Gina Haspel Selected To Be Deputy Director Of CIA

The CIA released the below announcement:

CIA Director Mike Pompeo today announced that President Trump has selected Gina Haspel to be the new Deputy Director of CIA.

“Gina is an exemplary intelligence officer and a devoted patriot who brings more than 30 years of Agency experience to the job. She is also a proven leader with an uncanny ability to get things done and to inspire those around her,” said Director Pompeo. “We are fortunate that someone of her intellect, skill, and experience will be our Deputy Director. I know she will do an outstanding job, and I look forward to working with her closely in the years ahead.”

Ms. Haspel is a career intelligence officer, having joined the CIA in 1985. She has extensive overseas experience and served as Chief of Station in several of her assignments.

In Washington, she has held numerous senior leadership positions at CIA, including as Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action, Chief of Staff for the Director of the National Clandestine Service, and in the Counterterrorist Center.

Ms. Haspel is the recipient of numerous awards including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; the Donovan Award; the Intelligence Medal of Merit; and the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award in the federal civil service.

Ms. Haspel is the first female career CIA officer to be named Deputy Director.

Below is a list of statements regarding her selection from officials who have worked directly with Ms. Haspel:

• Charles Allen, former Assistant Director for Collection at CIA: “As a CIA officer of 47 years, I can say without reservation that Gina Haspel has my strongest support in her appointment as Deputy Director. A deeply experienced clandestine officer who has held senior positions both at home and abroad, Ms. Haspel is not only an outstanding operations officer, but also a recognized program manager and an exceptional leader.  She has selflessly dedicated her life to the Agency and to the security of the nation.  CIA officers and Intelligence Community leaders writ large will applaud her selection.”

• James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence: “I am very pleased to learn of Director Pompeo’s selection of Gina Haspel as Deputy Director. It speaks well of him for picking a seasoned veteran of the Agency who is widely and deeply respected by the workforce as well as those outside the Agency. She has the broad-gauged experience from both foreign and domestic assignments to serve as the right-arm for Director Pompeo. I am particularly gratified, since she has also been a strong proponent for integration, not only within CIA, but across the Intelligence Community.”

• Michael Hayden, former CIA Director: “What a wonderful choice for Deputy Director, one that will be celebrated by current and former Agency officers alike. Ms. Haspel has responded with dignity, professionalism and honor to everything the Agency and nation have asked her to do. I am sure that she will be for Director Pompeo what Steve Kappes was for me --- a trusted friend, lieutenant and guide to the sometimes opaque corridors of American espionage.”

• Stephen Kappes, former Deputy Director of CIA: “A person of great honesty and integrity, Gina Haspel is a highly skilled Agency professional who has a complete understanding of all the parts of the intelligence business. Given her vast experience both at home and abroad, she is able to work effectively and collaboratively across the many elements of the National Security establishment. She is mission-focused, leads actively and never shies away from the difficult tasks. To these tasks, she also brings creativity and a sense of innovation, both of which will be important in a fast-changing world. Gina Haspel is an excellent choice to fill the Deputy’s role and support the new Director in his movement forward.”

• Fran Moore, former Director for Intelligence at CIA: “Gina Haspel is an outstanding choice for Deputy Director. She is a seasoned, collaborative officer of great integrity who will be a tremendous partner for Director Pompeo in leading CIA.”

• Michael Morell, former Deputy Director and twice Acting Director of CIA: “I applaud the appointment. Ms. Haspel will serve Pompeo, the Agency, and her country extremely well. She is widely respected throughout the Agency, and she will be welcomed in the new job by both current and former employees. I worked closely with Haspel from 2006 until my retirement from the Agency in 2013. During that time, I found her to be simply exceptional. She provides advice based on facts and analysis of facts. She gets things done in a quiet, yet effective way, and she is calm under fire. She appreciates the work of all CIA officers – analysts, scientists, and support specialists, as much as she appreciates operations officers.”

• Mike Rogers, former Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: “I have had the privilege to work with Ms. Haspel during challenging and intense times for our nation’s security. She is an exceptional leader, patriot and consummate professional. She showed the savvy and grit needed in difficult situations that has garnered respect of colleagues and adversaries alike. Her commitment to the mission and rule of law are unparalleled." 

Spies, Patriots And Traitors: A Look Back At Espionage During The Revolutionary War

Jonathan Dame at the Needham Times in Needham, Massachusetts offers an interview with former CIA officer Ken Daigler, author of Spies, Patriots and Traitors.

Needham resident Ken Daigler can’t write much about his two decades with the CIA. Most of his colleagues at the agency, where he finished his career as countintelligence chief for East Asia, can’t either.

But thankfully for Daigler, author of the new book "Spies, Patriots and Traitors," whatever non-disclosure agreements might have existed for spies in the 18th century have long since expired.

"There are lessons to be learned," said Daigler, whose book is about how the colonists used intelligence operations to help win the Revolutionary War. "You never hear bout the key intelligence issues."

Daigler said the basic tradecraft of intelligence work hadn’t changed much since the Revolutionary Era; spies just have more tools and technology now.

The Times asked him some questions about his book. Here are his responses:

What got you interested in the topic of your book? How long were you working on it?

Even in today’s society "secret intelligence" still mostly remains secret, and few folks are aware of its impact on political and military events. But after some 200 years, it is a bit easier to identify some of the individuals and activities related to Revolutionary Era intelligence. The degree to which our country’s independence depended upon intelligence activities is a surprising fact to most, yet well documented when official correspondence and the personal papers of those involved are looked at from the perspective of an intelligence professional. My book provides that perspective starting with the growth of the Sons of Liberty in 1765, hardly a drunken mob but rather an organization that within nine years effectively controlled the colonies, through the British evacuation of New York City in November 1783, when George Washington entered the city and personally thanked several of his trusted spies who resided there.

