Jose Rodriguez
Encyclopedia : J : JO : JOS : Jose Rodriguez
Jose Rodriguez is the current Director of the National Clandestine Service, who replaced Stephen Kappes.
Jose A. Rodriguez Jr, the CIA's current chief spy (Director of the National Clandestine Service, also Deputy Director for Operations of the CIA, DDO), is from Puerto Rico. Rodriguez apparently was a military attache -- a MILGP or MILGRP (US Military Group) "commander" (supposedly an Army colonel) -- at the US Embassy in Argentina from 1994-1996. Officially a Military Group officer advises the US ambassador on military matters and is a liaison between the US Government and the host country's security and military forces (often a funnel for money, arms, and intelligence). US diplomats, even military officers such as the recently ousted (for espionage against Venezuela) US naval attache in Venezuela, Lt. Commander John Correa, often are CIA operatives. The infamous CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames once posed as a military officer, and it's likely that Rodriguez was doing so in Argentina.
For a time between 1996 and 1998, Rodriguez served as the CIA's station chief in Bogota, Colombia. He was able to confirm the complicity of Colombian president Ernesto Samper with the Cali cocaine cartel. This caused problems for Henry Kissinger later, as explained below.
Regarding a 1997 incident, Rodriguez has been criticized by Agency officers for helping out a "friend" arrested for drug offenses in Latin America. He could have been acting in the line of duty by protecting a CIA asset (foreign "assets" are persons who constitute the bulk of the CIA's real spies).
In 1999 Rodriguez was the station chief in Mexico City (in charge of about 500 agents).
Jose A. Rodriguez next became the chief of the Latin America Division of the Operations Directorate of the CIA, presumably back at the McLean, VA, headquarters. That division is considered obscure by CIA-watchers, but CIA covert actions for regime change were perfected there (notably in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Savador in the Iran-contra era http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB27/ ).
In about May 2002 Jose Rodriguez assumed the post of Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center (CTC), near the top of the CIA hierarchy, during the seminal period after 9/11/2001. Rodriguez's position at this time may have been one reason Henry Kissinger resigned (in Dec. 2002) as chairman of the commission investigating 9/11. Kissinger allegedly had been a paid consultant to Ernesto Samper, and the 9/11 job would have involved interfacing with Rodriguez (ostensibly a Samper enemy).
In 2004, as director of the CTC, he visited Athens, Greece, to advise the Athens Olympics organizers, including the chief organizer, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, on security matters. In a March 23, 2004, meeting with organizers he was accompanied by the US Ambassador to Greece, Thomas Miller.
Jose A. Rodriguez was promoted to become the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations in November 2004, succeeding Stephen Kappes. This is perhaps the CIA's No. 2 position in terms of power and put him in charge of the CIA's clandestine operations. Rodriguez dropped out of sight soon after his appointment was announced in the media, but the CIA never reported any reassignment for him. Presumably, after the 2005 reorganization of the Intelligence Community under Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, Jose Rodriguez continues as the head of CIA clandestine operations. This is basically his old job (DDO) with a new title, Director of the National Clandestine Service, and new responsibilities to oversee day-to-day operations of all intelligence gathering by America's human agents. This would include agencies besides the CIA, but not electronic eavesdropping and other methods besides HUMINT.
Rodriguez recently (February 7, 2006) fired his successor as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Robert Grenier, for not being "aggressive" enough in dealing with terrorists.
Rodriguez's publicity shyness compared to his predecessors apparently is in deference to his desire to pursue a low-profile career rather than any requirement of his own job.]
|- style="text-align: center;"
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.