The Central Intelligence Agency’s Islamabad Chief has made an exit
from Pakistan, marking the second time that the agency’s most senior
officer has left the country in the past seven months.
The Islamabad Station Chief had arrived late last year after his
predecessor was essentially run out of town when a Pakistani official
admitted his name had been leaked.
According to ABC News, the departure of two station chiefs in such a
short time threatens to upset the balance of a vital intelligence
office.
U.S. officials, however, insisted that the quick turnover would not harm their country’s intelligence efforts in Pakistan.
Both US and Pakistan officials hoped the Station Chief’s exit would
improve relations between the Inter Services Intelligence and the
Central Intelligence Agency, as the departing Chief had an “extremely
tense” relationship with his ISI counterparts including Director
General Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
One of the US officials said the CIA chief was about to depart in few months due to his poor relations with Pakistani citizens.
The CIA-ISI relationship has been strained to breaking point since
Pakistani intelligence officials discovered that the CIA secretly
recruited Pakistani agents to help find Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
The tension seemed to stem from the ISI’s belief that the CIA is still
running a clandestine network of American and Pakistani intelligence
agents without sharing enough information with the ISI about their
identities.
The CIA declined to comment on the Chief’s exit. (ANI)
