Retired CIA veteran will return to head clandestine service

John D. Bennett, a CIA veteran who served as station chief in Pakistan until last year and who has had numerous other overseas postings, has been appointed head of the agency's National Clandestine Service, Director Leon E. Panetta announced Wednesday.

Obama's intelligence nominee says he won't be a 'hood ornament'

President Obama's nominee to lead the nation's intelligence community vowed Tuesday to "push the envelope" in asserting his authority and pledged that he would not be a "hood ornament" for a system marked by the recent massive expansion of top-secret agencies and contracts.

Cabinet secretaries Clinton, Gates visit DMZ in show of support for South Korea

PANMUNJOM, KOREA -- In a show of support for South Korea, four months after one of its warships sank in a mysterious attack, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited on Wednesday the infamous no-man's land that has divided the Korean Peninsula for more than a half-century.

Clinton arrives in Kabul for Afghanistan summit, meets with Karzai

KABUL -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here Monday night to participate in a conference at which Afghan President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to present concrete plans for improving governance, combating corruption, and beginning a peace process with both low-level Taliban fighters and their leaders.

CIA says it moved Iranian scientist, 2nd informant to U.S. over safety concerns

The Iranian scientist who returned to his homeland this week was one of two CIA informants whisked out of Iran last year by the agency amid concerns that the Tehran government had discovered they were providing secrets to the United States, current and former U.S. officials said.

Iran attempts to link U.S. to double suicide bombing that killed 28

TEHRAN -- The double suicide bombing that killed at least 28 people in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan on Thursday was "in line with United States policies against the Islamic republic," state-run radio said Friday.

Walter Myers, State Dept. analyst who spied for Cuba, gets life; wife 6 years

A retired State Department intelligence analyst was sentenced to life in prison and his wife got more than six years Friday for spying for Cuba for nearly 30 years in a screenplay-ready tale of romance and espionage.

Despite diplomatic tensions, U.S.-Israeli security ties strengthen

This week, Israel successfully conducted a test of a new mobile missile-defense system designed to shield Israeli towns from small rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. When the "Iron Dome" system is fully deployed in the next year, about half the cost -- $205 million -- will be borne by U.S. taxpayers under a plan advanced by the Obama administration and broadly supported in Congress.

U.S. paid Iranian nuclear scientist $5 million for aid to CIA, officials say

The Iranian nuclear scientist who claimed to have been abducted by the CIA before departing for his homeland Wednesday was paid more than $5 million by the agency to provide intelligence on Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials said.

Iranian nuclear scientist returns home to a hero's welcome

TEHRAN -- An Iranian nuclear scientist at the center of a bizarre espionage drama arrived here to a hero's welcome Thursday morning, including a personal greeting from several senior government officials.

Iranian nuclear scientist heads homeward in anger

An Iranian nuclear scientist who had disappeared in Saudi Arabia last summer stepped out of a cab in front of Iran's diplomatic mission in Washington on Monday, asking for a ticket back to his homeland. Shahram Amiri told officials that he had been abducted by U.S. intelligence operatives and had spent much of the past year in Tucson being questioned about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

U.S. deports alleged 12th Russian spy

Federal authorities detained a 12th person in their investigation of a Russian spy ring in the United States, and he has been deported to Russia, U.S. law enforcement officials said Tuesday.