After Sharp Words on C.I.A., Obama Faces a Delicate Task

[Pirate Smile]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — For two years on the presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama rallied crowds with strongly worded critiques of the Bush administration’s most controversial counterterrorism programs, from hiding terrorism suspects in secret Central Intelligence Agency jails to questioning them with methods he denounced as torture.

Now Mr. Obama must take charge of the C.I.A., in what is already proving to be one of the more treacherous patches of his transition to the White House.

Last week, John O. Brennan, a C.I.A. veteran who was widely seen as Mr. Obama’s likeliest choice to head the intelligence agency, withdrew his name from consideration after liberal critics attacked his alleged role in the agency’s detention and interrogation program. Mr. Brennan protested that he had been a “strong opponent” within the agency of harsh interrogation tactics, yet Mr. Obama evidently decided that nominating Mr. Brennan was not worth a battle with some of his most ardent supporters on the left.

Mr. Obama’s search for someone else and his future relationship with the agency are complicated by the tension between his apparent desire to make a clean break with Bush administration policies he has condemned and concern about alienating an agency with a central role in the campaign against Al Qaeda.

Mark M. Lowenthal, an intelligence veteran who left a senior post at the C.I.A. in 2005, said Mr. Obama’s decision to exclude Mr. Brennan from contention for the top job had sent a message that “if you worked in the C.I.A. during the war on terror, you are now tainted,” and had created anxiety in the ranks of the agency’s clandestine service.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/us/politics/03intel.html

[bemildred]

1. Aw, gosh, all those anxious CIA veterans. It makes you just want to weep and gnash your teeth. nt

[hlthe2b]

2. Well, maybe he should nominate Valerie Plame....

Now there would be some symmetry. And, for those who claim she is not qualified for the top slot, may I remind them that Porter Goss had publically proclaimed he was not qualified to be a CIA officer, much less the Director of the Agency prior to being tapped.

[w4rma]

3. Why not Valerie Plame? She knows the agency and works hard. And now she knows politics too. (nt)

[stillcool]

6. or her husband..

but Porter Goss was qualified to be a CIA officer...

From Wiki..
In his junior year at Yale, Goss was recruited by the CIA. He spent much of the 1960s — roughly from 1960 until 1971 — working for the Directorate of Operations, the clandestine services of the CIA. There he first worked in Latin America and the Caribbean and later in Europe. The full details are not known due to the classified nature of the CIA, but Goss has said that he had worked in Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Mexico. A photograph taken in Mexico City in January 1963 allegedly shows Goss with his arm around David Sánchez Morales, at a table with Barry Seal and other CIA members of Operation 40.


Goss, who has said that he has recruited and trained foreign agents, worked in Miami for much of the time. Goss was involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, telling the Washington Post in 2002 that he had done some "small-boat handling" and had "some very interesting moments in the Florida Straits."

Towards the end of his career as a CIA officer, Goss was transferred to Europe, where, in 1970, he collapsed in his London hotel room because of a blood infection in his heart and kidneys. Goss says he does not know that happened, but says that he was not poisoned. Some sources now say that Goss suffered a staph infection. In any case, his health was severely affected, and he retired from the CIA.

[hlthe2b]

7. It was Goss, himself who said he would not be qualified to be

a CIA officer or no longer qualified, given so much had changed over the years.... He made the comment during his years in COngress. Yet, not long after, he was given the Directorship of CIA.

If you google, I'm sure you'll find the quote...

[stillcool]

8. I found it...

but wasn't sure if his history was apparent by the quote.

REP. GOSS: It is true I was in CIA from approximately the late 50's to approximately the early 70's. And it's true I was a case officer, clandestine services office and yes I do understand the core mission of the business. I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified. I don't have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably. And I certainly don't have the technical skills, uh, as my children remind me every day, "Dad you got to get better on your computer." Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don't have.

[hlthe2b]

11. Yup... that's the one... n/t

[IndianaGreen]

9. Excellent suggestion!

Put a woman spook as head of CIA. Plame has lots of experience in nuclear anti-proliferation, a key challenge Obama will face.

[EFerrari]

14. Poor delicate flowers.

:sarcasm:

[Solly Mack]

18. Doesn't it, just?

[MasonJar]

4. Mrs. Valerie Plame Wilson or Richard Clarke. Robert Kennedy for

EPA or Interior. Somebody who is pro-labor for Labor. It is time for some progressive members.

[hlthe2b]

5. In reality, I doubt she would want it... Richard Clarke would be good

I should think...

[IndianaGreen]

10. Clarke is better suited as Director National Intelligence

Replacing current DNI Mike McConnell would add credibility.

[ben_meyers]

12. If Obama has spooked the spooks he best

be watching his back, I would imagine they could invent some nasty stuff to get back at him.

[Jim Sagle]

13. Or they could just kill him.

[judasdisney]

16. Shhh...now now, all assassinations are done by Lone Nuts. Please learn

America is special and unique. There are no political conspiracies except in other countries.

[soothsayer]

20. They'll martyr him in a heartbeat if they feel threatened

[Duppers]

15. bush trash talked them about giving him 'bad' intel

ha! riiiight!

[judasdisney]

17. Joe Wilson trash-talked Obama mercilessly during the primaries

as did Valerie Plame's other ally Larry Johnson.

There's a mighty rift against Obama that existed -- inexplicably -- from the moment Obama tossed his hat in the ring.

[Peace Patriot]

19. "...with methods he denounced as torture." --???

"For two years on the presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama rallied crowds with strongly worded critiques of the Bush administration’s most controversial counterterrorism programs, from hiding terrorism suspects in secret Central Intelligence Agency jails to questioning them with methods he denounced as torture." --NYT word gamers (my emphasis)

God, I despise the NYT!

Why? Because they KNOW BETTER.