Saturday, April 22, 2006

A Public Service Walkback...

Re(1): 'CIA Officer Fired for Leaking Classified Info to Media', SecurityWatchTower, C.S. Scott
Re(2): 'BERGER APPOINTS MCCARTHY SPECIAL ASSISTANT FOR INTELLIGENCE'
Re(3): 'NYU: Center on Law and Security'
Re(4): 'Center for Strategic & International Studies' - Link Removed from site, see here (#21)!!!
Re(5): 'Albright in historic meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Il', CNN
Re(6): 'Clinton Let Bin Laden Slip Away and Metastasize', LATimes, Mansoor Ijaz
Re(7): 'Mary O. McCarthy - Visiting Fellow, International Security Program ', FreeRepublic
Re(8): 'Clinton & Khobar', National Review, Rich Lowry
Re(9): 'Reconstructing Murtha III: It’s a Somalia Deja Vu', The American Thinker
Re(10): 'Its All About 9/11', Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Andrew McCarthy
Re(11): 'Senate 9/11 Report', United States Senate

and, oh my God - tell me it isn't so
Re(12): 'Colleagues Say C.I.A. Analyst Played by Rules', New York Times, David S. Cloud

To the Media - Goodbye and Good Night

Hat Tip: Drudge at www.DrudgeReport.com
Freepers at www.FreeRepulic.com
Flopping Aces at www.floppingaces.net/?p=1551

As a fellow government servant I feel I should provide both emotional comfort and a public relations service to Mrs. McCarthy that is sadly lacking in the WingNut blogosphere. Certainly this woman was aggrieved. First, neocons and incompetents gained power through duplicitous election fraud. Next, the stupid American public apparently denied valiant Senator John Kerry the position he so deserved. As a result, I have secured permission from Mrs. McCarthy to ‘unpack’ her biography and build a resume. In fact, she appears to be ‘A REAL GO-GETTER’:
Mary McCarthy, a CIA officer, is currently a visiting fellow at The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS in August 2001, Mary O. McCarthy was a senior policy adviser to the CIA's deputy director for science and technology. Until July 2001, she served as special assistant to the president and senior director for intelligence programs on the National Security Council (NSC) Staff, under both Presidents Clinton and Bush. From 1991 until her appointment to the NSC, McCarthy served on the National Intelligence Council. She began her government service as an analyst, then manager, in CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, holding positions in both African and Latin American analysis. From 1979 to 1984 she was employed by BERI, S.A., conducting financial, operational, and political risk assessments for multinational companies and banks. Previously she had taught at the University of Minnesota and was director of the Social Science Data Archive at Yale University. She is the author of Social Change and the Growth of British Power in the Gold Coast (University Press of America, 1983). McCarthy has a B.A. and M.A. in history from Michigan State University, an M.A. in library science from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota.

So, here goes:

___________________________________________________________________




Mary O' McCarthy
1600 Beltway Blvd
Washington D.C.

Objective:

I seek a position in which my extensive ties with President Clinton, Secretary Berger, Secretary Zbigniew Brzezinski, Rand Beers, Richard Clarke, General Wesley Clark, General Anthony Zinni, and Dana Priest could be of benefit to the greater good of democracy. I deeply feel that a position in which I could do good things would fit my skillset and experience. To that end, I am seriously reviewing Err America's advertised position of 'Truth Teller'.

Experience:
August 2001 – Present
Fellow Professor at ‘The Center for Strategic and International Studies’, New York University.

