Editing Gary C. Schroen (section)

==CIA Career and Expertise==
Schroen spent his 32 years in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, rising from a case officer to Deputy Chief of the Near East Division. He became the agency's foremost expert on Afghanistan, speaking fluent Persian and its Afghan dialect, Dari. His extensive experience in the region including spending much of the 1970s in Iran. While the corrupt Shah was in power, placed there by the CIA overthrow/coup of Iran.

Interestingly, Schroen faced harrowing experiences during his career, including an assassination attempt in Tehran in 1975 because he was involved in creating unrest inside of Iran and was seen as propping up the corrupt shah. He also was inside the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad when it was stormed and burned by protesters in 1979. This is another case of locals not appreciating the CIA's involvement in creating unrest inside their country.

He served as Chief of Station in Kabul, Afghanistan (though based out of Pakistan) in the late 1980s. Moved on and worked at CIA headquarters from 1992 to 1994, controlling counter-Iran operations.

Serving as Chief of Station in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1996 until mid-1999. During this period, he directed CIA operations aimed at finding and capturing Osama bin Laden and re-established relationships with Mujahideen commanders largely funded by the CIA to harvest opium, including Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud who would later be assassinated the day before 9/11.

Being part of the CIA's Mission Center for Counterterrorism in the late 1990s, where he was supposedly involved in efforts to kill or capture Osama bin Laden but somehow always seems to have missed him. He went on to serve as Deputy Chief of the CIA's Near East Division in its Directorate of Operations from 1999 to 2001. He also led a 1997 operation with the FBI that captured Mir Aimal Kansi, responsible for the 1993 CIA headquarters shooting.