http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cias-deputy-director-to-be-replaced-with-white-house-lawyer/2013/06/12/8fc2118e-d383-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html?hpid=z2
The CIA’s deputy director plans to retire and will be replaced by White House lawyer and agency outsider Avril D. Haines, Director John O. Brennan said Wednesday.
Haines, who will succeed career officer Michael Morell on Aug. 9, has served for three years as President Obama’s deputy counsel in charge of national security issues and as legal adviser to the National Security Council. Although she has never worked inside the intelligence agency, “she knows more about covert action than anyone in the U.S. government outside of the CIA,” Brennan said in his first interview since becoming CIA director in March.
The surprise move gives Brennan an ally in the CIA’s executive suite who helped him with the revision of drone-campaign rules that was recently announced by Obama. Unlike an agency insider, Haines has no direct investment in any of the counterterrorism programs that Brennan has indicated he will seek to rein in.
In a message to the CIA on Wednesday afternoon, Brennan emphasized that Haines, 43, has worked closely with senior national security officials. “She has participated in virtually every Deputies and Principals Committee meeting over the past two years and chairs the Lawyers’ Group that reviews the Agency’s most sensitive programs,” the statement said.
Obama nominated Haines just two months ago as legal counsel for the State Department, where she worked previously as a lawyer. Brennan said he spoke to Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who has been slow to fill a number of vacant diplomatic jobs, about the change. Haines also worked as deputy counsel for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when both Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden were members of that panel.
The highly regarded Morell, a 33-year CIA veteran who twice served as acting director, said in an interview that he decided last month to retire because “I want to and I need to devote more attention to my family.” Morell has three college-age children.
In a series of high-powered jobs, Morell delivered the President’s Daily Brief to George W. Bush. He said he was “probably the only person on the planet” at the side of U.S. presidents during both the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and “when we brought Osama bin Laden to justice.”
Brennan and Morell spoke of their professional and personal closeness — they both started at the CIA in 1980 — and emphasized that the retirement was Morell’s choice. Each said he had recommended the other as Obama’s new CIA director before Brennan’s nomination early this year.
Brennan and Morell both joined the CIA in 1980; Brennan left after 25 years for the private sector and reentered government in 2009 as Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser. As director, he has moved to counteract the CIA’s expansion into what the agency calls “direct action,” including drone strikes, and reinvigorate its core functions of intelligence gathering and analysis.
Brennan said he turned toward Haines based on her performance at the White House, where “I spent a lot of time on matters involving the law” and “noticed similarities between the intelligence and legal professions.” Both, he said, need to make sure “facts are correct and distinguish between facts, analysis, assessments and inference. Avril epitomizes those qualities.”
“When I was told by Michael that he was leaving . . . I wrote down different types of qualities I wanted. One of those was to make sure the individual understands that the role of intelligence is not to advocate for policy positions, but to make sure we are able to collect the best intelligence possible and present it to policymakers as concisely and clearly as possible.”
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Obama valued Haines’s “independence of thought, fierceness of advocacy and rigor in how analytically she attacks problems.”
Others expressed surprise at her selection for such a senior intelligence job and noted Haines’s extensive background at the State Department, which has often been at odds with the CIA in policy battles over drone strikes and their diplomatic consequences.
“It’s an interesting and unusual pick,” said a former U.S. official who worked with Brennan and Haines on intelligence issues and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves. “Avril is extremely talented but obviously doesn’t come out of the intelligence community. The ability of outsiders to work in the community is always an open question.”
Inside the CIA, Morell said, the perception of Haines is “not that she’s going to bring some kind of left-wing perspective to this place, but that she’s somebody who’s actually helped us get the job done” in her role as National Security Council counsel.
Haines was described by colleagues as highly polished with a remarkable grasp of the legal complexities of national security issues. But some wondered whether she was a forceful enough personality to help push through changes that some at the agency might resist.
The selection was also revealing about Brennan, who prizes collegiality within his inner circle and who, in his personnel moves, has not turned to anyone with close ties to the CIA’s controversial interrogation or targeted killing programs.
“Given how insular this place is, I think it’s important for there to be outsiders here,” Morell said. “We need fresh perspectives. With a director who is of this place, and who spent so much of his time here and knows this place so well, I told John I actually think that the person who replaces me [should not be] of this place.”
Previous directors, including Leon E. Panetta and David H. Petraeus, began their tenures as CIA outsiders and selected deputies who could help navigate internal politics and cement relationships with the operational and analytic directorates.
Daniel Benjamin, who previously served as the top counterterrorism official at the State Department, praised Haines as “an extraordinary talent. She’s incredibly sharp, hardworking understands all the angles.”
The Haines pick also moves a woman into the No. 2 job for the first time. The selection comes at a sensitive moment on gender issues for the agency. In recent months, former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright completed a CIA-sanctioned report that warned that failing to promote women was undermining the agency’s long-term effectiveness.
