Afer A 36 Year Career CIA Director Gina Haspel Announces Resignation Before Biden Inauguration

The #CIA workforce thanks Director Haspel for her 36 years of dedicated service to the American people.

You have broken barriers and empowered the next generation of CIA officers. pic.twitter.com/ELzP8XzIKt

— CIA (@CIA) January 19, 2021

Forbes: CIA Director Gina Haspel Announces Resignation 

CIA Director Gina Haspel, who has had an increasingly strained relationship with President Trump during the final year of his administration, announced Tuesday that she is leaving the agency. 

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to lead this remarkable organization,” Haspel wrote in a statement shared by the CIA on Twitter. 

Haspel did not articulate the reason for her departure, which comes on the last full day of Trump’s presidency, though Axios reported last week that she had threatened to resign in early December when Trump sought to install loyalist and former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) aide Kash Patel as her deputy in hopes of pushing Haspel out the agency.

Read more .... 

Update #1: CIA Director Gina Haspel Announces Resignation A Day Before Biden Enters Office (Zero Hedge) 

Update #2: CIA director Gina Haspel resigns a day before Biden inauguration (RT) 

WNU Editor: She was hoping that she would be spared like FBI Director Wray from the incoming Biden administration. She betted wrong.

Reports Say Biden Is Considering Darrell Blocker To Be His CIA Director

Blocker's three-decade career at the intelligence agency could make him a strong candidate for the top job. He started out as an analyst with the Air Force for four years before he joined the CIA where he took up various undercover roles over a three-decade career 

Daily Mail: Biden 'considers Darrell Blocker for his CIA director' which would make the former station chief and 32-year intelligence veteran the first black person in the top job 

 * A source told Fox News discussions between the President-elect's team and Blocker began just days after the presidential election 

 * Blocker's three-decade career at the intelligence agency could make him a strong candidate for the top job 

 * He started out as an analyst with the Air Force for four years before he joined the CIA where he took up various undercover roles over a three-decade career 

 * He served multiple times as a Chief of Station with his roles sending him all across Europe, Asia and Africa 

 * He retired in 2018 as the most senior black officer in the CIA's Directorate of Operations and was awarded the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal 

 * Aside from national intelligence, Blocker's other main passion is music - something he said helped him hide in plain sight as a spy 

 * Ex-National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and ex-Acting CIA Director Michael Morell are also rumored to be contenders for the CIA Director role 

 * Biden unveiled several of his Cabinet and national security picks this week 

Joe Biden is said to be considering Darrell Blocker for the role of CIA director, which would make the former station chief and 32-year intelligence veteran the first black person to take on the top job. 

A source told Fox News discussions between the President-elect's team and Blocker began just days after the presidential election. 

Biden unveiled several of his Cabinet and national security picks this week including Barack Obama's former deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken as his Secretary of State, Obama's second-term Secretary of State John Kerry as his US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and Obama's deputy national security adviser Avril Haines as his Director of National Intelligence. 

Read more .... 

Update: Exclusive: Former CIA station chief Darrell Blocker floated to lead agency under Biden, source says (FOX News) 

WNU Editor: Another former top Obama official being considered for a job in the Biden administration.

Joe Biden Wants A New CIA Director

Daily Beast: Biden Weighs Mike Morell as His CIA Chief. A Key Dem Senator Says Don’t Bother. 

Sources say Morell is a leading candidate to be Biden’s CIA director. But his defenses of the agency’s torture and drone strikes are already drawing progressive opposition. 

President-elect Joe Biden is strongly considering Mike Morell, the former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to run the CIA, according to four individuals familiar with the matter. But those familiar with the process say that other candidates are still in the mix for the position of the nation’s top spy chief. 

Morell served as deputy CIA director for three years under President Barack Obama and also worked as acting director of the agency twice. According to three of the four sources familiar with the matter, the president-elect was considering both Morell and Avril Haines, another former deputy CIA director, for the position. But in an announcement Monday afternoon, Biden picked Haines, the former deputy director for the CIA and deputy national security adviser under Obama, to become director of national intelligence.

Read more .... 

WNU Editor: One Democrat Senator is saying no to Mike Morell .... Key Democrat warns Biden not to nominate Mike Morell as CIA director (CNN). But there are others on the list. Bottom line. It looks like CIA Director Haspel's days are numbered.

Will Former CIA Chief Jose Rodriguez Be Chosen By Donald Trump To Be CIA Director?

The Intercept: Donald Trump May Select an Architect of Bush’s Torture Program to Run CIA

Donald Trump may select Jose Rodriguez, one of the primary architects of the George W. Bush torture program, to run the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a law firm with close ties to Trump.

Rodriguez, the former director of the National Clandestine Service, helped developed the CIA black sites, secret prisons operated in foreign countries where interrogators used a range of torture tactics, including the use of “waterboarding,” the simulated drowning technique once used by the Khmer Rouge and Nazi agents to glean information from detainees.

