CIA's "Prince of Darkness", "Dark Lord", "Ayatollah Mike", Forced to Retire

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Mike D'Andrea, CIA Chief of the Iran Section forced to retire after 38 years of kicking ass and taking names in defense of our country.

"The CIA’s Iran chief, described by his colleagues as “legendary,” is being forced to retire as the center he oversees is folded back into the agency’s larger Middle East division, according to former CIA officials.

The official, Mike D’Andrea — nicknamed the “Dark Lord” or “Prince of Darkness” and known by the undercover name “Roger”— had been granted waivers that allowed him to continue working at the CIA past the mandatory retirement age, according to former agency officials. But the agency declined his most recent retirement exception, according to these officials. D’Andrea’s retirement was first reported by the New York Times."

Full story here: https://asumetech.com/cias-legendary-iran-chief-forced-to-retire/

I'm so thankful that he stood watch over us during his tenure. A most interesting career. Hopefully there will be a biography forthcoming in the future.

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Interesting article about him: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/world/middleeast/cia-iran-dark-prince-michael-dandrea.html



He also married a Muslim woman he met abroad, prompting his conversion to Islam. Colleagues said he doesn’t shy away from mentioning his religion but is not demonstrably observant. There is no prayer rug in his office, officials said, although he is known to clutch a strand of prayer beads.


This is like a hard-core communist running CIA operations against China thinking they are not Communist enough. We'll see how long it will take for him and his wife to retire in Tehran, Abu Dhabi, or Bahrain and take all that knowledge with him.

Definitely looks like a competent spymaster who couldn't even convert/convince his wife (or potential wife at some point) into his religion or whatnot.

Article about his retirement goes into "nobody normal cares" bucket. While probably an interesting character his employment role and responsibilities goes into an often typical "WTF were they thinking"

Out of curiosity: Is this the same guy who developed a drone program and/or authorized the strike which killed an aid worker and 6-7 Afghan children/toddlers in "retaliation" for Kabul airport bombing couple months ago? Maybe somebody with more info can confirm.

[Business_Casual]

Sunni v Shia.