Posted on 02/12/2006 5:40:43 PM PST by prairiebreeze
The CIA's top counterterrorism officer was relieved of his position yesterday after months of turmoil atop the agency's clandestine service, according to three knowledgeable officials.
Robert Grenier, who spent most of his career undercover overseas, took charge of the Counterterrorism Center about a year ago after a series of senior jobs at the center of the Bush administration's national security agenda.
When al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, Grenier was station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan. Among the agency's most experienced officers in southwest Asia, Grenier helped plan the covert campaign that preceded the U.S. military ouster of al Qaeda and its Taliban allies from Afghanistan.
By the summer of 2002, with President Bush heading toward war in Iraq, then-Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet recalled Grenier to headquarters and promoted him to chief of a newly created Iraq Issues Group. His staff ballooned as the administration planned and launched the invasion in March 2003.
Grenier's predecessor at the Counterterrorism Center, who remains undercover, moved on to become chief of the National Clandestine Service, the successor to the CIA's directorate of operations. Sources said the two men differ sharply in style.
Grenier, 51, is said by associates to be a polished and smooth-talking man with museum-quality mementos of his service overseas. His boss at the clandestine service, the nation's senior human intelligence officer, was said to regard him as insufficiently forceful in the battle with al Qaeda.
"The word on Bob was that he was a good officer, but not the one for the job and not quite as aggressive as he might have been," one official said.
Colleagues in the clandestine service, sources said, had been aware of the poor working relationship between the two men for some time...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Other then the articles about him being asked to step down
I'm find nothing on this guy through google ... though there is another Richard Grenier that had worked for the CIA ... but it looks like he died last year
Plus I found this .. but I can't get the whole article
http://www.questia.com/search/cia-spying
Spying in Jericho and the CIA Newspaper article by Richard Grenier; The Washington Times, February 28, 1997 Spying in Jericho and the CIA by Richard Grenier The most...sense. Gradually - in movies now also - the CIA, representing the sole remaining super...satanic presence. In movie after movie the CIA became the solitary villain. Even in the...
Yeah, I noticed that. Since he was brought back in 2003 he's only been in the US for 2 1/2 years, nowhere NEAR the 5 years that's required. Sounds to me as thought the WP has outed a covert agent.
Do you suspect that this author Richard Grenier is related to Robert Grenier?
GOOD point.
I don't think so .. since that link from Amazon.com says he died last year
BTW .. there is also a poet with the same name .. I have no idea who is .. *L*
Somebody better call Fitzgerald.
Thanks for reminding me of his name...
I remember thinking at the time of an interview that he did...that had a lot more of the Rangers been sent into Tora Bora...I felt that they would be walking into a trap..
The Taliban know that area, we don't....and like you, I didn't think that OBL stayed in that area...not when there is an area in Pakistan, where America isn't allowed enter, that would hide him well..
AND, regardless of what Hillary Clinton said the other day...it doesn't matter how TALL he is, when he is in Pakistan villages being hidden in buildings, NOT walking around in the desert of Afghanistan...sheesh
Of course, all of the above becomes moot, if he is dead....and I am not convinced he isn't dead..
Just like I am not convinced there were NO WMDS in Iraq...I believe they were there..and moved.
US military personnel who worked with Grenier during his time in Pakistan remarked that he was always a dapper dresser and worked banker's hours. They joked that he was well rested during the war.http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/26366
There are some of us who think we *do* know the answer to this, and it isn't pretty. It's *neither* not knowing, *nor* not caring. They are active pursuing an agenda which is *not* in the best interests of the United States as a nation, because they literally believe "nationalism" is an outmoded concept. They pursue a "one world government" paradigm, to the exclusion of all else. Everything they do is calculated to advance the installation of that global government.
In order for this global government to work, they need some method of controlling the world's population. Two preferred methods are the totalitarian and conformist-based ideologies of Marxism, and Islam. It is no coincidence that most career professionals are/were largely pro-Soviet, and pro Arab. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the implosion of the Soviet Union, which oddly enough, these "best and brightest" couldn't, or more likely wouldn't foresee, the emphasis has gone from near-overt support for Marxism, to near-overt support for Islam. They need the vehicle for their global governance scheme...
the infowarrior
Great point, Howlin....aren't his contacts from when he was over there undercover in danger now...if Valerie's supposedly were??
Well, if we both agree that it appears the same standard would apply to him, we must be wrong. :-)
"Can somebody explain to me why THIS disclosure by the New York Times is any different than the Valerie Plame affair?"
Simple. They haven't figured out how to blame this one on the Bush Administration yet.
I am sure they are working on that.
bump
I don't know about that book, sorry. I meant to ping you TXsleuth, glad you saw the thread.
Bahbah, they not only don't care but in their twisted logic America deserves bad things.
sigh..
Different Grenier I think.
WASHINGTON: The CIA's senior counter-terrorism official was fired because he opposed detaining al-Qa'ida suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation abroad and using forms of torture such as "water boarding", intelligence sources have claimed.Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism centre, was relieved of his post last week after a year in the job. One intelligence official said he was "not quite as aggressive as he might have been" in pursuing al-Qa'ida 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's that he wasn't with the program. He expressed misgivings about the secret prisons in Europe and the rendition of terrorists."
Mr Grenier also opposed "excessive" interrogation, such as strapping suspects to boards and submerging them in water, Mr Cannistraro said.
http://tinyurl.com/aqspu
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