CIA allowed to search bin Laden compound: report

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has agreed to permit the CIA to send in a forensic team to search Osama bin Laden's compound, the US paper reported Thursday, citing US officials. 

The CIA team will arrive at the compound in Abbottabad within days to thoroughly search the residence where US Navy commandos killed bin Laden on May 2 in a unilateral raid that angered Islamabad, the report said. 

"The assault team was there for only 40 minutes," an unnamed US official told the paper. "The aim is to return to the site -- to do another, more thorough, look." 

The CIA plans to use infrared cameras and other devices capable of identifying materials possibly embedded behind walls, inside safes or underground, it reported. 

The Central Intelligence Agency was not immediately available for comment. 

The CIA has also been granted access to materials that Pakistan's security forces have recovered from the compound, officials told the paper. The agency has asked Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for help in analyzing some of the material that was seized in the raid, including deciphering references to names of individuals and places, the report said. 

US intelligence officials have called the trove of computer files and notebooks found at the bin Laden compound as the largest intelligence find ever recovered from a terrorist network. (AFP)

CIA chiefs,Obama nominates new defense

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Thursday formally nominated Leon Panetta as his new secretary of defense and David Petraeus, who commands the international force in Afghanistan, as Panetta's successor at the CIA.

Obama had first said he planned to nominate Panetta and Petraeus on April 28, just days before US commandos entered Pakistan and shot and killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The US Senate must confirm both men, but neither is expected to encounter any serious opposition there.

The White House hopes that Panetta, whose mission would include cutting spending at the Defense Department, would be able to move into the job on June 30, the day current Defense chief Robert Gates is set to leave. 

Petraeus will continue to lead the international force in Afghanistan until his successor, General John Allen, takes over in September. Petraeus will retire from the military before moving to the CIA.

The United States began troop withdrawals from Afghanistan this year, making good on a promise by Obama to reduce US troop levels there, although it is not clear how soon or how many additional troops will leave.

A new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is the president's top military adviser, is also expected to be nominated next month. General Martin Dempsey, the current Army chief of staff, is considered Obama's likely choice to replace Admiral Michael Mullen, according to Pentagon officials. (AFP)

Hackers breach US defense contractors network

LONDON: Unknown hackers have broken into the security networks of Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and several other US military contractors, a source with direct knowledge of the attacks told this news agency.

They breached security systems designed to keep out intruders by creating duplicates to "SecurID" electronic keys from EMC Corp's (EMC.N) RSA security division, said the person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

It was not immediately clear what kind of data, if any, was stolen by the hackers. But the networks of Lockheed and other military contractors contain sensitive data on future weapons systems as well as military technology currently used in battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Weapons makers are the latest companies to be breached through sophisticated attacks that have pierced the defenses of huge corporations including Sony (SNE.N), Google Inc (GOOG.O) and EMC Corp (EMC.N). Security experts say that it is virtually impossible for any company or government agency to build a security network that hackers will be unable to penetrate.

The Pentagon, which has about 85,000 military personnel and civilians working on cyber security issues worldwide, said it also uses a limited number of the RSA electronic security keys, but declined to say how many for security reasons.

The hackers learned how to copy the security keys with data stolen from RSA during a sophisticated attack that EMC disclosed in March, according to the source.

EMC declined to comment on the matter, as did executives at major defense contractors.

Lockheed, which employs 126,000 people worldwide and had $45.8 billion in revenue last year, said it does not discuss specific threats or responses as a matter of principle, but regularly took actions to counter threats and ensure security.

'Most wanted' US gives lists Pakistan

WASHINGTON: As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Pakistan Friday, the United States gave Islamabad a list of terrorist leaders it wants joint operation against them, officials said.

The list includes Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al Zawahiri, along with Siraj Haqqani of the Haqqani network, Ilyas Kashmiri, the head of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and suspected al-Qaida leader, and Atiya Abdel Rahman, al-Qaida operations chief, the US TV reported, citing unnamed officials from both governments.

The list was discussed during separate meetings between senior Pakistani and US officials in the past two weeks, including Friday in Islamabad with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a US official, a Pakistani government official and a Pakistani intelligence official.

The United States is optimistic Pakistan would provide intelligence for prompt and joint actions against these militants.

A US news paper has reported that United States believes all these wanted militants are present in Pakistan.