A controversial CIA operative known as the Dark Prince, who presided over the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the killing of thousands of Islamist militants, has been appointed to head US spy operations against Iran.
The assignment of Michael D’Andrea — also known as Ayatollah Mike and immortalised in the Hollywood film Zero Dark Thirty — is one of several moves within the intelligence agency that herald a more vigorous push on Iran, in line with a campaign pledge by President Trump.
Robert Eatinger, a former CIA lawyer who worked with Mr D’Andrea, told The New York Times: “He can run a very aggressive programme, but very smartly,”
Mr D’Andrea is a convert to Islam, having married a Muslim woman he met during service overseas.
He is described by associates as an “abrasive” workaholic and was a key architect of the CIA’s counterterrorism drone programme in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, which has taken out thousands of militants.
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However, it also took the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent civilians, a record that also earned Mr D’Andrea the nickname “The Undertaker”. He is a polarising figure in intelligence circles, respected by many for his operational knowledge and acuity.
Michael Morrell, former deputy director of the CIA, once described him as “one of the finest intelligence officers of his generation” after 38 years of service, having significantly weakened al-Qaeda.
Mr D’Andrea, who is in his 50s and keeps a bed in his office so he can sleep there, was once asked what he does for fun. He replied coldly: “Work.”
But the shadowy Mr D’Andrea was also blamed for having dropped the ball when it came to keeping track on Nawaf al-Hazmi, a militant who went on to hijack a passenger jet and crash it into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Some also hold him responsible for the deaths of seven CIA employees who were killed in 2009 by a double-agent who had not been thoroughly vetted under his watch.
As the head of the CIA’s counterterrorism centre from 2006, he is credited with having significantly weakened al-Qaeda, but prisoner torture programmes he initiated were condemned by the US Senate as inhumane and ineffective in 2014.
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His appointment is part of a “muscular” new stance against Iran by the CIA, under the new leadership of the former Republican congressman Mike Pompeo, and is a partial following through on a campaign pledge by Mr Trump to get tough on what he called “the No 1 terrorist state”.
Mr Trump’s approach to Iran has also been echoed in his hawkish appointments to the National Security Council, though he flip-flopped on a campaign pledge to tear up the Iran nuclear agreement struck by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Despite criticising the landmark deal, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for six world powers easing sanctions, Mr Trump quietly ratified it in April.