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CIA director visited Pakistan, Iraq this month
Washington, Feb 23: CIA director George Tenet visited Pakistan and Iraq earlier this month, but did not speak to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein who is in U.S. custody, a U.S. official said.
Washington, Feb 23: CIA director George Tenet visited Pakistan and Iraq earlier this month, but did not speak to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein who is in U.S. custody, a U.S. official said.
Tenet met with Pakistani officials during a visit to Islamabad the week before last, the official told on condition of anonymity yesterday.
The official would not comment on the substance of the meetings, but they likely included discussions of the revelations about Pakistan's role in the nuclear black market after scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Tenet also likely discussed terrorism as the United States continues to hunt for members of al-Qaeda, including its leader Osama Bin Laden who is believed to be hiding in the mountainous border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities are gearing up for a drive against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in remote western tribal areas and have sought the deployment of more paramilitary troops, officials in the region say.
A brigade from the Pakistani army is in the tribal region of Waziristan adjacent to the Afghan border where for weeks authorities have been pressuring tribesmen to stop sheltering al-Qaeda suspects and Taliban fighters. Tenet, during the same trip, also stopped in Iraq but did not talk to Saddam, the U.S. official said.
Red Cross officials visited Saddam on Saturday for the first time since U.S. forces captured him in December and said they would pass on a letter he wrote for his daughters.
The CIA replaced its Baghdad station chief in December with one of its most experienced officers to oversee what has become the spy agency's largest in-country presence in history.
Bureau Report
The official would not comment on the substance of the meetings, but they likely included discussions of the revelations about Pakistan's role in the nuclear black market after scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Tenet also likely discussed terrorism as the United States continues to hunt for members of al-Qaeda, including its leader Osama Bin Laden who is believed to be hiding in the mountainous border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities are gearing up for a drive against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in remote western tribal areas and have sought the deployment of more paramilitary troops, officials in the region say.
A brigade from the Pakistani army is in the tribal region of Waziristan adjacent to the Afghan border where for weeks authorities have been pressuring tribesmen to stop sheltering al-Qaeda suspects and Taliban fighters. Tenet, during the same trip, also stopped in Iraq but did not talk to Saddam, the U.S. official said.
Red Cross officials visited Saddam on Saturday for the first time since U.S. forces captured him in December and said they would pass on a letter he wrote for his daughters.
The CIA replaced its Baghdad station chief in December with one of its most experienced officers to oversee what has become the spy agency's largest in-country presence in history.
Bureau Report