Ivanov's comments were reported by the Pak Tribune of Pakistan. Ivanov's comments followed the resignation of the CIA's Counter-terrorism Center chief Robert Grenier. Grenier, who held the job for only a year, was reported to have clashed with Goss over the issue of secret prisons, rendition, and torture of "Al Qaeda" prisoners.

However, Grenier may have also discovered that CIA contract flights are being used to transport high-grade Afghan heroin from the nation to black markets in Europe (particularly Turkey and Albania) and North America. Grenier reportedly refused to "get with the program" Goss established in the CIA. Goss has reportedly re-engaged Iran-contra operatives who were involved in drug smuggling activities to illegally support the contras and other off-the-books CIA activities in the 1980s. In particular, the CIA drug smuggling activities in Afghanistan are centered on Christian fundamentalist groups, including "aviation ministries," that operated various CIA money laundering fronts in Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala during the contra wars. Some of the CIA contractor "Christian" aviation missionary fronts active in the Afghan drug smuggling operations, including one based in Dallas, have been linked in the past to Pat Robertson's 700 Club's Operation Blessing.