CIA’s deputy director to be replaced with White House lawyer (WaPo)

[pinto]

CIA’s deputy director to be replaced with White House lawyer

By Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller, Wednesday, June 12, 12:35 PM

The CIA’s deputy director plans to resign and will be replaced by White House lawyer and agency outsider Avril D. Haines, Director John O. Brennan said Wednesday.

Haines, who will succeed career officer Michael Morell on Aug. 9, has served for three years as President Obama’s deputy counsel in charge of national security issues and as legal adviser to the National Security Council. Although she has never worked inside the intelligence agency, “she knows more about covert action than anyone in the U.S. government outside of the CIA,” Brennan said his first interview since becoming CIA director in March.

The surprise move gives Brennan an ally in the CIA’s executive suite who helped him rewrite the rules of the drone campaign that were recently announced by Obama. Unlike an agency insider, Haines has no direct investment in any of the counterterrorism programs that Brennan has indicated he will seek to rein in.

In a message to the CIA on Wednesday afternoon, Brennan emphasized that Haines, 43, has worked closely with senior national security officials. “She has participated in virtually every deputies and principals committee meeting over the past two years and chairs the Lawyer’s Group that reviews the Agency’s most sensitive programs,” the statement said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cias-deputy-director-to-be-replaced-with-white-house-lawyer/2013/06/12/8fc2118e-d383-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html

[JimDandy]

1. Interesting... Let's hope her background in law

helps to reign in the CIA's overreaching. Not too hopeful though, because her boss, Obama, a constitutional scholar and lawyer, has trampled all over our 4th Amendment rights.

[pinto]

2. I think someone at least one small step removed from the programs is a step forward.

Haines has no direct investment in any of the counterterrorism programs that Brennan has indicated he will seek to rein in.

[JimDandy]

5. True.

More power to her if she can put a dent in cleaning up this mess.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. Mr. Fierce Advocate

[JimDandy]

4. What?