Ex-CIA man to lead US sales drive - Stephen Kappes

[seemslikeadream]

By Mark Huband
Published: April 11 2005 03:00 | Last updated: April 11 2005 03:00

ArmorGroup International, the UK-based protective security group, is expected to announce today that the former deputy director of the CIA's clandestine operations department is to become the group's Washington-based head of global strategy.

Stephen Kappes, who was the CIA's point man in the joint UK-US negotiations in 2003 that led to Libya abandoning its weapons of mass destruction programme, will spearhead the group's plan to seize a bigger share of US security contracts.
more
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/deda5244-aa25-11d9-aa38-00000e2511c8.html



To those who worked with him, Stephen Kappes seemed the perfect choice to lead the covert side of the CIA in the midst of the war on terrorism. Appointed in June, Kappes, a former marine, is a veteran CIA case officer who served in dangerous and difficult postings in Moscow and Pakistan. More recently, he reported directly to President Bush as the CIA's point man in secret high-stakes negotiations with Libya that ended the rogue state's weapons-of-mass-destruction programs.

So last week, many CIA insiders were astonished when Kappes became an early casualty under the rule of Porter Goss, the recently appointed director of central intelligence. Goss, himself a former CIA case officer who recently chaired the House Intelligence Committee, came into his job in September with a mandate to reform a troubled agency blamed for a series of grave lapses before the September 11 attacks and the Iraq war.

But while Goss was widely expected to shake the place up, the departure of Kappes and his deputy, Michael Sulick, stunned intelligence veterans in Washington, who saw the pair as the most qualified team to lead the CIA's Directorate of Operations in years. "The planets lined up," says Milt Bearden, a 30-year CIA veteran who ran the agency's arming of Afghan rebels in the Soviet war. "You had the right guys in the right job at the right time." Ironically, the two men shared Goss's critique of the CIA's shortcomings.

...

In reality, it's a complex story of bitter personality clashes that quickly spun out of control, fueled by years of mutual distrust finally playing out in a highly charged political atmosphere. With CIA morale plunging to some of the lowest levels in 25 years, the stakes could not be higher.

As the nation fights wars on multiple fronts, the episode has left many questioning Goss's weeks-old reign and his ability to manage the far-flung intelligence community on the front lines of the nation's defense.
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000201.html



Security Companies Doing Business in Iraq
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2004/iraq_securitycompanies.htm

[leveymg]

1. Even the hard-core covert operators are running away from Bushco

That bunch of wackos and bumblers in the WH are leading this country to ruin.

And that's what the CIA thinks. You should hear the stuff they're saying at JCS/DIA.

Would a coup be in the national interest?