American media reveal the duties of "Ayatollah Mike," retired CIA

American media revealed that as part of the reorganization of the American Central Intelligence Agency;

To focus more on China, the agency's Iran unit official was forced into retirement, after the position he supervised was merged once again into the agency's Greater Middle East division.

And the New York Times (New York Times) reported in

its

, as well as

, that the official in charge of Iran's unit, Mike D'Andrea - nicknamed "Ayatollah Mike" and "Prince of Darkness", known by the secret name "Roger". He was pardoned after a "long and distinguished career in the service of his country".

She revealed that D'Andrea has run the agency's operations in Iran since 2017, and former colleagues have described it as among the most important in the agency's recent history.

It works in the dark

The newspaper pointed out that agency officials often attributed to D'Andrea - who led the efforts to combat "terrorism" by the agency from 2006 to 2015, and was practicing his duties in complete secrecy - making a revolution in the pursuit of terrorists, especially the armed drone program that was tasked with chasing Al-Qaeda leadership.

D'Andrea was probably "the most lethal leader" in US intelligence during his tenure, in the words of a former senior CIA official. The hunt for Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US Special Forces raid in Pakistan in May 2011.

Former US officials said D'Andrea often slept in his office, working 12 or 14 hours a day, seven days a week.

He carried out 500 operations and killed thousands

During his reign, more than 500 strikes were carried out using drones during the administration of former US President Barack Obama, killing thousands of militants.

The New York Times quoted a senior IAEA official as saying that ending the work of Iran's unit does not reflect any decline in the agency's view of the importance of Iran or the downplaying of the threat it poses, adding that a review of the agency's operations concluded that it is best to analyze Iran within the context of its broader surroundings, in reference to from it to the Middle East.

She added that the CIA will create two new mission centers, one focusing on China and the other focusing on emerging technology, climate change and global health.

Focus on China

And it quoted Agency Director William Burns as saying that efforts to reorganize intelligence will focus more on China by bringing more resources to study that country and improving the status of officers around the world, to collect information and analyze China's activities.

In a statement, Burns said the new center "will advance our collective action on the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century, an increasingly antagonistic Chinese government."

These changes reflect - according to the New York Times - a general policy of the administration of US President Joe Biden, to give additional attention to a new generation of challenges and threats to the United States, after two decades of "terrorism" control over the work of the intelligence community.