Mazzetti, Mark. "Bush Hails Role of C.I.A. as New Chief Takes Oath." New York Times, 1 Jun. 2006. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Mazzetti, Mark. "Bush Hails Role of C.I.A. as New Chief Takes Oath." New York Times, 1 Jun. 2006. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Addressing CIA employees on 31 May after Gen. Michael V. Hayden was sworn in as CIA director, "President Bush delivered a pep talk..., assuring them that the beleaguered agency played a critical role in the nation's security and remained 'vital' to the work of the White House." This was Hayden's second swearing-in, following a private ceremony on 30 May 2006.
[CIA/00s/06/Gen]
Mazzetti, Mark. "C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden." New York Times, 4 Jul. 2006. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Intelligence officials confirmed on 3 July 2006 that the CIA "has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants.... The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center." CIA officials said that tracking bin Laden and his deputies "remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit ... reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals."
[CIA/00s/06/Gen; Terrorism/00s/06]
Mazzetti, Mark. "C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations." New York Times, 7 Dec. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
In a statement to employees on 6 December 2007, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden "said that the decision to destroy the tapes was made 'within the C.I.A.' and that they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value. The destruction of the tapes raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program."
[CIA/00s/07]
Mazzetti, Mark. "C.I.A. Lays Out Errors It Made Before Sept. 11." New York Times, 22 Aug. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
A report by CIA Inspector General John Helgerson, a 19-page executive summary of which was released on 21 August 2007, describes what it calls the agency's "failures to grasp the role being played by the terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and to assess fully the threats streaming into the C.I.A. in the summer of 2001.... The outlines of the report have been known since shortly after it was completed in 2005, but it had never been made public, and its release reignited a debate about whether the C.I.A. should have done more before the attacks and whether [former DCI George] Tenet and other officials should be held accountable."
[CIA/00s/07]
Mazzetti, Mark. "C.I.A. Official in Inquiry Called a 'Hero.'" New York Times, 10 Dec. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
"At a conference in El Paso in mid-August," HPSCI chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) "heaped praise" on Jose A. Rodriguez Jr,. who recently stepped down as head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service. Now, Rodriguez’s "role in the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotape of harsh interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda is at the center of an inquiry" by Reyes’s committee. A separate Justice Department inquiry "could lead to a full criminal investigation into the matter." Thus, "the man who spent a career in the shadows has been thrust uneasily into the spotlight."
[CIA/00s/07; CIA/Components/NCS]
Mazzetti, Mark. "C.I.A. Said to Find No Hussein Link to Terror Chief." New York Times, 9 Sep. 2006. [http://www.nytimes.com]
A report issued on 8 September 2006 by the Senate's intelligence committee says that the CIA "last fall repudiated the claim that there were prewar ties between Saddam Hussein’s government" and Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In a second report, the committee "also sharply criticized the administration for its reliance on the Iraqi National Congress during the prelude to the war in Iraq."
[CIA/00s/06/Gen; GenPostCW/00s/06/WMD; Terrorism/00s/06]
Mazzetti, Mark. "C.I.A. Tells of Changes for Its Internal Inquiries." New York Times, 2 Feb. 2008. [http://www.nytimes.com]
In a message to employees on 31 January 2008, CIA Director Gen. Michael V. Hayden announced that CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson "has agreed to a series of changes in the way the office conducts its investigations of the agency’s practices... Among the changes ... were new procedures to allow agency officers to lodge complaints against the inspector general’s office." The changes follow an internal review begun in April 2007 and "led by Robert L. Deitz, a close aide to General Hayden." In addition to a special ombudsman in the inspector general’s office, "a new position of quality control officer is being established ... to attest, as General Hayden put it, 'that reports include all exculpatory and relevant mitigating information.'"
[CIA/00s/08/Gen & Components/ODCIA]
Mazzetti, Mark. "Efforts by C.I.A. Fail in Somalia, Officials Charge." New York Times, 8 Jun. 2006. [http://www.nytimes.com]
The CIA's "covert effort ... to finance Somali warlords has drawn sharp criticism" from U.S. government officials "who say the campaign has thwarted counterterrorism efforts inside Somalia and empowered the same Islamic groups it was intended to marginalize." The "activities in Somalia ... were reaffirmed during a National Security Council meeting about Somalia in March, according to people familiar with the meeting. During the March meeting,... a decision was made to make counterterrorism the top policy priority for Somalia."
[CA/Africa]
Mazzetti, Mark. "Exit of Chief Viewed as Move to Recast C.I.A." New York Times, 7 May 2006, A1, A18.
According to intelligence officials on 6 May 2006, the choice of Gen. Michael V. Hayden as the new CIA director "is only a first step in a planned overhaul to permanently change the [agency's] mission and functions." Porter J. Goss "was seen as an obstacle" to DNI John D. Negroponte's effort "to focus the agency on its core mission of combating terrorism and stealing secrets abroad.... Mr. Goss was seen as trying to protect the C.I.A.'s longtime role as government's premier center for intelligence analysis, but under General Hayden ... much of that function is intended to move elsewhere.... Under General Hayden, the C.I.A. will maintain a large staff of intelligence analysts, the officials said. But their role is likely to be diminished, with the primary task of supporting the agency's spying operations, rather than producing broad intelligence assessments for policymakers."
[CIA/00s/06/Gen]
Mazzetti, Mark. "Ex-Official Returns to Key Post at the C.I.A." New York Times, 15 Sep. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
The CIA announced on 14 September 2007 that Michael J. Sulick has been named to head the agency’s clandestine service. Sulick retired from the number two position in the clandestine service in 2004 following a dispute with then-DCI Porter Goss's staff. In this position, "Sulick will have a role that extends beyond the agency to include broad oversight of human intelligence operations in other agencies, including the military and the Defense Intelligence Agency."
[CIA/00s/07 & Components/NCS]
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