The CIA has selected a new director of its clandestine service, officials said Thursday, but chose not to appoint the interim chief who had alleged links to interrogations tainted by torture.
The CIA denied a Washington Post report that it had passed over the acting director of the national clandestine service because she was involved in an interrogation program that critics and some lawmakers say employed torture.
The acting chief, whose identity remains officially secret, “expertly led the NCS (national clandestine service) through this period of transition and is a highly valued officer,” spokesman Preston Golson said.
“The assertion she was not chosen because of her affiliation with the CT (counter-terrorism) mission is absolutely not true,” he said in an email.
The agency also did not reveal the identity of the newly-appointed director of the clandestine service, saying he “remains undercover.”
But an online gossip site, Gawker, quoted a tweet by a former journalist allegedly revealing the name of the new director.
The CIA said it does not confirm or deny the names of undercover officers.
“Generally speaking and without confirming any specific identity, we ask that media organizations respect the legally protected status of our undercover officers and the sensitive and often dangerous nature of their work,” Golson said.
The new chief of the clandestine service is “a talented and effective intelligence officer who has had rich substantive and operational experiences worldwide over the course of his almost 30-year Agency career,” the spokesman said.
The new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, faced tough questions from Congress at his confirmation hearings over his role in the “enhanced” interrogation methods used during former president George W. Bush’s administration.
His decision on who would head up the spy agency’s powerful covert service was closely watched and seen as a possible signal about how he would handle the CIA’s treatment of detainees after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, had been concerned that Brennan might name the female acting chief as the permanent director, despite the officer’s close association with controversial interrogations, according to the Washington Post.
Feinstein’s spokesman Brian Weiss told AFP that the senator “expressed her views to Director Brennan” about the clandestine service post but did not say what her views were.
The spokesman added that Feinstein was “supportive of the appointment.”
CIA passes over officer for clandestine service: agency
