News you may have missed #813 (CIA edition)
November 21, 2012 4 Comments
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
►►Who is leading the CIA for now? Acting CIA Director Michael J. Morell, who has worked for the CIA for 32 years, served a stint as acting director last year and his will be one of several names considered by US President Barack Obama for the permanent job. Starting as an analyst tracking international energy issues, Morell worked for 14 years as an analyst and manager on East Asia, rising to director of the Directorate of Intelligence’s Office of Asian Pacific and Latin American Analysis in 1999. In May 2010, Morell succeeded Stephen Kappes, who had resigned suddenly and without explanation, as deputy director of the CIA, serving under Directors Leon Panetta (February 2009-June 2011) and David Petraeus (September 2011-November 2012).
►►No perfect choice to fill Petraeus vacancy at CIA. President Barack Obama needs a quick, no-drama solution to a sensational personnel problem. But the vacancy left at the top of the Central Intelligence Agency by David Petraeus’s abrupt departure amid a headline-grabbing sex scandal calls for a particularly complex skill set. It requires a charismatic chief to oversee the large, notoriously tough-to-manage intelligence apparatus. It needs a leader who has a strong relationship with the president. And most of all, it calls for a politically savvy operator who understands how to interact with Congress —and can assuage some of the current anger on Capitol Hill that lawmakers were kept in the dark about the probe.
►►CIA climate-change unit is shut down. Republican lawmakers in the US began criticizing the Central Intelligence Agency’s Center on Climate Change and National Security before it was even established, calling it a “misguided defense funding priority”. Concerted resistance by conservative lawmakers did not allow the program to stand on solid ground, and it now looks like the Center has actually closed down, having lost its most important supporter, former CIA Director Leon Panetta.
intelNews.org 
Im very Interested in who would actually be a contender to fill Patraeus’s boots,it’s quite a tall order..on the other hand,the center on climate change always seemed misconceived since the “science” behind it is driven by questionable entities with ulterior motives and/or agendas p.s. really like your “Comments Guidelines”
Climate Change actually has a place in US intelligence in terms of collecting info. The bottom line attitudes, data and diplomatic positions of secretive countries like Russia and China are clear areas of interest. The interconnected issue of the impact of pollution in China, health effects on its workforce, water and food supply are all issues the Chinese might withhold information on.
maybe the climate dept should be renamed. what changes in climates of countries should be a focal point of intel. weather conditions during was made differences in strategies. climate would factor in on how to deal with foreign governments. leon p is having a difficult time dealing with military cuts. he should marry the climate dept with another dept of shared objectives.
Not good news for Conspiracy freaks (and some Fox News staff) who thought that this unit is literally to change and orchestrate nasty climate events around the globe.