With this syrupy signaling from the New York Times — CIA head Haspel is being sampled with the glories that await her if she joins the Trump resistance by going into hiding or something. Readers will detect that in the article. The following pull quote lends credence to our concern that any presumption that Barr will get cooperation from the “intelligence community” AKA Deep Swamp is based on wishful thinking.
“The CIA’s first female director since its 1947 founding, she has put in place her own leadership team—which also includes many women—and so far has avoided having President Trump’s political allies embedded in the agency’s senior ranks.”
“I think that she’s adopting a strategy much like [FBI Director] Chris Wray of keeping a lower profile, avoiding situations where she’s put in the position of publicly contradicting the president,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA.
And there is this incredible summation from the NYT
“Mr. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that his campaign was the target of improper spying.”
– have they paid no attention to revelation after revelation about just that?!
And let’s see. What ‘famous person’ said (without evidence?) that any president attempting to challenge the federal law enforcement and national security agencies would be slammed and stymied “six ways from Sunday!”?)
Under CIA Chief Gina Haspel, an Intelligence Service Returns to the Shadows
CIA director seeks the mute button—for herself and her agency
By Warren P. Strobel
WASHINGTON—At a gala dinner in March to raise funds for the families of Central Intelligence Agency officers killed in the line of duty, CIA Director Gina Haspel surprised her audience by delving into details of spycraft the agency has used to run agents on the streets of Moscow. But the crowd’s astonishment at the unusual revelation quickly evaporated when the spy chief confided that the material came from a journalist’s book.
After a year atop the CIA, Ms. Haspel is giving away few secrets. With a 35-year career in clandestine operations and a U.S. president who pounces when his spy chiefs contradict him publicly, she and her agency have adopted their lowest public profile in decades.
“She’s gone to ground,” said Mark Lowenthal, a former CIA official and staff director of the House Intelligence Committee. “It’s not going to be any good for her to be out there attracting lightning bolts.”
What should be the proper role and public posture of the CIA and its top leaders? Join the conversation below.
Interviews with nearly 20 current and former U.S. intelligence officials reveal a portrait of a CIA director who has been warmly received by the workforce she has spent her life among.
The CIA’s first female director since its 1947 founding, she has put in place her own leadership team—which also includes many women—and so far has avoided having President Trump’s political allies embedded in the agency’s senior ranks.
But if Ms. Haspel’s primary mission is overseeing a global spy agency charged with addressing threats ranging from terrorism to climate change, it sometimes seems her second priority is protecting the agency she has devoted her life to from the domestic threat of a toxic U.S. political culture.
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“I think that she’s adopting a strategy much like [FBI Director] Chris Wray of keeping a lower profile, avoiding situations where she’s put in the position of publicly contradicting the president,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA.
“But she’s not shying away from sharing her assessments and those of the [intelligence community] in an unfiltered way. So I think she’s carried the balance as well as you can within this administration,” Mr. Schiff said in an interview.
Mr. Trump has lashed out at his spy chiefs when he doesn’t like their conclusions, and Ms. Haspel hasn’t always been able to stay out of the line of fire.
In December, she found herself in an awkward position with Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after The Wall Street Journal reported details of the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely had a role in journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death. The president and Mr. Pompeo have portrayed the intelligence as less definitive.
In January, she and other spy chiefs told the Senate Intelligence Committee, in an annual public hearing on world-wide threats, that North Korea was unlikely to abandon its nuclear weapons and that Iran was complying with a 2015 nuclear accord.
Both assessments seemed to undercut Mr. Trump’s policies. “Perhaps intelligence should go back to school!” he wrote on Twitter.
The president summoned Ms. Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to an Oval Office meeting and photo session the next day. “It looked like a hostage-taking,” Mr. Lowenthal said.
Ms. Haspel and her colleagues have yet to deliver the companion testimony on world-wide threats before the House Intelligence Committee, as is customary. “We have tentatively scheduled an open hearing, but so far have not gotten agreement” from the spy chiefs to attend, a committee source said (now who could that source be? Could it rhyme with ‘miff’).
More tests may be coming. Mr. Trump this week ordered Ms. Haspel and Mr. Coats to assist Attorney General William Barr’s probe into intelligence activities during the 2016 campaign, and empowered Mr. Barr to declassify information about the origins of the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling. Mr. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that his campaign was the target of improper spying.
Ms. Haspel, 62 years old, who served in a series of secret assignmentsacross the globe and at CIA headquarters, can be self-effacing, She rose to the agency’s top position without seeming to step over others, the current and former officials said. She can also be direct and no-nonsense.
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said he is absolutely confident that Ms. Haspel will push back if policy makers ask the agency to do something it shouldn’t.
“I was told that somebody asked that the agency do something that was inappropriate. Her response was, ‘No. And don’t ask again,’ ” said Mr. Morell, who hosts the “Intelligence Matters” podcast. He said he did not have details of the incident.
Ms. Haspel regularly attends the president’s daily intelligence briefings, along with Mr. Coats. She maintains close ties with congressional intelligence committees and Mr. Pompeo, her predecessor at the CIA. The two speak by phone frequently and often meet in person.
At the CIA, Ms. Haspel is seen as a steady leader, if not a visionary one.
“She’s going to be a good steward of the place,” said a former colleague in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations who said he admires her. “If you’re looking for a transformational person—that’s not her.”
But taking the CIA largely out of the limelight is no small accomplishment. For nearly two decades, it has been ensnared in near-constant controversies, over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; drone strikes; treatment of detainees; and Russia’s election interference.
“She’s more filling the role of a historical director—that you don’t hear from them very much,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Mark Sparkman, who was Ms. Haspel’s supervisor on her first overseas CIA assignment—reportedly in Ethiopia—attended her swearing-in as director last May. Mr. Pompeo spoke, noting how it can sometimes be lonely at the top.
At a post-ceremony reception in a hall at CIA headquarters lined with portraits of past directors, Mr. Sparkman said he found Ms. Haspel at a table by herself, with a soda water in hand.
“I went over and congratulated her and said something to the effect that Pompeo’s comment had been spot-on,” he recalled. “She’s always been approachable…but there she was, only minutes removed from her swearing-in, standing by herself until the ice was broken.”