At least 136 individuals were detained and tortured by the CIA. Interrogation tactics also included forced nudity, sleep deprivation while being vertically shackled, and confinement in a small box.

Read more ....

Update: Trump predicted to tap mastermind of Bush torture program as CIA chief (RT)

WNU Editor: He would be a controversial choice .... and he is no pushover when it comes to defending the CIA's torture program .... Hard Measures: Ex-CIA head defends post-9/11 tactics (60 Minutes). But if he is chosen .... there will be a concerted campaign to not confirm him ....starting with Senator John McCain.

It's Now Official: President Obama Has Nominated Chuck Hagel For Secretary Of Defense And John Brennan As CIA Director

Obama Picks Hagel For Defense, Brennan For CIA -- Reuters

President Barack Obama on Monday nominated former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his next defense secretary and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to head the CIA, potentially setting up a Senate confirmation battle on two fronts and establishing a tough tone to start his second term.

Mindful of the concerns about both Hagel and Brennan on Capitol Hill, Obama spoke at length about each in a White House ceremony, then turned over the microphone to outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and acting CIA Director Mike Morell to provide testimonials about their chosen replacements.

Obama urged the Senate to move quickly in confirming Hagel, a military veteran who served in Vietnam, and Brennan, who spent 25 years at the CIA.

Read more ....

My Comment: My prediction is that both Chuck Hagel and John Brennan will be confirmed .... President Obama has made it very clear that he wants both men on his National Security team .... the question that remains is how many Senators will support this nomination .

I will be giving my own analysis on what these appointments will mean to the Pentagon and the CIA later tonight.

President Obama Has Selected CIA Director

Reports: Obama Has Selected CIA Director -- USA Today

Two likely candidates rise to the forefront of potential nominees.

If media reports are true, President Barack Obama planned to announce nominations for his entire national security team Friday, including the new CIA director.

The president opted only to tap John Kerry for secretary of State, omitting his picks for other positions due to controversy surrounding Chuck Hagel as a potential secretary of Defense, reports NBC.

The White House remains mum on Obama's pick to replace ousted director David Petraeus, but experts familiar with the process believe it's down to two names.

Michael Morell, the acting CIA director and #2 under Petraeus, and Michael G. Vickers, the undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, could become the nation's next spy chief, according to multiple experts who spoke with U.S. News.

Read more ....

My Comment: President Obama did not announce his national security team on Friday .... I guess he will in the next week or two. As for who will be the nominee for CIA Director .... my money is on acting CIA Director Michael Morell. He is already there, and he has been doing the job of CIA Director since the Petraeus resignation.

The Case For A Woman To Head The CIA

10 Reasons A Woman Should Head The CIA -- Tara Maller, Special to CNN

(CNN) -- One of the most high-profile appointments President Obama will make in his second term is the director of the CIA. Here's a tip for the president: The time is ripe for the first woman to head the agency.

Choosing a woman isn't just about narrowing the intelligence community gender gap. It's also about drawing from the whole pool of talent to ensure the best national security apparatus and responding to Americans' apparent desire for more women in government. Here are the Top 10 reasons President Obama should name a woman as the next CIA director.

Read more ....

My Comment: That will happen one day .... but not today.

Nominees For The Next Director Of The CIA

For A CIA Director With Star Power, The Nominees Are -- L.A. Times

David H. Petraeus may have been a genius as a general, but as a CIA director with an eye for the ladies (or, at least, an eye for his lady biographer) -- well, suffice to say he was no Allen Dulles. So who will take Petraeus' place? Potential candidates reportedly include such inside-the-Beltway types as Jane Harman and Dick Lugar. But why so pedestrian, President Obama? Why not go outside the box -- all the way to Hollywood? You've treated it as a campaign ATM; how about a little payback? Here are eight stars with the chops to be the nation's next spymaster. --Paul Whitefield

Read more ....

My Comment: My choice for CIA Director would be this character.

CIA Director Petraeus Is Note The First CIA Director To Have An Affair

Photo: Allen Dulles. 5th Director of Central Intelligence. Wikipedia

When a C.I.A. Director Had Scores of Affairs -- Stephen Kinzer, New York Times

WALKING through the lobby of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Va., after handing in his resignation on Friday, David H. Petraeus passed a bas-relief sculpture of Allen Dulles, who led the agency in the 1950s and early ’60s. Below it is the motto, “His Monument Is Around Us.”

Both men ran the C.I.A. during some of its most active years, Dulles during the early cold war and Mr. Petraeus during the era of drone strikes and counterinsurgency operations. And both, it turns out, had high-profile extramarital affairs.

But private life for a C.I.A. director today is apparently quite different from what it was in the Dulles era. Mr. Petraeus resigned after admitting to a single affair; Allen Dulles had, as his sister, Eleanor, wrote later, “at least a hundred.”

