>with some of ourcolleagues, like Phil Mudd
>one moar note.
Going to jump back to this muh colleague Phil Mudd statement since I noticed this connection.
"Enhanced Interrogation"
Democratic concerns over Morell and torture scramble Biden’s CIA decision
Jeremy Herb MJ Lee Alex Marquardt Zachary Cohen
By Jeremy Herb, MJ Lee, Alex Marquardt and Zachary Cohen, CNN
Published 4:36 PM EST, Thu December 3, 2020
Michael Morell trump amanpour_00013223.jpg
Michael Morell trump amanpour_00013223.jpg
CNN —
One of President-elect Joe Biden’s initial frontrunners to be CIA director, Mike Morellis facing increasingly complicated prospects as his potential nomination faces growing opposition, according to multiple sources familiar with transition discussions.
Morell, who was deputy CIA director under President Barack Obama, now faces a steeper climb in the face of Democratic opposition to his recordover the CIA’s interrogation tactics during the George W. Bush administration.Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, publicly accused Morell of being a “torture apologist” – a reference to Morell’s past suggestion that the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh tactics were effective – and said Morell’s nomination would be a “nonstarter.”
The message for the Biden transition team was clear: Give us someone else to consider.
Other Senate Democrats, including Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Pat Leahy of Vermont, have also privately expressed concerns to Biden’s team about Morell’s record on torture, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
> https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/03/politics/biden-cia-director-morell-concerns/index.html
John Philip Mudd[2][3] (born 1961 or 1962)[4] is an American political commentator and former counterterrorism official in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Mudd graduated cum laude from Villanova University with a B.A. in English Literature in 1983. The following year he earned an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia.[5][6]
Mudd joined the CIA in 1985 as an analyst specializing in South Asia and the Middle East. In 1992 he joined the CIA's Counterterrorism Center (CTC). From 1995 to 1998 he served on the National Intelligence Council as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. In 2001, he began a policy assignment at the White House, detailed from the CIA to serve as the Director for Gulf Affairs on the White House National Security Council. After the September 11 attacks and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, he joined Ambassador James Dobbins in an effort to constitute a new government in Afghanistan.[7] Mudd returned to the CIA in January 2002 to become Deputy Director of the CTC's Office of Terrorism Analysis.[7][6] There, he was promoted to the position of Deputy Director of the CTC in December 2003, and served there until August 2005.[7][6][8] During a 2013 interview on The Colbert Report, Mudd stated in response to a question of whether he had renditioned anybody, "I signed papers to do it, to have people renditioned", also saying that he thought it was the right thing to do.[9]
On August 12, 2005,FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed Muddto serve as the National Security Branch's Associate Executive Assistant Director, with the task to transform the FBI into a domestic intelligency agency.[6][7][10] Some of Mudd's new concepts were criticized by FBI officials as "vague" and concerns about "ethnic targeting" were raised. Mudd encouraged agents to postpone the arrest of terrorism suspects and argued to instead surveil them in order to gain intelligence regarding connections to other operatives as well as information about groups' financial ties, a concept he initially struggled to implement.[11] In April 2009, Mudd was nominated to the post of Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security by President Obama.[8] He later withdrew himself from consideration after Senator Kit Bond had declared his intent to question Mudd regarding his involvement with the Bush administration's enhanced interrogation program, stating his belief that he would "become a distraction to the president" were his nomination to continue forward.[12][13] From 2009 to 2010 he was a senior intelligence adviser to the FBI.[14]
Mudd resigned from government service in March 2010 and can be seen as a regular commentator on CNN. His commentary has also been published by various other networks and print publications. He has authored three books.[5]