Although there are several other women in senior CIA positions — including his chief of staff — Brennan passed over a woman for the job of head of the clandestine service who had been working in that position in an acting capacity for months. The woman, who remains undercover, was regarded as a controversial candidate for the job because of her deep ties to the agency’s use of brutal interrogation methods after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“It’s lost on nobody that Avril will be the first female in the history of the CIA” to hold the No. 2 job there, Morell said. “I think it’s terrific for the women of CIA that they’re going to have another role model. But the fact that she’s a female, while it’s nice to have . . . she really did earn this on her merits.”
Haines is a 2001 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.
The job of deputy CIA director is a presidential appointment that does not require Senate confirmation.
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http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2013/06/11/senate-aide-set-to-replace-gensler-as-chief-commodity-regulator-report/
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/06/obama-axes-bank-harrassing-gary-gensler-at-cftc-plans-to-install-lightweight-ex-goldmanite.html
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013
Obama Axes Bank-Harrassing Gary Gensler at CFTC, Plans to Install Lightweight Ex-Goldmanite
Obama is no longer bothering to pretend that he is anything other than a stooge for banks and other big money interests.
The president is effectively dismissing Gary Gensler, the ex-Goldman partner who headed theCommodities Futures Trading Commission. Gensler used his post at a secondary financial regulator to push for reforms. It was his office that blew the Libor scandal wide open by taking referrals from British regulators seriously (by contrast, Geithner, who heard about widespread, deliberate mismarking in 2008, passed the buck to the Bank of England). Gensler has also been making himself unpopular by taking the view that swap dealers, which includes foreign branches of US banks and parties that conduct business with US parties, must comply with Dodd Frank. AsAutomated Trader noted in April:
Shahien Nasiripour at the Huffington Post describes how Gensler is being ousted for his position on swaps regulation, which was coming to a head in international meetings starting June 20, with a July 12 deadline looming. The industry was pushing for the usual “race to the bottom” approach, since the Dodd Frank provisions are more stringent than overseas requirments (the spin, of course, was that Gensler was acting unilaterally, as opposed to implementing what Congress mandated). Gensler faces varying degrees of resistance from three of his four fellow commissioners. International regulators were apparently also unhappy with Gensler’s tough stand, to the point where they were complaining to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
Even if Obama fails in fast-tracking his chosen replacement, Amanda Renteria, Gensler’s lame-duck status will considerably weaken his ability to arm-twist the fence-sitters among his colleagues.
And Renteria is a simply pathetic choice. Oh, she’s got a very appealing personal story, having worked her way up from a very disadvantaged background, a child of migrant workers who made her way to Stanford and later Harvard Business School. But there’s nothing in her background that qualifies her to act either as a senior regulator or as the head of a large operation (the CFTC has over 400 employees). This leap in responsibilities is tantamount to taking a promising law firm associate and making them the head of a large law practice. You’d never do that if you cared about the health of the firm. A move like this looks an awful lot like an effort not just to sideline Gensler’s push on swaps regulation, but to render the CFTC incompetent over time.
Renteria’s knowledge of finance appears to consist of having worked right after college for a few years at Goldman. She served as an analyst in the then investment bank’s Wealth Management Division. Analysts (the role between college and business school) are typically worked very hard on low-discretion tasks that still require a high degree of accuracy. They might also get to see clients now and again. She was in the business that hawked products to super rich clients and appears to have done some modeling, but she was a LONG way away from derivatives operations, particularly the parts that dealt with institutional clients and the firm’s risk management. In other words, she’s highly unlikely to have observed much if any tradecraft that would be relevant to her CFTC role.
And if you read her own description of her activiites since 2008, as Chief of Staff for Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, she’s done perilous little on finance matters. Nasiripour confirms:
The president is effectively dismissing Gary Gensler, the ex-Goldman partner who headed theCommodities Futures Trading Commission. Gensler used his post at a secondary financial regulator to push for reforms. It was his office that blew the Libor scandal wide open by taking referrals from British regulators seriously (by contrast, Geithner, who heard about widespread, deliberate mismarking in 2008, passed the buck to the Bank of England). Gensler has also been making himself unpopular by taking the view that swap dealers, which includes foreign branches of US banks and parties that conduct business with US parties, must comply with Dodd Frank. AsAutomated Trader noted in April:
“As the CFTC completes the cross-border guidance,” Gensler said, “I believe it’s critical that Dodd-Frank swaps reform applies to transactions entered into by branches of US institutions offshore, between guaranteed affiliates offshore, and for hedge funds that are incorporated offshore but operate in the US.”He’s also made himself more of a threat than most regulators via his willingness to get into the weeds of regulatory language. One of the ways banks and large corporations get their way today is that legislation is seldom specific enough to serve as a guideline for regulators, who need to develop detailed rules. Lobbyists swarm over this process like locusts, both by organizing their clients’ allies to weigh in against tougher rules, and by insinuating themselves deeply enough in the process that they provide the text for the rules, which is often adopted wholesale by the regulator. So someone like Gensler who was willing to insert himself in this process was a considerable impediment to the banks’ usual route for quietly getting their way.
