Posted on 09/14/2007 8:34:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden yesterday named Michael J. Sulick to head the National Clandestine Service, bringing back to government service a veteran covert operator who left almost three years ago after a confrontation with aides to Hayden's predecessor, former congressman Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.).
In announcing the appointment, Hayden described Sulick as "a familiar figure to many of you" and "a seasoned operations officer" who "earned a reputation for superior tradecraft and sound judgment."
In November 2004, Stephen R. Kappes, then CIA deputy director of operations, the top spy position, and Sulick, then his deputy, became involved in a controversy involving leaks to the media, which pitted them against members of Goss's senior staff who had come with the congressman to the agency from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Sulick reportedly argued against transferring a senior officer who was accused of the leak. As events escalated, Kappes and Sulick resigned.
Their departure was followed by a rash of resignations from other senior clandestine operatives. "Their leaving," a former senior CIA officer said yesterday, "led to the loss of a number of talented people which the agency is still recovering from."
With Kappes returning as Hayden's No. 2 in July 2006 and Sulick coming back this month, Hayden has brought back to the CIA two men who in 2004 developed a plan for the agency to get back to tradecraft basics in the wake of intelligence failures related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.
"They just did not have time to get started on that when they were forced out of the agency," the senior official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I must confess I don’t know what end is up. Supposedly Bush put Porter Goss into the CIA to flush out all the leakers and backstabbers. But things escalated, and Goss left instead.
So, what are the rights and wrongs of this? Did Gosse screw up and fire the wrong guys? Or did Bush chicken out under pressure? It seems as if the CIA is still loaded with traitors eager to leak to the left wing press in order to undermine the President.
Two words - Risk adverse -
Somehow, I feel like anything going on at the National Clandestine Service ought to be a secret.
I just read today where AQ got that guy in Anbar by having someone dress up as a common strete beggar and having him plant the bomb under his car.
Now, maybe we are doing this, but why don’t we have guys dressing up as beggars or invalids or whatever and hitting AQ, having them in the Waziristan and the NWFP and places like that. Wouldn’t a few guys like that be able to blend in, to gather information, to do some pretty heavy damage? Isn’t that what the CIA should be focusing on?
This attack reminds me of the attack on Massoud before 9/11. Also the Hariri bombing, even the attack against Bashir Gemayel in Lebanon going back to the 80s. It’s so easy for AQ or whoever to kill one guy and plunge a whole area into chaos.
The reaction among the sunnis seems to be one of revenge and wnating get AQ so perhaps this will strengthen our ties with them and harden the sunnis against AQ
No, our guys (or mimics) would stick out like sore thumb, immediately..(immediately!).....in this region of the world. Only getting fellow Pashtuns to rat out on their own...(and extremely difficult task)..That is the only way to go.....And AQ has made weekly beheadings of plenty routine....in order to try and stop such...
Quick snatch and grab Ops are the key.....Small hunter killer teams....Along with employing some big balled, Pashtuns or Uzbeks with their own personal axes to grind......But HQs have to be willing to take more risks.....That is the bottom line.
We also have Dir Hayden recently banning water boarding (as too rough).....
Thankfully Former SecDef Rumsfeld put much of the CIA SAD responsibilities back into JSOC....
Sulick & Kappes types are not helpful at all to the shooters in this WOT....
Awful move here -
Try reading the new book by Rowan Scarborough called “Sabotage - America’s Enemies Within the CIA.” He writes at length about Goss, Kappes, and Sulick. It’s very good, although quite depressing.
Obviously dropping some 6 footers from Nebraska or Kentucky would stick out, but according to a bunch of websites, thre’s a rather large Pashtun diaspora(100K in the UK, less in the US but still sizeable, tens of thousands in France and Germany, millions in India and Afghanistan, etc...) I’m talking about running agents not sending in our own guys.