Read more ....

My Comment: The days of Allen Dulles are certainly over.

Who Will Be The Next CIA Director

Possible Post-David Petraeus CIA Picks -- Politico

Whoever succeeds David Petraeus as CIA director will find themselves atop an agency facing the wrath of a Capitol Hill angry about the Benghazi attacks.

President Barack Obama could repeat the path he took when appointing Leon Panetta, who had no CIA experience but was steeped in relationships on Capitol Hill.

Possible candidates to become CIA director in Obama’s second term include:

Read more ....

Update: Acting CIA chief has been through this before -- CNN

My Comment: My prediction on who will be the next CIA Director .... it will be one of the three persons mentioned in this report.

CIA Director Panetta Was Also Away On Vacation When The Bomb Attempt Occurred

CIA Director Panetta With President Obama

CIA, Counterterrorism Execs Managed Bomb Crisis from Afar -- CBS News

It could be said that the U.S. government can run by remote control. On the day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Northwest airline flight headed for Detroit, several key government players were on holiday and didn't immediately return to their posts in Washington, D.C.

President Obama was on vacation in Hawaii, golfing and enjoying time with his family. He returned to the White House on Jan. 4.

Read more ....

My Comment: The intel that terrorists around the world have learned in the past two weeks is the following .... the best time to strike the United States is when everyone is on vacation .... specifically around Christmas.

Are The CIA - DNI Wars Finished?

The Real Intelligence Wars: Oversight And Access -- The Atlantic

For months, the CIA director, Leon Panetta, and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Adm. Dennis Blair (ret.), fought an intense and acrimonious turf battle over covert action oversight and access to White House officials. Last week, the two men agreed to a truce when they signed a classified memorandum brokered by the National Security Adviser, James Jones.

Through intermediaries, Panetta and Blair crossed swords over who should appoint senior intelligence representatives in foreign countries. Now, through interviews, new details are emerging about other, more sensitive conflicts between the two men and their agencies, including which agency is responsible for oversight of the CIA's controversial and classified Predator drone program.

Read more ....

My Comment: After 9/11 the nation's Intelligence Agencies were unified and dedicated in the destruction of Al Qaeda, the successful invasion of Afghanistan, and the bringing to justice those terrorists who brought upon us this disaster. In short .... the priority was the protection of the United States, and to bring to justice those who conceptualized and delivered this catastrophe.

Today .... the men and women of our intelligence agencies are now threatened with legal sanctions for conduct that is now frowned upon and disallowed by our political leaders. The war in Afghanistan now favors the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. Iraq is still precarious .... with no guarantee that violence will return. Uncertainty about Iran's nuclear program continues, with little if any credible intelligence to assist us in knowing what are their intentions and goals. North Korea is still a mystery. China has initiated massive espionage operations against us. And Bin Laden is still on the loose.

And what do the heads of the CIA and DNI do .... fight amongst themselves for power and influence and to make sure that they have face time with President Obama.

CIA Man: Spies' Reaction to Panetta 'Overwhelmingly Negative'

From CQ Politics/Spy Talk:

A retired senior CIA operations officer who quit last summer after 20 years tracking terrorists says the rank-and-file reaction to President-elect Obama's choice of Leon E.Panetta to run the spy agency has been "overwhelmingly negative."

Charles "Sam" Faddis, who led a CIA team into northern Iraq before the 2003 invasion, says he had "already heard from a large number of rank and file within CIA on this choice, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly negative."

Faddis added:

"These are people who are sweating blood everyday to make things happen and living for the day that somebody is going to come in, institute real reform and turn the CIA into the vital, effective organization it should be. To them this choice just says that no such changes are impending and that all they can look forward to is business as usual."

Read more ....

More News/Opinions On The Choice Of A New CIA Director

New CIA Boss Signals End of Waterboarding and Rendition -- Daily Telegraph
A Spy Chief with Little Intelligence Experience -- Christian Science Monitor
Critics Round on Obama Choice of CIA Chief -- The Times
Is Panetta Qualified? -- Los Angeles Times editorial
A Surprise Pick for CIA -- Washington Post opinion
Panetta a Surprising, Good Pick for CIA -- Washington Post opinion
Obama Opts to Politicize Intelligence -- New York Post opinion

Did Leon Panetta Know About 'Extraordinary Renditions' Under Clinton?

From The Telegraph:

Liberals might be in for a nasty shock with Leon Panetta, the man Barack Obama wants to lead the CIA.

The selection of the former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton has been welcomed by many Democrats for his denunciations of torture and all round management abilities.

But according to one former agent, Michael Scheuer, the extraordinary rendition programme that has so tainted the agency during the Bush administration actually began in the Clinton administration, when Panetta would, or should, have been fully aware of it.

