* * * * * *

I am SO tired of all this horse crap about Goss being against the tapes being destroyed.

In my book he who walks the Bushie walk and talks the Bushie talk is presumptively Bushie – and with Goss that is only the more so.

The operative quote in the NYT piece, from source Rob Richer of then-boss JRod:

“He would always say: I’m not going to let my people get nailed for something they were ordered to do”

Why would that necessarily apply only to waterbushing?

Couldn’t it mean something like this?

‘Okay Porter — you say Addington wants it — and he says Cheney wants it — and you say Gonzales wants it — and he says Bush wants it — and we all know why.

As you of all gringos know only too well — it was those morons in the White House who figured they knew better than us in the first place about this torture bullshit.

So we understand each other – we all know you carry water for Bush. And I get it: no dirt on Gorgeous George or on Bushie BFFs like Negroponte and McLaughlin and Pavitt.

Say Porter — I hear you were in a frat house at Yale with Bush’s uncle — that so?

I know what you are: a snake — and I know if this ever leaks I can count on you throwing your children under the bus to avoid heat — and I don’t rank that high.

I’m gonna man-up here — but on terms.

First — I want back-up. Get me one of those handy “legal” opinions Cheney’s dickheads are always cranking out. If they’re too chickenshit — send me a couple of disposable in house legal beagles to say to my face what I’m supposed to have “heard”.

Next — you just have to remember five simple Rules:

Rule #1: With me, the buck starts here and stops here. If you get to where you feel you have to throw somebody under a bus, then throw me.

Rule #2: My thing is loyalty, and that goes first to those who work under and with me

Rule #3: As for you and your bunch, that goes with the job. Just don’t push Rule #2.

Rule #4: You don’t ever want to learn how good a record I’m keeping.

Rule #5: Since this is just you and me, if this ever gets out, we’ll both know it was you.

Next — I want all my people safe. When the time comes – and I’ll decide when that is – I want a nice send-off, maybe a sit down dinner, maybe a speech from someone with some clout – because I will want everyone in the Agency and all my friends and family on the outside to know I left on my own terms. No medals – I don’t go for that Tenet bullshit.

One more thing: You know that flag that was flying over the Capital on 9/11? I want it. I figure I’m a damn sight more likely to honor it than any of you.

This would fit into the story of his being disciplined while in the Latin America division, as in:

‘Listen up amigos: That fellow there who you are kicking the crap out of happens to be a life long friend of mine. I really don’t give a damn what you think you can do about it, or who you think you can complain to, this stops now, or else I start bustin’ heads.’

Both JRod and Richer worked under Cofer Black at the time Black apparently led with gusto the robusto interrogation experimentation on the deeply schizophrenic Zubaydah, per the narrative in the first part of Ron Suskind’s “One PerCent Doctrine”.

[By the way — Suskind reports verbatim-ish conversations involving both Black and Richer, but JRod doesn’t even make it into the index. That fact, plus the Priest & Pincus piece in WaPo below, plus this semi-irregular Labdeduction, might suggest Richer a more likely source for WaPo than Robert Grenier.]

Despite the technical ‘accountability’, as far as I can tell JRod was in COVERT ops, not SPECIAL ops. The same would apply to Richer as well, at least while he worked under JRod.

That would distinguish them from those like: Black, and Pavitt, and the involvement of those two in carrying out the Bush-Cheney ‘24’ ticking time bomb fantasy crapola they pushed the very pushable Tenet into conveying down the chain of command.

Now, I feel that this part may be unfair to Goss and Black [presuming that is possible], but when I look at the pictures and profiles of Black, I can’t help but see the sleek weasel-like lines of a Karl Rove – - whereas I don’t see anything approaching such a thing in any of the pictures or profiles of Grenier, or Richer, or, to the point, JRod.

[Wikipedia doesn’t have any pre-CIA detail on Robert Grenier, but IMO you don’t run pre-invasion covert ops without a very large pair.]

Nor do I see that in the profiles of Stephen Kappes, or Michael Sulick, or perhaps not even in the soft pink hue that surrounds James Pavitt [though Pavitt’s more defensibly truly academic status suggests his Army background may have been somewhat less than fully combative; intell for example].

With the exception of Goss and Black [& perhaps Pavitt], all these guys seem to bleed Marines, or some other military force – that is, stand-up, life-on-the-line types.

