<p>The Islamabad station chief, one of the agency's most-important positions in the world, arrived only late last year after his predecessor was essentially run out of town when a Pakistani official admitted his name had been leaked, ABC News reported.<br /><br />The top CIA officer in Islamabad, who was supervising the team that tracked down bin Laden, left Pakistan due to medical reasons and is not returning, it said.<br /><br />The departure of two station chiefs in such a short span of time threatens to upset a vital intelligence office, it said.<br /><br />US officials, however, insisted that the quick turnover would not harm US intelligence efforts in Pakistan, it said.<br /><br />That is because, according to three US and Pakistani officials, the departing chief of station had an "extremely tense" relationship with his ISI counterparts, including Director General Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha. One US official said the CIA chief was dying to depart in a few months as a result of his poor relations with the Pakistanis, it said. <br /><br />The relationship between CIA-ISI has been strained since Pakistani intelligence officials discovered the CIA secretly recruited Pakistani agents to help find bin Laden in Abbottabad, a military town that is a 90-minute drive from Islamabad.<br /><br />In one case, US officials were stopped at a toll booth, and a group of Pakistani journalists were waiting for them to arrive. In another case, CIA officials were stopped at a checkpoint in Peshawar and held long enough for the media to show up and take their pictures, the report said.<br /><br />"Pakistan has been harassing US personnel working in the country for months," complained a US official.<br /><br />Pakistan even threatened to impose more formal restrictions on the travel of all US diplomats and require prior notification, but dropped the demand when the US threatened similar restrictions for its diplomats inside the United States, one US official was quoted as saying. <br /><br /></p>
<p>The Islamabad station chief, one of the agency's most-important positions in the world, arrived only late last year after his predecessor was essentially run out of town when a Pakistani official admitted his name had been leaked, ABC News reported.<br /><br />The top CIA officer in Islamabad, who was supervising the team that tracked down bin Laden, left Pakistan due to medical reasons and is not returning, it said.<br /><br />The departure of two station chiefs in such a short span of time threatens to upset a vital intelligence office, it said.<br /><br />US officials, however, insisted that the quick turnover would not harm US intelligence efforts in Pakistan, it said.<br /><br />That is because, according to three US and Pakistani officials, the departing chief of station had an "extremely tense" relationship with his ISI counterparts, including Director General Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha. One US official said the CIA chief was dying to depart in a few months as a result of his poor relations with the Pakistanis, it said. <br /><br />The relationship between CIA-ISI has been strained since Pakistani intelligence officials discovered the CIA secretly recruited Pakistani agents to help find bin Laden in Abbottabad, a military town that is a 90-minute drive from Islamabad.<br /><br />In one case, US officials were stopped at a toll booth, and a group of Pakistani journalists were waiting for them to arrive. In another case, CIA officials were stopped at a checkpoint in Peshawar and held long enough for the media to show up and take their pictures, the report said.<br /><br />"Pakistan has been harassing US personnel working in the country for months," complained a US official.<br /><br />Pakistan even threatened to impose more formal restrictions on the travel of all US diplomats and require prior notification, but dropped the demand when the US threatened similar restrictions for its diplomats inside the United States, one US official was quoted as saying. <br /><br /></p>