Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (Acting), In office November 9, 2012 – March 8, 2013
Michael Joseph Morell (born September 4, 1958) is a former American intelligence analyst. He served as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency as well as its acting director twice, first in 2011 and then from 2012 to 2013. Since November 2013, he has been a Senior Counselor to Beacon Global Strategies LLC.
He is a critic of the Senate Intelligence Committee's 2014 report on the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which many consider to be torture, and is also a proponent of the CIA's targeted killings by drones.[2]
He managed the staff that produced the President's Daily Brief and he was the Executive Assistant to DCI George Tenet. Morell was also Bush’s briefer during the September 11, 2001, attacks, and, when asked by Bush who was responsible, Morell said "I would bet my children's future that the trail would lead to the doorstep of Usama bin Ladin and al Qa'ida". Later, as deputy director, Morell would be a trusted advisor to President Barack Obama in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011.[5][6] Before his 2010 nomination as Deputy Director, he served as Director for Intelligence, a position he had held since 2008. He served as the CIA's Associate Deputy Director from 2006 to 2008.[7]
Morell, Leon Panetta, Hillary Clinton and other members of Obama's national security team in May 2011 In May 2010, Morell was sworn in as the deputy director of the CIA, succeeding Stephen Kappes.[8] From July 1, 2011, to September 6, 2011, he served his first stint as acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, replacing Leon Panetta who was named as Secretary of Defense.[9] On November 9, 2012, Morell once again became acting director after the resignation of David Petraeus, following a sex scandal.[10] President Obama chose John Brennan as Director; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by 63 to 34 vote on March 5, 2013.[11]
Morell announced his retirement from the CIA on June 12, 2013.[12] In November 2013, he joined Beacon Global Strategies as a Senior Counselor.[13]
In the wake of Edward Snowden's 2013 unlawful leak of documents on international espionage conducted by the National Security Agency, Morell was appointed as a member of President Obama's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. By the end of 2013, the group presented a report to the White House. Nearly all the Review Group's recommendations were accepted. Morell has been a regular critic of Snowden, saying that ISIS benefitted from Snowden's disclosures, adding that "Americans may well die at the hands of terrorists because of Edward Snowden's action".[14]
Meanwhile, in January 2014, Morell joined CBS News as an on-air contributor in intelligence and national security.[15]
In May 2015, Morell's book entitled The Great War of Our Time: The CIA's Fight Against Terrorism—From al Qa'ida to ISIS was released. It traces his three-decades-long career at the CIA, with a focus on the agency's counterterrorism missions after the September 11th attacks, and the related public controversies.[16] In the book, Morell defends targeted killings by drones.[2][17] He also criticizes the Senate Intelligence Committee’s analysis of CIA torture.[16][18]
Also in his book, Morell apologized to former Secretary of State Colin Powell for the CIA’s erroneous assessments of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs.[22]
In an August 2016 op-ed for The New York Times, Morell endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Stating that he was registered with neither the Democratic nor Republican parties, and had always been silent about his political preferences, Morell stated that Donald Trump was "not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security."[23][24][25] Morell left his job as a CBS News analyst before making the endorsement.[26] In a subsequent Q&A article with the NY Times, he responded to allegations that his current employer, Beacon Global Strategies, "was co-founded by former associates of Mrs. Clinton", by saying it was a non-partisan firm and that he had spoken out "entirely on [my] own, with no other consideration given any thought."[27]