Pakistani media have reported what they say is the name of the CIA station chief in Islamabad the second such potential outing of a sensitive covert operative in six months, and one that comes with tensions running high over the US raid that killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The Associated Press has learned that the name being reported is incorrect. Still, the publication of any alleged identity of the US spy agency's top official in this country could be pushback from Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence establishment, which was humiliated over the surprise raid on its soil, and could further sour relations between Washington and Islamabad.
On Friday, the private TV channel ARY broadcast what it said was the current CIA station chief's name. The Nation, a right-wing newspaper, picked up the story on Saturday.
ARY's news director, Mazhar Abbas, said the television station's reporter gleaned the name from a source. He defended the broadcast, saying it was "based on fact," and denounced allegations that the name was leaked to the television channel by an official with a motive.
The US embassy and a spokesman for Pakistani intelligence declined to comment. The AP is not publishing the station chief's name because he is undercover and his identity is classified. It was not immediately clear whether the Americans would pull him out of the country.
Asad Munir, a former intelligence chief with responsibility for Pakistan's militant-riddled tribal areas, said very few people know the name of the CIA station chief in Islamabad. But he said that releasing it would not necessarily jeopardize the American's safety.
"Normally people in intelligence have cover names," Munir said. "Only if there is a photograph to identify him could it put his life in danger."
In December, the CIA pulled its then-station chief out of Pakistan after a name alleged to be his surfaced in public and his safety was deemed at risk. That name hit the local presses after it was mentioned by a lawyer who planned a lawsuit on behalf of victims of US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt.
Suspicions have lingered that that outing was orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency to avenge an American lawsuit that named its chief over the 2008 terror attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai. The Pakistani agency denied leaking the CIA operative's name.
The raid on Bin Laden's compound was an extraordinary blow to what was already a badly frayed relationship.
Before dawn on May 2, Navy Seals ferried in high-tech helicopters raided a house in the garrison city of Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Bin Laden had been living for up to six years, killing him and at least four others.