The CIA is opening a new unit dedicated to halting the spread of dangerous weapons, announced CIA Director Leon Panetta on August 18.

The new Counterproliferation Center will allow "for even greater collaboration and information sharing," according to a CIA statement.

The center's formation comes amid concern that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. A congressional commission predicted in  December 2008 that weapons of mass destruction will likely be utilized in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by 2013, most likely a biological weapon.

The center will incorporate the current Counterproliferation Division of the National Clandestine Service and elements of the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation & Arms Control Center, which is part of the Directorate of Intelligence, according to the CIA. An undercover National Clandestine Service officer will lead the new center the CIA release adds.

Unclear is how much the center's work could overlap that performed by the National Counterproliferation Center, which exists as part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That center is the "primary organization within the intelligence community" related to weapons of mass destruction, according to its website.

For more:
- read the CIA announcement
- go to the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism or go directly to its December 2008 statement on the likelihood of WMD use by 2013

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