Donald Trump's new CIA pick hasn't been greeted with the avalanche of media gush that inevitably follows a woman who becomes the first among her gender to get a top job.
United States President Barack Obama has said that there has been no breach in the national security due to the scandal that forced CIA Director Gen David Petraeus to quit because of an extra-marital affair.
The Central Intelligence Agency has urged the White House to approve a significant expansion of the agency's fleet of armed drones, in a bid to extend the spy organisation's decade-long transformation into a paramilitary force, American officials have said. The proposal by CIA Director David H Petraeus, if approved, could add as many as 10 drones for the CIA to an inventory that has ranged between 30 and 35 over the past few years, officials say.
The US President told reporters that he and Pompeo are on the same page. "With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it's going to go very well," Trump said.
Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta will become the new United States defence secretary, replacing Robert Gates, in a major shake-up of President Barack Obama's security team, according to a media report.The top US military commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus is set to take over as the new CIA Director. The television network said Petraeus will be replaced as the US commander in Afghanistan by Lieutenant General John Allen.
Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta will move to Pentagon to become new US Defence Secretary to replace Robert Gates while his top military commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus is to takeover as the new CIA Director.
American intelligence agency Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday warned India and Brazil that they face 'emerging threats' from the Al Qaeda and Taliban, though the terrorist outfits are 'on the run' due to extreme pressure exerted on them in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Leon Panetta, who has no direct intelligence gathering or analysis experience, is set to become chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, with a powerful US Senate Committee voting unanimously on his nomination by President Barack Obama.
Russia and China are tight-fisted and Iran is broke and none of them has the political will or capacity to bankroll the Afghan economy, which only the US can, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Trump also announced the appointment of Gina Haspel to head the Central Intelligence Agency -- the first woman selected for the agency's top post.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked by US Congressmen if the US had explore the possibility of northwest India for counter terrorism capabilities in Afghanistan. Blinken's remarks on India assume great importance, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The police and bomb disposal squads have been so far successful in safely defusing these crude bombs, which appears to have been sent by the same sender.
Less than a year after the Central Intelligence Agengy warned of renewed threats from a resurgent Al Qaeda, its director Michael Hayden portrayed the terrorist movement as largely defeated in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and on the backfoot throughout the world, including in its stronghold along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The New York Times in a news story on Saturday said that American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked terrorists for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan -- including targeting American troops -- amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.
A confrontation with the Taliban in Kabul in this fading light of a twilight zone would have been sheer madness, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is 'simply a deterrent' to protect the country and there will no longer be any need for it once the Kashmir issue is resolved, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said as he asserted that if the Americans have the resolve and the will, the issue can be sorted out.
The trip was the highest level meeting with a North Korean leader since 2000 when then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met Kim Jong-il, the father of the current leader, in Pyongyang.
The chief of the Central Intelligence Agency on Friday apologised for the United States' spy agency's surveillance of computers used by lawmakers and their staffers involved in investigating the organisation's harsh interrogation techniques.
Trump, who has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states, but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of fraud, announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he has fired Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security.
Afghanistan will remain a frontline state for Washington for a foreseeable future in terms of the potential threats to US national security from terrorist groups, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
'If he looked at it purely as an Islamic bomb, he would not have sold the nuclear secrets to North Korea. Khan was fighting the West, through North Korea, Iran and Libya,'\nsays Gordon Corera.
CIA Director Porter Goss has recently said that he has a pretty good idea that Osama bin Ladin is still in the Paksitan-Afghanistan frontier area.
The Islamic State has emerged as the most potent terrorist threat globally but in the Afghan-Pak region the space is dominated by other terrorist groups like Taliban, Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Tayiba, America's top spymaster has said.
"The report has as much validity as the report by the CIA director about the alleged existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq," he said referring to the report by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
Retired general Tommy Franks, former CIA director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer received the the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Greece's top law enforcement official dismissed three bomb explosions in Athens this week as "meaningless."
CIA Director George Tenet has named Charles Duelfer to succeed David Kay to lead the search for WMD in Iraq.
The broader NSE Nifty cracked below the key 10,400-mark to touch a low of 10,336.30, before finally ending 15.95 points, or 0.15 per cent, down at 10,410.90.
Trump ordered that they be reviewed in the next 180 days.
The US government was readying a strategy should India smash military power of West Pakistan.
If the ruling BJP stresses on Hindu nationalist themes ahead of the general election in May, there will be communal violence'
United States President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday refuted reports of infighting among his advisers over key Cabinet appointments and a shakeup in his transition team, saying a very organised process is taking place to select the finalists.
While Damon stays true to his character and is intense throughout the film, it's the story which lets down this spy thriller, says Namrata Thakker.
The White House has said there is no evidence of a Trump-Russia collusion, hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that it was probing Russia's meddling in last year's presidential polls, including possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
'Tehran,' Foreign Minister Zarif said, 'had expected the Modi government to be "more resilient" in the face of Washington's bullying,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pompeo defended the killing of Soleimani saying he was making efforts for an attack on Americans in the region.
Early this month, Trump had unceremoniously fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and nominated Mike Pompeo
The 70-year-old reality TV star has strongly refuted reports of any relationship with Putin and has said he has never met the Russian president.
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