Like many trusted and brilliant illuminati from President Clinton’s Administration I transitioned from government service to the world of academia. As a Fellow Professor at the New York University School of Law’s ‘Center for Strategic and International Studies’, I ensured the dissemination of information that I believed to be critical to the proper functioning of a democracy. Certainly, this includes disseminating the ‘August 6, 2001’ Presidential Daily Brief to media sources which proved beyond a doubt that the current Administration knew dates, times, locations, and methods of attack for the impending al Qaeda criminal action - a report that both I and Richard Clarke worked feverishly on and provided a month before the attacks. Additionally, since fullfilling my government service I have repeatedly ensured the accurate dissemination of information regarding BusHitlers efforts in the Global 'War' on 'Terror'. In concert with other capable luminaries, I have ensured accuracy in the media – much like an impartial Presidential Press Secretary.
June 1998 - July 2001
Special Assistant to the President

Succeeding Rand Beers, who later became a political operative for John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential run, I acted as the right-hand woman for President’s Clinton and Bush. Successes in this term included – but were not limited to:
June 1996 – June 1998
Senior Director for Intelligence Programs on the National Security Council (NSC) Staff

During this period I acted as the right hand woman for NSC Director Sandy
Berger. We successfully:
1994 – 1996
National Intelligence Officer for Warning

1991 – 1994
Deputy National Intelligence officer for Warning

  • I ensured President Clinton waited judiciously before acting on the first bombing of corporate America’s World Trade Center. We cannot prosecute groups for planning and staging attacks, we have to wait till the crime is committed.
  • I played a critical role in warning the Clinton Administration of the dangers of using American armed forces when combating terrorism in Somalia. Ensured an emphasis on resolving root cause issues.
  • After consulting with Congressman Murtha, provided guidance that resulted in the graceful exit from Somalia after the unplanned military invasion of that nation.

1984 – 1991
CIA Directorate of Intelligence – Analyst for Latin America and Africa

  • I worked hand in hand with such future media celebrities as Joeseph Wilson and Valerie Plame to ensure the success of our efforts in these two regions. This was the era of Sandinista Freedom Fighters bravely creating a new society in Latin America. This was the era of Iran/Contragate!!! So soon after Watergate!!! A great time to get involved with super secrets!!!

___________________________________________________________________

To their credit the New York Times wrote a Reference Letter for Mrs. McCarthy. All good employers should write Reference Letters for their good employees - maybe she played a role in the NSA Wiretap story, eh. A summary:

April 23, 2006
Colleagues Say C.I.A. Analyst Played by Rules
By DAVID S. CLOUD

WASHINGTON, April 22 — Mary O. McCarthy, the intelligence officer dismissed on Friday after being accused of leaking information to reporters about the Central Intelligence Agency's overseas prisons, once was responsible for guarding some of the nation's most sensitive secrets.

As a senior National Security Council aide for intelligence from 1996 to 2001, Ms. McCarthy was known as a low-key professional who paid special attention to preventing White House leaks of classified information and covert operations, several current and former government officials said.

When she disagreed with decisions on intelligence operations, they say, she registered her complaints through internal government channels.

But on Thursday she was stripped of her security clearance and escorted out of C.I.A. headquarters, government officials said, after failing a polygraph examination and confessing that she had disclosed classified information to reporters, including material for The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning articles about secret C.I.A. facilities in Eastern Europe used to interrogate captured Al Qaeda members and other terror suspects.

Ms. McCarthy, who has not been charged with any crime, did not respond to telephone calls and an e-mail message. But former colleagues who worked with her at the C.I.A. and the White House say they had trouble fathoming her as a leaker. Some said they flatly refused to believe the accusations.

"We're talking about a person with great integrity who played by the book and, as far as I know, never deviated from the rules," said Steven Simon, a National Security Council aide in the Clinton administration who worked closely with Ms. McCarthy.

Others said it was possible that Ms. McCarthy, who began attending law school at night several years ago and had announced her intention to retire from the C.I.A., had grown disenchanted with the methods that the Bush administration used for handling Al Qaeda prisoners since the September 2001 terror attacks and felt she had no alternative except to go to the press.

"I have no idea what her motive was, but there is a lot of dissension within the agency and it seems to be a rather unhappy place," said Richard J. Kerr, a former C.I.A. deputy director. Mr. Kerr called Ms. McCarthy "quite a good, substantive person on the issues I dealt with her on."

She also gradually came to have one foot in the secret world of intelligence and another in the public world of policy.

She went from lower-level analyst working in obscurity at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va,. to someone at home "downtown," as Washington is called by agency veterans, where policy is more openly fought over and leaks are far more common.

