The CIA has pulled its top spy out of Pakistan after terrorists threatened to kill him, current and former U.S. officials said, an unusual move for the U.S. and a complication on the front lines of the fight against al-Qaida.
The CIA station chief was in transit Thursday after a Pakistani lawsuit earlier this month accused him by name of killing civilians in missile strikes. Msnbc.com and The Associated Press are not publishing the station chief's name because he remains undercover and his name is classified.
CIA airstrikes from unmanned aircraft have killed terrorist leaders but have led to accusations in Pakistan that the strikes kill innocent people. The U.S. does not acknowledge the missile strikes, but there have been more than 100 such attacks this year — more than double the amount in 2009.
The lawsuit blew the American spy's cover, leading to threats against him and forcing the U.S. to call him home, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
CIA officials' concerns for the station chief's safety led to the decision to bring him home, U.S. officials said.
"Our station chiefs routinely encounter major risk as they work to keep America safe, and they've been targeted by terrorists in the past. They are courageous in the face of danger, and their security is obviously a top priority for the CIA, especially when there's an imminent threat," Jennifer Youngblood, a CIA spokeswoman, told NBC News.
A U.S. intelligence official, who spoke to NBC on the condition his name not be used, said the terrorist threats against the CIA official in Pakistan "were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act."
Some American officials suspect that the officer’s cover was deliberately blown by Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, The New York Times reported. It may have been in retaliation for a civil lawsuit filed in New York last month implicating the Pakistani agency's chief in the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, the U.S. officials told the Times.
The Pakistani lawsuit also named CIA Director Leon Panetta and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
'A victory'
The station chief's name has been published by local media covering the lawsuit and demonstrations related to it. Demonstrators in the heart of the capital have carried placards bearing the officer's name and urging him to leave the country.
Shahzad Akbar, the lawyer bringing the case, said he got the name from local journalists. He said he named the man because he wanted to sue a CIA operative living within the jurisdiction of the Islamabad court.
Speaking to the , Akbar described the station chief's recall as "a victory ... as they (the U.S.) are killing Pakistanis."
"We will also approach the U.S. courts to seek compensation for the killing of innocent people and to stop these drone strikes," Akbar added.
A Pakistani intelligence officer said the country's intelligence service, the ISI, knew the identity of the station chief, but had "no clue" how his name was leaked.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because his agency, like many around the world, does not allow its operatives to be named in the media.
The CIA's work is unusually difficult in Pakistan, one of the United States' most important and at times frustrating counterterrorism allies.
The station chief in Islamabad operates as a secret general in the U.S. war against terrorism. He runs the Predator drone program targeting terrorists, handles some of the CIA's most urgent and sensitive tips and collaborates closely with Pakistan's ISI, one of the most important relationships in the spy world.
Almost a year ago seven CIA officers and contractors were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan. Six other agency officers were wounded in the attack, one of the deadliest in CIA history.
It's rare for a CIA station chief to see his cover blown. In 1999, an Israeli newspaper revealed the identity of the station chief in Tel Aviv. In 2001, an Argentine newspaper printed a picture of the Buenos Aires station chief and details about him. In both instances, the station chiefs were recalled to the U.S.