Al Qaeda number two killed in drone attack

 According to reports, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman was killed in Pakistan in another big blow to the terrorist group that the US believes to be on the verge of defeat, a senior Obama administration official said Saturday.

The Libyan national who was the network s former operational leader rose to Al Qaeda s No. 2 spot after the US killed Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during a raid on his Pakistan compound in May.

As per media report, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last month that Al Qaeda s defeat was within reach if the US could mount a string of successful attacks on the group s weakened leadership.

Al-Rahman was killed Aug 22 in the lawless Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, the official disclosed Saturday on condition of anonymity.

The official would not say how al-Rahman was killed. But his death came on the same day that a CIA drone strike was reported in Waziristan.

Al-Rahman, believed to be in his mid-30s, was a close confidant of bin Laden and once served as bin Laden s emissary to Iran. Born in Libya, al-Rahman joined bin Laden as a teenager in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.

Raymond Davis Row Creates Rift Between ISI & CIA

Raymond Davis Case: The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is ready to split with its US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) because of frustration over what it calls heavy-handed pressure and its anger over what it believes is a covert US operation involving hundreds of contract spies, according to an internal document obtained by a US news agency, an influential Washington based paper reported. According to a statement drafted by the ISI for the media but never released, an already-fragile relationship between the two agencies collapsed following the shooting death of two Pakistanis by Raymond Davis, a US contracted spy.

“Post-incident conduct of the CIA has virtually put the partnership into question,” said the media statement drafted after the issue of American shooter become public. A copy of which was obtained this week by the said news agency.

“It is hard to predict if the relationship will ever reach the level at which it was prior to the Davis episode,” the statement said. “The onus of not stalling this relationship between the two agencies now squarely lies on the CIA.”

Ex-CIA chief: Strike on Iran more likely now

WASHINGTON: A former CIA director says military action against Iran now seems more likely because no matter what the U.

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Ex-CIA chief: Strike on Iran more likely now

Iran could have nukes ready by 2012: CIA chief

WASHINGTON: Iran has enough low-enriched uranium to make two weapons, which it could have prepared and ready for delivery as early as 2012, CIA director Leon Panetta warned Sunday.

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Iran could have nukes ready by 2012: CIA chief

The Case FBI Against Nada Prouty CIA Covert Terrorism Officer

Nada Prouty’s identity was once a closely held national secret. She was an FBI agent, then a CIA officer with top security clearances who penetrated terrorist organizations overseas. Her fellow CIA officers say she risked her life often, volunteering for dangerous missions. And because she’s originally from Lebanon, she speaks native Arabic, a rare skill for an American intelligence officer.

Pursuing justice for the FBI led her to much more dangerous missions at the CIA. She worked in Iraq during the most violent period of the insurgency. Armed with an assault rifle, she went on raids with U.S. Special Forces troops.

She interrogated suspected terrorists, and she was part of the team that developed the intelligence on the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein. Her CIA boss at the time said “many officers in the CIA were unwilling to serve in this deteriorating, high-risk and thankless environment. Mrs. Prouty did not waver.”

Prouty had to wait two years while the FBI ran a background investigation. She was cleared in 1999 and became a rising star. After two more background investigations she got one of the nation’s highest security clearances. And in 2003 she joined the CIA. But while Prouty was hunting terrorists overseas, an investigation began back home that would destroy her career. The Bush administration was working to break up terrorist financing. And by 2004, federal prosecutors in Detroit were looking at the large Arab-American population around Dearborn, Mich.

CIA Suicide Attacker ‘Was Jordanian Informant’

TrendPK.com WASHINGTON: The suicide attacker who killed eight people in an attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan was a Jordanian who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence as a double agent, US media said Monday.
NBC News cited western intelligence officials as saying the Jordanian, identified in the report as Humam [...]