US officials said they have sharply curtailed drone strikes in Pakistan at the request of the Pakistani government, which asked for a pause while it tries to negotiate with the Taliban. The Chair of the House Intelligence Committee charged that the Obama administration’s revisions to the drone targeting criteria, which permit strikes only against al Qaeda operatives who pose a continuing and imminent threat to US persons and when there is a “near certainty” of no civilian casualties, “are an utter and complete failure” and leave American lives at risk. The head of the CIA warned that al Qaeda is using camps inside Syria and Iraq to develop capabilities for external as well as local attacks. The White House urged Egypt to release journalists and academics who have been arrested in a recent crackdown. The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center said the US and Russia are tracking “a number of specific threats” to the Olympic Games in Sochi.
