中情局“约翰”是追捕本•拉登第一功臣

美中央情报局一名资深分析员“约翰”耗时十年之久追踪并收集与“基地”组织头目奥萨马•本•拉登相关的情报，最终帮助美国铲除了这位恐怖大亨。在抓获本•拉登之前，他曾拒绝晋升机会并要求保留原职，继续追踪本拉登。此前他曾秘密追踪情报帮助抓获了多名“基地”头目，包括阿布祖贝达、阿卜德拉希姆纳希里等人。

An anonymous CIA analyst who refused promotion in order to continue to track down al-Qaeda leaders has been revealed as the brains behind the successful operation to kill Osama bin Laden.

Identified only as “John”, his middle name, the career CIA man is said to have choked up when speaking to Senators in a secret session about how he pulled together the information that led to the perpetrator of the Sept 11 atrocities.

John was standing just outside the frame of the famous photograph of President Barack Obama and his team watching the US Navy SEALs raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The CIA is divided principally between operators – spies in the classic mould – and analysts, those who sift through the material the operators gather and usually spend their whole careers in the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Analysts do not work undercover but the Associated Press, which reported the pivotal role played by John, agreed to a CIA request not to reveal his identity for fear he could become an al-Qaeda target.

John was the first to put in writing last summer that the CIA might have a genuine lead on finding bin Laden. He oversaw the team that joined the dots that led the agency to bin Laden’s fortified compound in Abbottabad.

For nearly a decade, John’s principal job was to find bin Laden. A former Russia and Balkans specialist, he wrote what was viewed as the definitive profile of Vladimir Putin before shifting his focus to al-Qaeda.

He is said to have been one of the driving forces behind a string of captures of prominent al-Qaeda figures, including Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin Alshib, Hambali and Faraj al-Libi, and advocated increasing the number of drone strikes in Pakistan.

The CIA offered to promote John and move him to another role but the analyst was adamant that he should remain in his post until bin Laden was located.