The US media described the move as “highly unusual” for the CIA, which declined to comment on the identity of the agent and requested that the media not print his name. – File Photo by AFP

WASHINGTON: The CIA has moved to protect an analyst who played a central role in the covert operation to kill Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the US media reported on Wednesday.

A US official told reporters that the move followed intelligence reports that Al Qaeda was trying to identify the US agents who helped plan the May 2 raid on Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad.

The US media described the move as “highly unusual” for the CIA, which declined to comment on the identity of the agent and requested that the media not print his name.

The analyst was pictured on the edge of a famous Situation Room photo released by the White House after the raid. He was a so-called “overt” officer, and not considered deeply under cover.

But now, he is being given undisclosed protection to ensure he does not become an Al Qaeda target.

Identified only as “John”, his middle name, the career CIA man is said to have choked up when speaking to Senators in a secret session about how he pulled together the information that led to the perpetrator of the Sept 11 atrocities.

The CIA is divided principally between operators or spies and analysts, those who sift through the material the operators gather.

Usually, analysts do not work under cover.

John was the first to put in writing last summer that the CIA might have a genuine lead on finding Bin Laden. He oversaw the team that joined the dots that led the agency to Bin Laden’s fortified compound.

For nearly a decade, John’s principal job was to find Bin Laden. A former Russia and Balkans specialist, he wrote what was viewed as the definitive profile of Vladimir Putin before shifting his focus to Al Qaeda.

He is said to have been one of the driving forces behind a string of captures of prominent Al Qaeda figures, including Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin Alshib, Hambali and Faraj al-Libi, and advocated increasing the number of drone strikes in Pakistan.

The CIA offered to promote John and move him to another role but the analyst was adamant that he should remain in his post until Bin Laden was located.