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CIA presence in Iraq to be reduced to 40 pct of wartime levels: US officials | The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
is planning to reduce its presence in Iraq to less than half of wartime levels,
American officials familiar with the development have revealed. Officials claimed
that the CIA's presence in Iraq would be reduced to 40 percent of wartime levels,
when Baghdad was the largest CIA station in the world with over 700 agency personnel.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the move comes as a result of the challenges
the CIA is facing while operating in a country that no longer welcomes a major
U.S. presence. The officials said that the CIA had already begun to pull back
in Iraq since the height of the war, but noted that the drawdown, coming six months
after the departure of American military forces, would be significant. According
to the paper, the plan would also reduce the U.S. intelligence presence in the
region, as Syria appears to be verging on civil war. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is also
sending fighters to Syria to battle the Assad regime, Pentagon officials claimed.
Meanwhile, proponents of the change said that the CIA could make better use of
its personnel in other areas. It could include emerging terrorist hot spots such
as Yemen, home to the Al-Qaeda affiliate the U.S. considers to pose the greatest
threat to the homeland, and Mali , where an unstable government has fanned concerns.
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