Sunday Times 2
CIA’s secret ops get first female boss
View(s):By Hugo Gye
A woman has become head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service for the first time, it emerged today. The unnamed operative was made acting director of the service last month – evoking parallels to fictional female spies from the likes of Homeland and Zero Dark Thirty.
Hollywood equivalent: Maya from Zero Dark Thirty
For the woman to be given the job permanently, however, officials may have to overlook her controversial background, which included ordering videos of alleged torture to be destroyed.
The senior spy, whose identity is still classified but who is believed to be in her 50s, has been serving as deputy director of the National Clandestine Service, which co-ordinates and assesses all of the CIA’s undercover operations, according to the Washington Post.
She previously served overseas in Moscow, London and other cities, and also worked at the agency’s Counterterrorism Center.
After director John Bennett left the Clandestine Service on February 28, the woman was promoted to acting director, and is now considered a frontrunner to hold the position on a permanent basis.
She is the first woman to lead the service, which is considered to be a particularly male-dominated branch of the CIA. The woman’s prominence bears some similarity to Carrie Mathison, the neurotic spy played by Claire Danes in hit TV show Homeland, and Maya, the intelligence operative played by Jessica Chastain who tracks down Osama Bin Laden in Oscar-nominated film Zero Dark Thirty.
Now CIA director John Brennan faces one of his first big decisions as he deliberates over whether or not she deserves the job full-time. He has asked three senior agency officials to evaluate the candidates for the position, leading a former intelligence official to suggest to the Post that Mr Brennan was ‘obviously hesitating’ at appointing the woman despite her experience at the Clandestine Service. One reason the operative may face opposition is because she played a central role in the controversial anti-terror policies of the Bush administration.
The CIA recorded 90 videotapes of suspected terrorists facing brutal interrogation in a secret prison in Thailand, which threatened to undermine the agency after the interrogation programme began to be deemed illegal by many observers.
© Daily Mail, London
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