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 ...
On his blog Thomas Joscelyn comments
"Lest we forget, this is the same agency that had no good human intelligence assets in Iraq prior to the war; that had no good HUMINT assets inside of al Qaeda prior to 9-11; that thinks that Iran is a decade away from building a nuclear bomb (even though the U.S. assembled one in less than half that time decades ago); that has leaked disinformation time and again to the press; that allowed Michael Scheuer to work there for more than two decades; etc. etc. etc."
Draining top talent? Or, cleaning out the incompetents?"
"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.
Here's the next ex-CIA to mouth off to the press about the Bush admin, leak secrets etc.
If he was soft of terrorists, he didn't need to be in authority. Personally I recommend Jack Bauer as his replacement.
the Afghan operation was handled well by CIA, not sure how much input this particular fellow had in that. but generally speaking, Goss needs to clean house.
for all we know, maybe this guy was already IDed as a leaker - and hence this action? that's an awfully high level person to be leaking, but who knows what DC cocktail circuit hs was on.
could be..
SOunds like Proter is cleaning house. There's much more to this than meets the eye, I'd wager a few sawbucks on that.
"Museum grade artifacts" Whaddya suppose he did on his lunch hours? And how undercover could he have been really?
Sounds like he was interested in decorating his study.
It's nice to see Porter Goss firing these entrenched bureaucrats...
No doubt that Mr. Goss knows that those incompetents failed to predict India's nuclear tests, Pakistan's nuclear tests (hence, the guy in question for this thread being fired, finally), 9/11/2001, as well as botched the call about Iraq's WMDs.
Three cheers for Goss cleaning house at the CIA!
The rest of the article hints he might have gone last Sept when Robert Richer resigned. I thought I recognized the name. Things have been percolating for a while with Grenier.
The rest of the article also does a lot of whining about the "good talent that's been bleeding out of the CIA blahblahblahblahblah.."
Attacking Porter Goss of course.
Indeed. The fact that the Washington Post is crabbing so hard at Goss means he's being successful.
Or Frank Martin.
Is it me or has CIA been lacking balls since Cofer Black left.
I dunno, I think you have to get the heads properly and professionally preserved if you want them to be presentable as mementos.
Goss needs to pick up the pace.
and this fired officer, should be followed by the FBI 24x7, all his communications wiretapped (with court orders of course) to see if he is leaking. we can't afford to have someone this high up revealing everything he knows to the NYT.
Draining the swamp. The biggest snakes are the ones that are found and bagged first.
"Anybody who has "museum quality momentos" isn't quite many enough for the job, imo. You know what I'm talkin' about."
Not conclusive of anything, but it did strike me as a sign this guy might not be as immersed in his work as he could be, it is the kind of activity a poser would do.
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