but which has often clashed with other groups.
As it published its year-end review of its Afghan war strategy on Thursday, the Obama administration indicated that it planned to step up attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the area.
That would mean using Predator and Reaper drones in Pakistans tribal areas, and possibly carrying out Special Forces operations along the border, officials indicated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/world/asia/18pstan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss