Monday, November 19, 2012

Wilson Center President to Become Next CIA Head?

Here is what Politico reports:
Another frequently mentioned name [for CIA Director]: former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who served on the House Intelligence Committee and quit Congress last year to head up the Woodrow Wilson Center.
[Bush Administration Homeland Security Adviser Fran] Townsend said naming Harman would be “most in keeping with the two previous” directors in terms of appointing someone who knows the ways of Congress.

A CIA director’s ability to win over Congress is “hugely important,” said Hamilton, now at Indiana University. “You have to keep them on your side and it takes a lot of trips to the Hill and a lot of consultation, otherwise the leader in the intelligence [committees] get very nervous. … The relationship with Congress is a critical part of the job.”
Harman said this week she expects Obama to tap either Morell or Brennan, whom The Washington Post has pointed to as the leading candidates. “I think the two candidates whose names have been floated are likely be selected and would be an excellent choice, but I’m flattered to be on the lists various people have put forward,” she told POLITICO.
But some lawmakers said nominating Harman could resurrect questions about press reports that a wiretap captured her promising to lobby the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against two pro-Israel lobbyists. Harman has called the claims an “outrageous and recycled canard.”
As Think Tank Watch noted in a previous post, Harman is good friends with both David Petraeus and his wife.