Pakistani Media Out CIA Station Chief

Pakistani media have named the man they say is the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in Islamabad, the Wall Street Journal said, citing reports by the ARY television channel and The Nation newspaper.

The reports have prompted questions about whether Pakistan’s government attempted to expose a CIA operative following Osama bin Laden’s killing, the Journal said. The CIA’s Islamabad station chief oversees the agency’s covert programs that target al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, the U.S. paper said.

The U.S. is not planning to withdraw the station chief, who was posted to Pakistan six months ago, it reported. His predecessor was pulled from the country when a lawsuit filed in December identified him, the Journal said.

The Journal said the name given for the CIA chief in the May 7 edition of The Nation was inaccurate, without giving further details.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Alberto Rodriguez, said in a cellphone text message today that he was unable to comment on the reports.