US President Donald Trump has announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement.
To intelligence agencies, he's "The Dark Prince", "Ayatollah Mike" - and, somewhat more morbidly, "The Undertaker".
He's abrasive and a workaholic. Some say he has a bad attidute. Others describe him as highly professional but ruthless. The Washington Post calls him a "collection of contradictions".
To Tinseltown, he's the stubbled, suited inspiration behind The Wolf in Hollywood blockbuster, Zero Dark Thirty, which chronicles the decade long hunt for Osama bin Laden.
To the public, he's a mystery. Never formally identified, only immortalised.
To US President Donald Trump, he's the "aggressive" strategist who will map out his administration's new direction with "the number one terror state" - Iran.
For almost a decade, Michael D'Andrea ran the CIA's Counterterrorism Centre, one of America's most classified agencies, where he forged new territory in drone technology warfare, described as a "targeted killing program".
It was here that the hunt to find and kill terrorist suspects took place, notably Osama bin Laden. D'Andrea was the most senior CIA officer in Baghdad during the Iraq War in 2003, before being called back to head the Centre in 2006.
The CIA has never officially confirmed D'Andreas's existence, but a New York Times story in 2015 threw him into the spotlight a month after he left the Centre in a stark piece that lead with the confronting news that intelligence committees were watching "videos of people blown up".
"The CIA asked that Mr. D'Andrea's name and the names of some other top agency officials be withheld from this article, but The New York Times is publishing them because they have leadership roles in one of the government's most significant paramilitary programs and their roles are known to foreign governments and many others," journalist Mark Mazzetti wrote.
By all accounts D'Andrea has led an incredible life; he joined the CIA in 1979 and was sent to Africa immediately after training at a Virginian base known as "The Farm".
He converted to Islam after meeting a Muslim woman and falling in love while in the Middle East. He is reportedly middle-aged, in his 50s or 60s, and has worked across the intelligence spectrum in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Egypt.
"He presides over a campaign that has killed thousands of Islamist militants and angered millions of Muslims, but he is himself a convert to Islam.," reads the Washington Post.
And now, it seems, D'Andrea is embarking on a new chapter with the Trump administration, after the US President's recent visit alongside Saudi King Salman saw the two countries sign a series of agreements cementing their military and economic partnerships in the fight against armed groups in the region.
The agreements also include a military sales deal of about $US110 billion ($150 billion), effective immediately, plus another $US350 billion ($470 billion) over the next 10 years.
It's a prize deal for the Saudis, who consider Iran its biggest threat to security and stability.
But D'Andrea's career is as chequered as Trump's - perhaps it's why they get along. Co-workers told The Post he would sling profanities as staff and would frequently criticise, telling some their work was the worst he had ever seen.
Ayman al-Zawahri, left, holds a press conference with Osama bin Laden in Khost, Afghanistan. al-Qaeda selected its longtime No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, to succeed Osama bin Laden following America's commando raid that killed the terror leader. Photo/AP
According to the New York Times, his "abrasive behaviour" has lead to some refusing to work with him, describing him as "surly".
But despite this, Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA, told The Post he was "one of the finest intelligence officers of his generation."
But the New York Times says "is the first major sign that the Trump administration is invoking the hard line the president took against Iran during his campaign".
Surely, it can't be good.
"Iran has been one of the hardest targets for the C.I.A" writes journalist Matthew Rosenberg.
"The agency has extremely limited access to the country - no American embassy is open to provide diplomatic cover - and Iran's intelligence services have spent nearly four decades trying to counter American espionage and covert operations."
But if Mr Trump's campaign promises are anything to go by, America's nuclear arms deal between Iran is at risk of extinction - and D'Andrea is the man behind the plan.