I find it hard to believe that with all of them and the networks of CIA, MI6, Karzai’s people and Afghan intel, BVT in Germany, French DST, etc... we’re unable to find people who know the language, look the part, and would be able to blend in and if not get close enough to UBL, Zawahiri or other top guys to take them out, would at least be able blend in enough and get close enough to hear things, pick up information that should be of major help.
I mean is it really that hard to gather up a few hundred out of more than 200,000 in the US, UK, France and Germany alone, not to mention the millions in India and Afghanistan, send them out to the Farm or wherever to train and put a few of em in the ring and see what happens.
We did it with people in Tibet and the Himalayas against the PRC, we worked with the Hmong and Montagnards and others in Laos, etc...
Now maybe all that is going on and we don’t hear about it.
But I’d have to think that it’s at least worth trying.
So the people who wanted to get rid of the leaker are out and the people who opposed getting rid of him are back in charge. What’s going on? Do we really want the CIA to handle classified information?
I sure hope that Bush secretly intends to keep Hayden and friends busy looking for windmills off Cape Cod while letting someone else do the covert stuff (anyone else-Code Pink, the French, you name it-would be an improvement).
I assume that by now any “actionable” HUMINT (not SIGINT) intelligence in these parts of the world is gathered and acted upon by DIA and SO, not CIA... and, taking into account what we learned about CIA during Valerie Plame “episode”, it’s a good thing.
If you remember, there was a big fight during combining and reshuffling intelligence services into DHS, which ones would belong to / stay with Pentagon with independent capabilities and which ones would be folded into or controlled by CIA.
Dems in Congress wanted CIA have all control, I was happy when Rumsfeld wrested much of it to Pentagon.
Excellent news, professionalism rules!
But I’d have to think that it’s at least worth trying.
As I said.....AQ is holding weekly beheadings within the Stan/Pak border regions.......(read between the lines).
The region is both much more complex (and yet simple) than you seem to understand -
Have we had boots on the ground to put us on targets within these regions?- There is not even a need for that to be a question...
The simple bottom line in hunts such as these..(for HVTs)..Is who can operate WITHIN the others OODA loop - So far, UBL & Zawahiri have operated within our OODA loop (for a variety of very real and difficult reasons....along with a few self-inflicted OODA stretching reasons).
Reality is, this is a sh*t part of the world and an even sh*tter area to operate out of (or to bring progress to).....At virtually every level the intangibles of this region give UBL (AQ HVTs) advantages at staying within our OODA loop.....
But one by one....we will continue to pick them off...as great risks lead to great successes....(we just need to be willing to take more risks). Not to mention finding that one mean SOB, knuckle-dragging Pashtun, with huge balls that cares more about himself and his rule....then about ties and loyalties......Give him all the gold and arms he wants....as long as he brings us HUMINT.
I haven’t read the book, but I just looked at the reviews at Amazon and I gather that he says pretty much what I thought.
In other words, this is yet another Bush surrender to the clintonoids. Porter Goss was not the subtlest of CIA directors, but he was on the right track. The agency still desperately needs to be broomed out. Instead, Bush seems to have handed it back to his enemies after installing a go-along-to-get-along director in place of Goss.
Another story posted here, saying that the new director has banned using water boarding against Muslim terrorists, is a further indication that the Bush administration has decided to roll over like Web Hubbell and let the clintonoids run things.
Sorry DevSix, but I tend to agree with jeltz25 here - there is no substitute for developing your own human intelligence - and in 99.9 percent of situations like this we run the risk of having our informers turn on us.
If getting Pakis, Pashtuns and Uzbeks to rat on their own was the way to go then we would have captured all of Al Qaeda by now and they would not be able to use it as a safe haven. But here we are six years later and still nothing.... meanwhile individuals like John Walker Lindh, Adam Gadhan, and others are able to infiltrate the innermost circles of Al Qaeda.
Sorry but there is no substitute for getting your own hands dirty and the US has by nature avoided doing what is necessary under the circumstances to achieve victory.
Sorry, but I'm a firm believer that outsourced intelligence is as good as no intelligence.
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