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CIA Preps Iraq Drawdown

Will reduce its presence to 40 percent of wartime levels.

The CIA will dramatically reduce its presence in Iraq the agency disclosed Monday. Plans are in place to cut its numbers to 40 percent of wartime levels, when the 700 agency personnel in the country made the Baghdad post the world’s largest CIA operations. The move coincides with the White House’s plan to scale back diplomatic and training missions in the country. Supporters of the CIA’s plan say that it is a sign of success, but detractors say that Iraq has scaled back counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S. “If you don’t have that cooperation, you are probably wasting the resources you are allocating there and not accomplishing much,” one former CIA analyst said.