CIA officer to head Iran operations

WASHINGTON—Heis knownas the Dark Prince orAyatollah Mike, nicknameshe earned as the CIA officerwho oversaw the huntfor Osama bin Laden andthe U.S. drone strike campaignthat killed thousandsof Islamist militants andhundreds of civilians.

Now Michael D’Andrea has a new job. He is running the CIA’s Iran operations, an appointment that is the first major sign that the Trump administration is invoking the hard line the president took against Iran during his campaign.

Mr.D’Andrea’s new role isone of a number of moves insidethe spy agency that signala more muscular approachto covert operations underthe leadership of MikePompeo, the conservative Republican and former congressman. The agencyalso recently named a new chief of counter terrorism, who has begun pushingfor greater latitude tostrike militants.

Iranhas been one of the hardesttargets for the CIA. Theagency has extremely limitedaccess to the countryand Iran’s intelligence serviceshave spent nearly fourdecades trying to counterU.S. espionage and covert operations.

Marines budget request

WASHINGTON— The Marine Corps has asked Congress for $3.2 billion to buy warplanes and other equipment that did not make President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 defense budget plan.

Gen. Robert Neller, the Marine Corps commandant, signed off on the “unfunded priorities list” and service officials sent it to lawmakers within the last week. It appears to be the first of four such lists due soon on Capitol Hill — one each from the Marine Corps, Navy, Army and Air Force — which together will add up to multiple billions of dollars.

CIA torture report

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration has begunreturning copies of a voluminous 2014 Senate report about the Central Intelligence Agency’ s detention and interrogation program toCongress, complying with the demand of a top Republican senator who has criticizedthe report for beingshoddy and excessively criticalof the CIA.

The Trump administration’ s move, described by multiple congressional officials, raises the possibility thatcopies of the 6,700-page reportcould be locked in Senatevaults for good — exemptfrom laws requiring thatgovernment records eventually become public.

The report is the result of a yearslong investigation into the CIA program by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The central conclusion of the report is that the spy agency’s interrogation methods were far more brutal and less effective than the CIA described to policy makers, Congress and the public.

Griffin won’t back down

LOSANGELES—Kathy Griffinhas apologized repeatedlyfor the controversial photo that sparked the ireof the president and muchof the country earlier thisweek, but she has no intentionof backing down.

Thatwas the takeaway of aFriday news conference duringwhich the 56-yearoldcomedian expressed her regretfor the Tyler Shields photoshoot that featured Ms.Griffin in a pussy-bow blouse and raising a bloodied imitations eve redhead bearing President Donald Trump’svisage.

Also in the nation …

Former President Jimmy Carter said he will attend Gregg Allman’s funeral in Macon, Ga., on Saturday.