Scheuer is a curious beast. An opponent of the Iraq War, he was the head of the CIA's get-bin-Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, and he should know what he is talking about. But he is very pro-rendition and was critical of the choice of Panetta on US networks today, mostly because he is an outsider. His claim that Clinton/Panetta started/knew about the outsourcing of torture was repeated by William Kristol and others.

Read more ....

My Comment: Ooopppssss

Obama's CIA Pick Unlikely To Face Senate Challenge

Photo: President-elect Barack Obama speaks to reporters after a meeting with his top economic advisers at his transition office in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. Gerald Herbert

From The Ledger-Enquirer:

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama is defending his unexpected CIA nominee Leon Panetta, who faced a surge of skepticism in Congress on Tuesday but is not expected to draw serious opposition when his confirmation reaches the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Obama promised that his intelligence team- led by Panetta and retired Adm. Dennis Blair, the nominee for national intelligence director - will break with Bush administration practices that he said tarnished U.S. intelligence agencies and American foreign policy.

Word of Panetta's selection Monday caught key senators by surprise- notably California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the incoming Intelligence Committee chairwoman.

Read more ....

Leon Panetta_ New CIA Director

President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday. (AP Photo)

A Powerful Panetta Could Be the Cure for CIA's Ills
-- CQ Politics/Spytalk

Many CIA veterans and their friends in Congress are generally groaning over the choice of Leon Panetta over an "intelligence professional" to run the nation's premier spy agency.

"The message is, 'I don't want to hear anything out of the CIA. Make it go away. No scandals. Keep it quiet,'" a former senior CIA manager told Laura Rozen for her new Foreign Policy.com blog.

"They put over there a guy who is a political loyalist, who will keep everything nice and quiet, but who won't know a good piece of intelligence from a shi**y piece of intelligence, and wouldn't know a good intelligence officer" from a bad one."

Lamented another former top CIA officer, one who was hoping to get Obama's nod: "So much for a professional at the top."

Read more ....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obama CIA Designate Panetta Gets Cool Response From Key Senators -- Yahoo News/CQ Politics

The incoming and outgoing chairs of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee signaled concerns about President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Leon E. Panetta to head the CIA, primarily because of Panetta's thin intelligence resume.

"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta. . . . I know nothing about this, other than what I've read," said Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who will chair the committee in the 111th Congress, in an e-mailed statement. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."

Read more ....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spooks Scratch Their Heads Over Obama CIA Pick (Updated) -- The Danger Room

The incoming Obama administration has named Leon Panetta, of all people, as its nominee for the Director of Central Intelligence. Some observers are confused, to put it mildly, about the pick. The guy -- a former White House chief of staff and House Budget Committee chairman -- has a reputation for being a tough, competent manager, they say. But can he really be an effective CIA chief, with experience in the cloak-and-dagger world? What about those pledges, to keep the intelligence community out of politics?

Read more ....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Panetta Choice as CIA Chief Draws Democrats’ Concerns -- Bloomberg

Leon Panetta’s selection by President- elect Barack Obama to become CIA chief surprised two top Democrats on the Senate intelligence panel, who expressed reservations about his lack of background in the spy world.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who will head the Select Committee on Intelligence during confirmation hearings for the CIA job, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, the current chairman, said they weren’t informed about the choice. Panetta is a former U.S. representative from California and chief of staff and budget director in President Bill Clinton’s White House.

Read more ....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obama's Intel Picks Short On Direct Experience -- Yahoo News/AP

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's decision to fill the nation's top intelligence jobs with two men short on direct experience in intelligence gathering surprised the spy community and signaled the Democrat's intention for a clean break from Bush administration policies.

Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, an eight-term congressional veteran and administrative expert, is being tapped to head the CIA. Retired Adm. Dennis Blair is Obama's choice to be director of national intelligence, a selection expected for weeks, according to two Democrats who spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not officially announced the choices.

Read more ....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source: Obama Chose Panetta for his Washington Experience -- FOX News

President-elect Barack Obama chose Leon Panetta to head the CIA because "he brings decades of experience in government in both the legislative and executive branches," a former CIA official told FOX News.

This person described Panetta as a "very competent leader and manager..." who has "tremendous integrity and gravitas." He is "what the agency needs," this former official said." He will be a force to be reckoned with inside and outside the agency."

Read more ....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Panetta Gets Mixed Reaction From CIA Officials -- ABC News

Leon Panetta, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the CIA, could be "a fabulous choice" to lead the agency or a nominee who is inexperienced with intelligence matters and will have a chilling effect on the agency, according to top former CIA officials.

Panetta, a former congressman and chief of staff in the White House under President Clinton, was chosen after an extended search by the Obama transition team for a nominee who would not be tainted by support for the CIA's secret detention program for terror suspects and the use of controversial interrogation techniques, including waterboarding.

Read more ....