Though she was a C.I.A. employee for more than 20 years, associates said, her early professional experience was not in the world of spying and covert operations.

After a previous career that one former colleague said included time as a flight attendant, she earned a doctorate in history from the University of Minnesota. She worked for a Swiss company "conducting risk assessments for international businesses and banks," Ms. McCarthy wrote in a brief biography she provided to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also called the 9/11 Commission. She testified before the commission in 2003. Her biography notes that she once wrote "a book on the social history of Ghana."

Even after joining the C.I.A. in 1984, Ms. McCarthy, who was hired as intelligence analyst for Africa, was far from a covert operative. In the late 1980's, she was promoted to management, taking over as chief of the Central America and Caribbean section, though she had no previous experience in the region, said a former officer who worked with her.

By 1991, she was working as deputy to one of the agency's most senior analysts, Charles E. Allen, whose job as "National Intelligence Officer for Warning" was to anticipate major national security threats. Ms. McCarthy took over the job from Mr. Allen in 1994 and moved to the Clinton White House two years later.

Rand Beers, who at the time was Mr. Clinton's senior intelligence aide on the National Security Council, said he hired Ms. McCarthy to be his deputy. "Anybody who works for Charlie Allen and then replaces him has got to be good," said Mr. Beers, who went on to serve as an adviser to the 2004 presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry, the Democratic candidate. She took over from Mr. Beers as the senior director for intelligence programs in 1998.

Though she was not among the C.I.A. officials who briefed Mr. Clinton every morning on the latest intelligence, she "worked on some of the most sensitive programs," a former White House aide said, and was responsible for notifying Congress when covert action was being undertaken.

The aide and some others who spoke about Ms. McCarthy were granted anonymity because they did not want to be identified as discussing her official duties because she be under criminal investigation.

When the Bush administration took office in 2001, Ms. McCarthy's career seemed to stall. A former Bush administration official who worked with her said that, although she was a career C.I.A. employee, as a holdover from the Clinton administration she was regarded with suspicion and was gradually eased out of her job as senior director for intelligence programs. She left several months into Mr. Bush's first term.

But she did not return immediately to a new assignment at C.I.A. headquarters. She took an extended sabbatical at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research organization. In late 2003, she testified publicly before the 9/11 Commission about ways to reorganize the intelligence agencies to prevent another major terror attack.

She served on the Markle Foundation's "Task Force on National Security in the Information Age," a group of academics as well as current and former government officials working on recommendations for sharing classified information more widely within the government, according to a report issued by the group. The report identifies Ms. McCarthy as a "nongovernment" expert.

H. Andrew Schwartz, a spokesman for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Ms. McCarthy's relationship with the organization lasted from 2001 to 2003. Several associates of Ms. McCarthy say she returned to the C.I.A. in 2004, taking a job in the inspector general's office. That year, public records show, she contributed $2,000 to Mr. Kerry's presidential campaign.

Married with one child, she also began attending law school at night, two former co-workers said, and talked about switching to a career in public interest law.

After an article last November in The Washington Post reported that the C.I.A. was sending terror suspects to clandestine detention centers in several countries, including some in Eastern Europe, Porter J. Goss, the agency's director, ordered polygraphs for intelligence officers who knew about certain "compartmented" programs, including the secret detention centers for terror suspects.

Polygraphs are given routinely to agency employees at least every five years, but special ones can be ordered when a security breach is suspected.

Government officials said that after Ms. McCarthy's polygraph examination showed the possibility of deception, the examiner confronted her and she disclosed having conversations with reporters.

But some former C.I.A. employees who know Ms. McCarthy remain unconvinced, arguing that the pressure from Mr. Goss and others in the Bush administration to plug leaks may have led the agency to focus on an employee on the verge of retirement, whose work at the White House during the Clinton administration had long raised suspicions within the current administration.

"It looks to me like Mary is being used as a sacrificial lamb," said Larry Johnson, a former C.I.A. officer who worked for Ms. McCarthy in the agency's Latin America section.

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