The CIA station chief in Afghanistan has assumed a key troubleshooting role in US dealings with President Hamid Karzai, including tasks normally reserved for diplomatic and military officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. "Karzai needs constant reassurance," one former colleague of the US intelligence official told the daily, describing the Central Intelligence Agency station chief as the Afghan president's "security blanket."
The daily wrote that the station chief, a former Marine in his 50s who is known to some colleagues by the nickname "Spider," generally is called upon during critical times. The Journal reported that when the Afghan leader lashed out against his Western partners, it the station chief who was tapped by the White House to calm him.