You can read the rest of the interivew via the below link:

http://needham.wickedlocal.com/article/20141103/NEWS/141109817

American Spies: Espionage Against The U.S. From The Cold War To The Present

Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden offers a good review of retired CIA official Michael J. Sulick's American Spies: Espionage Against the United States From the Cold War to the Present.

As a bibliophile who devours several lineal feet of books on espionage and intelligence each month, both for review and for pleasure, I find it delightful to encounter a volume written by a professional who has walked the ground about which he writes. Michael J. Sulick spent 28 years with the CIA, including stints as chief of counterintelligence and then head of covert operations of the clandestine service.

His book deals with Americans who spied for our adversaries since the end of the Cold War. Albeit scholarly, it brims with details of spying that make for enjoyable reading. In a series of case studies, he focuses on the fundamental elements of espionage: the motivations that drove Americans to spying; their access and the secret they betrayed; the tradecraft of the foreign services that controlled them; the punishment meted out when they were caught; and the damage inflicted on our national security.

Mr. Sulick drives home, again and again, an important point: The demise of the old Soviet Union did not mark the end of spying against the United States (even by the old USSR, for that matter: one of Vladimir Putin’s first statements upon becoming president of Russia was that “the potential of the special services will not just be maintained, but increased.”) Thus, we suffered the treason of superspies Aldrich Ames of the CIA and Robert Hanssen of the FBI.

The Russians were not alone, though. In 2007, John Brenner, then the head of the National Counterintelligence Executive estimated that about 140 foreign intelligence services sought to penetrate the United States or U.S. organizations abroad. By 2010, Mr. Brenner wrote, “Chinese espionage had eclipsed Russian spying in the United States.”

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/26/book-review-american-spies/?page=all#pagebreak

I interviewed Michael Sulick about espionage and his previous book for Counterterrorism magazine a while back. You can read the interview via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/05/my-q-with-michael-sulick-former-cia.html

Shadow Warrior: A Look Back At William E. Colby And The CIA

Joseph C. Goulden, a veteran journalist and author of several books on espionage and intelligence, reviewed Randall B. Woods book on former CIA director William Colby for the Washington Times.

Seventeen years after his death, former Director of Central Intelligence William E. Colby remains a controversial figure among many persons in and around the intelligence community. Did he betray generations of fellow officers by going public with a so-called “family jewels” list of CIA misdeeds over the years? Or did the disclosure save the agency from dissolution by an angry Congress?

Disappointingly, despite the sprawling length of “Shadow Warrior,” Randall B. Woods, a professor at the University of Arkansas, does not attempt to answer that basic question. At hand is a book that relies heavily upon secondary sources and offers very little fresh information about Colby. Further, Mr. Woods drops some conspiratorial hints that should raise eyebrows among those familiar with the intelligence world. (For instance, he has rogue CIA contract officer Edwin Wilson forging documents to smear a prime minister of Australia in the 1970s, something that escaped the attention of the myriad investigators and writers who explored his villainous career.)

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/10/book-review-shadow-warrior/

Intelligence, Operations Team Up For Bin Laden Kill

By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2011 - The plan to attack the compound of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was the result of relentless intelligence work and operational professionalism, White House officials, speaking on background, said this morning.

The operation was the culmination of years of careful and highly advanced intelligence work, officials said, as officers from the CIA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency worked as a team to analyze and pinpoint the Pakistani compound where bin Laden was killed.

Once the intelligence pointed precisely to the compound in Abbottabad –- a town 35 miles north of Pakistan's capital of Islamabad –- the work on the mission began between the intelligence and military communities.

"In the end, it was the matchless skill and courage of these Americans that secured this triumph for our country and the world," one official said.

A small team conducted the helicopter raid on the compound. An official called it a complex operation, noting that the compound was a virtual fortress -– built in 2006 with high walls, razor wire and other defense features. Its suburban location and proximity to Islamabad complicated the operation, the official said.

"The men who executed this mission accepted this risk, practiced to minimize those risks, and understood the importance of the target to the national security of the United States," he said. "This operation was a surgical raid by a small team designed to minimize collateral damage and to pose as little risk as possible to noncombatants on the compound or to Pakistani civilians in the neighborhood."

U.S. helicopters delivered the team to the compound, and the team was on the ground for less than 40 minutes, an official said. They did not encounter any local authorities. In addition to bin Laden, three adult males were killed in the raid.

"There were several women and children at the compound," the official said. "One woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant. Two other women were injured."

One of the U.S. helicopters was lost at the compound due to mechanical failure. The crew destroyed it on the ground, and the assault force and crew members boarded the remaining aircraft to leave, an official said.

"There's also no doubt that the death of Osama bin Laden marks the single greatest victory in the U.S.-led campaign to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida," the official said. "It is a major and essential step in bringing about al-Qaida's eventual destruction."

Though the organization's terrorists still are dangerous and al-Qaida may not fragment immediately, an official said, "the loss of bin Laden puts the group on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse."

The United States did not share any intelligence on the raid with any other country, the official said.

"We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel," he said. "In fact, only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance." Shortly after the raid, he added, U.S. officials contacted senior Pakistani leaders and told them about the raid and its results.

"Since 9/11, the United States has made it clear to Pakistan that we would pursue bin Laden wherever he might be," the official said. "Pakistan has long understood that we are at war with al-Qaida. The United States had a legal and moral obligation to act on the information it had."

My On Espionage Column: The Secret History of History at The International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.

You can read my column on the International Spy Museum here