CIA suspends chief of Iran operations over workplace issues

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 16, 2014 | Ken Dilanian

[blueplum]

Veteran officer Jonathan Bank is placed on leave amid a rebellion against his management style, current and former officials say.

WASHINGTON — The CIA's chief of Iran operations was placed on paid administrative leave and sent home from agency headquarters after an internal investigation found he had created an abusive and hostile work environment that put a crucial division in disarray, according to current and former officials.

Officers and analysts in the Iran operations division, which coordinates spying on Iran and its nuclear program, were informed at a meeting last week at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., of the decision to suspend Jonathan Bank, a veteran officer and member of the senior intelligence service...

[blueplum]

timing??

[Cowboy Bob]

He probably opposed workplace sodomy breaks. That type of intolerance is not acceptable in today’s America.

[nathanbedford]

The chief question which should concern us is whether this is a personality problem or a policy problem. The CIA wants the world to think that it is a personality problem which might indicate a systemic breakdown as alleged in the paragraph which says:

According to a Los Angeles Times report in July, an internal CIA workplace survey in 2009 found that those who left the spy agency frequently cited bad management as a factor, particularly in the clandestine service. In interviews, former officers said they felt poor managers suffered no consequences.

But what if the problem is not a personnel problem, not even a systemic personnel problem, but a policy problem which is being held out to the public to be a personnel problem? A policy problem indicates that there is a rift at the highest levels of the CIA over the proper policy toward Iran at a time when Iran is getting ever closer to a nuclear bomb. Is the rift between a professional CIA core and a left wing administration over the ongoing policy of appeasing Iran?

If so, we have a very serious problem indeed.

It is a problem, if it exists, made all the more difficult because of the necessity to maintain secrecy in a secret organization. Yet, a democracy demands some sort of oversight and that, typically, would fall on special committees in the Congress. But can we rely on Senate Democrats? Certainly not.

Can we comfortably rely on House Republicans?

I let the reader judge.

[SeeSharp]

This is John Kerry creating a scapegoat for his collapsing Iran initiative. He gave them everything they wanted and came away with squat.

[knarf]

That was my first thought also.

People in authority should HAVE the authority to BE an authority.

In my 1965-67 Army, it didn't matter WHAT you thought about ANYthing.

Just frickin' DO it !!!

And we didn't say frickin', neither

[MarMema]

Or what if the jet went there, as the Israelis think.

[Popman]

To your point on whether this is a personality or policy issue...

Based on the non existent rack record of government reining in abusive, incompetent, unprofessional power mad little tyrants....

I’d go with policy....

[austinaero]

It sure seems like the Obama administration is hell-bent on seeing Iran rising.

[ArcadeQuarters]

Pretty hard to get fired from a government job. Maybe selective enforcement to fill a position with a political ally.

[Iron Munro]

Recipe For More Liberal Destruction: A politically correct spy agency.

Are covert agents to be selected on the basis of Affirmative Action and to meet quotas for race, sex and homosexualism?

[crosslink]

He has one be flaw, he is effective, they threw him under the bus to make the Paky’s happy. Disgusting

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/27/cia-officer-pakistan-imran-khan-party

[kenmcg]

Reads like a future “Homeland” episode.

[tired&retired]

This guy was too effective.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party named a man it claimed was head of the CIA station in Islamabad in a letter to police demanding he be nominated as one of the people responsible for a drone strike on 21 November, which killed five militants including senior commanders of the Haqqani Network.

The US embassy said it could not comment but was looking into the matter. The CIA spokesman Dean Boyd would not confirm the station chief’s name and declined to immediately comment, AP reported.

If his identity is confirmed it will be the second time anti-drone campaigners have unmasked a top US spy in Pakistan.

In 2010 another CIA station chief, Jonathan Banks, was named in criminal proceedings initiated after a drone strike. Banks was forced to leave the country.

As with the Banks case, questions will be raised about how the PTI came to know the identity of the top US intelligence official in the country.

Although nearly all foreign spies in Pakistan use diplomatic cover stories to hide their occupation, many, including station chiefs, are declared to the country’s domestic spy agency.

The letter signed by the PTI spokeswoman Shireen Mazari demanded the named agent be prevented from leaving the country so that he could be arrested. The PTI said it hoped he would reveal “through interrogation” the names of the remote pilots who operated the drone.

“CIA station chief is not a diplomatic post, therefore he does not enjoy any diplomatic immunity and is within the bounds of domestic laws of Pakistan,” the letter said.

The accusation comes at a time when drones have once again become a matter of intense controversy in Pakistan

Per: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/27/cia-officer-pakistan-imran-khan-party

[tired&retired]

He was opposed to the policies of our Pakistani loving President. Remember, the place he visited with his friends while in college when it was illegal for US citizens to go there.

[null and void]

Everyone please read nathanbedford's excellent take on the situation.

Perhaps Iranian borne VayJay has something to do with this?

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

[Darksheare]

The odds are pretty good that their assessment is correct.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

Read yesterday that Val Jarrett is probably dating former NBC Sports guy Ahmad Rashad?

[null and void]

That poor man!

[Fitzy_888]

Since when do they publize such decisions widely...unless the intent is to thoroughly discredit him ahead of future punditry or authorship?

[Nifster]

Since people were criminally charged with leaking Palme’s name during the Bush administration, which has no one been charged here?

The thugocracy continues a pace