CIA Prepares Iraq Pullback

By artappraiser on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 3:15pm |

By Siobhan Gordon and Adam Entous, Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2012

The Central Intelligence Agency is preparing to cut its presence in Iraq to less than half of wartime levels, according to U.S. officials familiar with the planning, a move that is largely a result of challenges the CIA faces operating in a country that no longer welcomes a major U.S. presence.

Under the plans being considered, the CIA's presence in Iraq would be reduced to 40% of wartime levels, when Baghdad was the largest CIA station in the world with more than 700 agency personnel, officials said.

The CIA had already begun to pull back in Iraq since the height of the war, officials said. But the drawdown, coming six months after the departure of American military forces, would be significant [....]

URL:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303506404577446703581496154.html?mod=googlenews_wsj