Cheney Told CIA to Hide Counterterror Program

Defense chief also calls for release of doctor who helped catch him

(NEWSER) - Defense chief Leon Panetta talks about the capture of Osama bin Laden with CBS' 60 Minutes in an interview airing tomorrow, and two main points are generating headlines:

• Pakistan knew? He suspects government authorities knew bin Laden was in Abbottabad, notes the Hill . "I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound," he said. Why? Start with those 18-foot walls. "It was the largest compound in the area. So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell's going on there?’” In fact, the US didn't tip off Pakistan about the raid because it feared word would get out to bin Laden, he added.

The story of the unsung CIA man who hunted the leader for a decade

(NEWSER) - By now, you’ve seen the photo of Obama administration brass awaiting word of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. What you haven’t seen is the CIA agent standing just outside the frame, a man the AP identifies only as “John.” He spent years doggedly chasing leads on bin Laden, refusing promotions so he could continue the hunt. One CIA boss says he didn’t even know John’s exact job. “I knew he was the guy in the room I always listened to.” More»

Army major among arrested informants who aided US: NYT

(NEWSER) - The reward for at least five Pakistanis for helping the CIA find terror boss Osama bin Laden was to be arrested by their nation's military spy agency. The New York Times reports that those busted include a man who owned a safe house in Abbottabad from which CIA agents observed the bin Laden compound and a Pakistani Army major who copied the license plates of cars visiting the compound. But a Pakistani army rep today denied the Times' claim that the major was detained, calling the report "false and totally baseless," notes NPR . More»

Which explains the Panetta-Petraeus shake-up

(NEWSER) - Today, President Obama is expected to announce that CIA director Leon Panetta will become secretary of defense, and that David Petraeus will slide into his old job. That’s a pretty startling illustration of just how far the lines between spies and soldiers have blurred over the past year, the New York Times observes. Panetta’s CIA was essentially a paramilitary organization, waging wars with drone aircraft from secret bases in Afghanistan. More»

According to AP sources

(NEWSER) - The big security shakeups are out, by way of unidentified AP sources, and as predicted , Leon Panetta is in as the new secretary of defense, succeeding Robert Gates. Gen. David Petraeus will be nominated to fill Panetta's shoes as CIA director. Five-time ambassador Ryan Crocker, who retired in 2009 and was reportedly resistant to the administration's advances, is expected to become the new ambassador to Afghanistan. The Washington Post notes that this will reunite him briefly with Petraeus, who led the US charge in Iraq while Crocker served as ambassador to that country. More»