Whereas the pre-CIA c.v.’s of Goss and Black look to me, in the case of Black particularly, a lot more like the half-assed chickenhawk academish c.v. of Cheney – or, in the case of Goss particularly, the spoiled rotten, unjustifiably arrogant, semi-academish sneering pretense of President Waterbush.

[Pause to List Some Prominent Yale Alumni:

[1] the 11th CIA Director [Grade B; ranked highly] & 41st POTUS in order [Grade D, marginal];

[2] the 43rd POTUS [Grade F; ranked 45th per Bill Maher, quite defensibly IMO]; and

[3] the 20th CIA Director [Grade D].

[In an effort to avoid being accused of plagiarism here, I am referring to the “LabDancer Efficacy/Transparency Grading CurveTM”, co-relevant with the LabDancer Did/Did No Harm RankingsTM, as applied to the complete data base of CIA directors from the redoubtable Sidney Souers, on through the current office holder, Mike “Pinky” Hayden, both available on request. Order now and as an extra added bonus, you will learn the secret of why President Jimmy Carter bears a huge portion of responsibility for the Iraq War, all the abuses of the Bush/Cheney Administration, the global climate crisis, the current sorry state of the national economy, and the demise of the Rule of Law.]

POINT: It has been my experience that sane, truly tough guys do not feel the need to torture to prove that they are tough.

Mary @ 19 wrote: “from that same story, but a more encompassing statement – via a “veteran senior CIA officer” (whatever that means: “We never got any good [intelligence] product from a rendition.”

That too could fit such a view of JRod.

earlofhuntingdon @ 23 despaired of the impression of JRod’s “incompetence”. I do not argue that, particularly since if my speculation is correct, then JRod’s story features quite a bit of tribalism, which is among the competence-strangling bains of Washington DC — tho I do wonder on what his lordship’s judgment is based.

Penultimately [before the timeline as promised], note this oddity: When Richer decides enough is enough, before he resigns, he goes to explain hiimself to: Stephen Hadley.

The same Stephen Hadley who, after President Waterbush first said: “We don’t torture” said [I paraphrase]: Well, if we did, it would only be because we felt we had too; and torture isn’t a necessarily such a bad thing anyway, really.

As all roads led to Rome in days of yore, in the BCA everything tracks to Hadley.

In support of the above, I offer up this modest timeline [footnote #1:

? CIA Rob Richer appointed Chief, DO for Middle East & South Asia

96 CIA JRod appointed DO station chief, Bogota, Columbia

98June CIA Cofer Black appointed Deputy Chief, Latin America division

99June Black appointed Director Counterterrorist Centre [CTC]

99June? JRod appointed Chief, Latin America division

01 CIA Robert Grenier as station chief for Islamabad heads up
covert ops preparatory to Afghanistan invasion

02May JRod appointed Director CTC

02“late”Black leaves for State, becomes “roving ambassador
for counterterrorism”

04Nov16 JRod appointed Deputy Director DO

Richer appointed Associate DDO

Grenier appointed Director CTC

04Nov Black resigns

05“early” Black appointed Vice Chair Blackwater USA

05Aug26 The Guardian reports on the CIA OIG report [footnote #2]

05Sept Richer takes early retirement [after only 10 months in this job!]
[footnote #3]

05Oct13 BBC reports establishment of National Clandestine Service
[foothote #4]

05Nov2 Dana Priest reports in WaPo on Bush-Cheney “black sites”
[footnote #5]

05NovJ Rod instructs Bangkok station chief to destroy tapes

05? Richer joins Blackwater USA as VP Intell

06Feb6 Goss fires Grenier putatively for leaking presumably to
Priest or Pincus [footnote #6]

06Apr21 Goss fires CIA Mary McCarthy putatively for leaking -
allegedly to Priest [footnote #7]

07Jan Total Intelligence Solutions commences [“CIA knock-off for rent”]
[footnote #8]

Richer names himself CEO

Black appointed Chairman [to pick off Blackwater contracts
[per speculation by RJ Hillhouse: see footnote #8]

07Aug16 JRod retirement in El Paso [HIC Chair Reyes as MC]
[footnote #9]

FOOTNOTES TO TIMELINE [See footnote #1]:

1 not to be confused with emptywheel timelinetm *
* Beware cheap imitations.

2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…..er11/print

3 http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..96_pf.html

WaPo sends in the A-Team: Priest & Pincus. Excerpts:

…telling colleagues that he lacked confidence in the
agency’s leadership …
…one of CIA Director Porter J. Goss’s key personnel
choices…
[re: reasons for departure] Other government officials
disagreed … and said Richer’s departure involved disputes
over “operational issues” that they would not specify,
and a clash of personalities between Richer, a former
Marine, and Goss and his top aides. … [snip]
During Friday’s meeting, Richer said he and his boss,
the deputy director of operations — who cannot be named
because he remains undercover [well, JRod] — had been
frustrated by Goss and his staff in their efforts to
implement certain measures, sources said. Richer
subsequently met with national security adviser
Stephen J. Hadley to explain his decision.

4 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4340318.stm

Excerpts:

The director of the new agency, whose identity will remain
secret and is simply known as “Jose”, will report directly
to the head of the CIA, Porter Goss. …

This is another positive step in building an intelligence
community that is more unified, co-ordinated and effective,”
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said. …

Mr Goss said the new service represents “an expression
of confidence in the CIA” from President George Bush
and Mr Negroponte.

5 http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01644.html

6 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t…..729944.ece

“The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last
week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in
secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries
for interrogation and using forms of torture such as
“waterboarding”, intelligence sources have claimed.

Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism
centre, was relieved of his post after a year in the
job. One intelligence official said he was “not quite
as aggressive as he might have been” in pursuing
Al-Qaeda leaders and networks.

Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of counter-terrorism
at the agency, said: “It is not that Grenier wasn’t
aggressive enough, it is that he wasn’t ‘with the
programme’. He expressed misgivings about the secret
prisons in Europe and the rendition of terrorists.”
Grenier also opposed “excessive” interrogation,
such as strapping suspects to boards and dunking them
in water, according to Cannistraro.

Porter Goss, who was appointed head of the CIA in
August 2004 with a mission to “clean house”, has been
angered by a series of leaks from CIA insiders,
including revelations about “black sites” in Europe
where top Al-Qaeda detainees were said to have been held.

[snip]

Goss is believed to have blamed Grenier for allowing
leaks to occur on his watch.

7 http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..42_pf.html

8 http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_…..sonnel.php Excerpt:

Enrique “Ric” Prado: Chief Operating Officer …
twenty-four year veteran and former senior executive officer …
in the … DO … twelve years as an operations officer and
senior operations manager in the … CTC …
last overt job in the CIA was as … DC/CTC …
under … Cofer Black … awarded George Bush Medal
for Excellence in Counterterrorism

9 http://www.thespywhobilledme.c….._lose.html

Excerpt:

“also joining Total Intel is Enrique “Ric” Prado, whose
last overt Agency job was Chief of Operations for the CTC
and whose earlier jobs at the Agency were in the
paramilitary Special Operations Group. We can only guess
as to what his last “covert” job was, but it’s not too
hard to guess that it probably involved counterterrorism
and paramilitary activities, his specialties. (Needless
to say, his picture does not adorn Total Intel’s
new website.) Given the addition of Mr. Prado,
it is well within the realm of possibilities that
Total Intel also plans on developing its own
paramilitary capacities, which would directly
compete with Blackwater. But the smart money
is Mr. Prado is there because he was friends
with his former CTC boss and the intent is
to use his other talents as a case officer
with a depth of overseas contacts.”

Michael Scheuer

Osama’s Indispensable Ally: US Foreign Policy
Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden Unit and author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq, discusses the politicians’ willful ignorance about al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden’s one indispensable ally: American foreign policy and the danger of future attacks.
http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/…..scheuer-3/

It’s hard to believe that this kind of incompetence could be prevalent side-by-side with the Valerie Plame-Jane Bonds of the world unless it was deliberate.

Actually this is consistent with what I have heard from a former FBI undercover agent. The FBI has two different divisions one that functions pretty openly essentially doing police work, the other is clandestine. The former agent (who now works for the ACLU) has explained that the very nature of being clandestine results in a lack of accountability when things go awry. Hence, the clandestine side tends to have greater problems with incompetence and what have you, because what they do is hidden from view. The same sort of thing likely affects all clandestine services.

Looks like I left the link off for 21 -
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n15/foot02_.html

Glad it wasn’t as bad as I thought.