In a speech before the US Chamber of Commerce, he added: “Where there are comparable and comprehensive home country rules abroad, we can look to substituted compliance, but the transactions would still be covered.”
Gensler has made strict adherence to Dodd-Frank a centrepiece of his swaps market reform campaign, although his initial stance generated considerable pushback from marketparticipants and foreign regulators alike.
In his latest speech, he repeated his concern about risk overseas coming back to the United States.
“During a default, risk knows no geographic border,” Gensler said. “If a run starts in one part of a modern financial institution, whether it’s here or offshore, the risk comes back to our shores. That was true with AIG, which ran most of its swaps business out of the London neighborhood Mayfair. It was also true at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Bear Stearns and Long-Term Capital Management.”
Shahien Nasiripour at the Huffington Post describes how Gensler is being ousted for his position on swaps regulation, which was coming to a head in international meetings starting June 20, with a July 12 deadline looming. The industry was pushing for the usual “race to the bottom” approach, since the Dodd Frank provisions are more stringent than overseas requirments (the spin, of course, was that Gensler was acting unilaterally, as opposed to implementing what Congress mandated). Gensler faces varying degrees of resistance from three of his four fellow commissioners. International regulators were apparently also unhappy with Gensler’s tough stand, to the point where they were complaining to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
Even if Obama fails in fast-tracking his chosen replacement, Amanda Renteria, Gensler’s lame-duck status will considerably weaken his ability to arm-twist the fence-sitters among his colleagues.
And Renteria is a simply pathetic choice. Oh, she’s got a very appealing personal story, having worked her way up from a very disadvantaged background, a child of migrant workers who made her way to Stanford and later Harvard Business School. But there’s nothing in her background that qualifies her to act either as a senior regulator or as the head of a large operation (the CFTC has over 400 employees). This leap in responsibilities is tantamount to taking a promising law firm associate and making them the head of a large law practice. You’d never do that if you cared about the health of the firm. A move like this looks an awful lot like an effort not just to sideline Gensler’s push on swaps regulation, but to render the CFTC incompetent over time.
Renteria’s knowledge of finance appears to consist of having worked right after college for a few years at Goldman. She served as an analyst in the then investment bank’s Wealth Management Division. Analysts (the role between college and business school) are typically worked very hard on low-discretion tasks that still require a high degree of accuracy. They might also get to see clients now and again. She was in the business that hawked products to super rich clients and appears to have done some modeling, but she was a LONG way away from derivatives operations, particularly the parts that dealt with institutional clients and the firm’s risk management. In other words, she’s highly unlikely to have observed much if any tradecraft that would be relevant to her CFTC role.
And if you read her own description of her activiites since 2008, as Chief of Staff for Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, she’s done perilous little on finance matters. Nasiripour confirms:
Renteria has little experience in financial regulation. Congressional aides who worked on the 2010 overhaul of financial rules known as Dodd-Frank said she played a bit role in formulating the law.Jesse charitably writes:
She might turn out to be a highly effective regulator despite her lack of practical experience in financial regulation. That would be a nice change of pace for a generally docile and Big Finance compliant administration. Let’s see what she has to say. But I am not hopeful given the Obama crew’s abysmal track record in financial reform and ‘change you can believe in.’Renteria will be scripted well enough to sail through confirmation hearings. But she’s utterly lacking in the experience needed to even begin to do her job, let alone stand up to pressure from big banks or parse their legalistic legerdemain. Even if her intentions are the best, it will be easy to steamroll her. The fact that Obama would nominate someone who is not even remotely up to the role shows that he’s not bothering to hide that he’s handing the store over to corporate interests.
Obama names Susan Rice new NSA, Samantha Power as U.N. ambassador
President Barack Obama reshuffled his national security team on Wednesday, as he moved United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice to the White House and nominated Samantha Power to take her place in New York.
“This team of people has been extraordinarily dedicated to America. They have made America safer. They have made America’s values live in corners of the world that are crying out for our support and our leadership,” Obama said in a Rose Garden ceremony. “I could not be prouder of these three individuals.”
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Obama’s selection of Rice to succeed National Security Adviser Tom Donilon is latest in a series of defiant appointments likely to rile Republicans and fire up Democrats.
Rice had been a leading contender to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, but withdrew herself from consideration in December after Republicans sharply criticized her public statements following the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi. Her new role does not require Senate confirmation.
“I am absolutely thrilled that she’ll be … at my side leading my national security team in my second term,” Obama said of Rice. “Susan understands that there’s no substitute for American leadership. She is at once passionate and pragmatic. I think everybody understands Susan is a fierce champion for justice and human dignity, but she’s also mindful that we have to exercise our power wisely and deliberately.”
Power, an anti-genocide activist and author who won a Pulitzer Prize for “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” will have to face a Senate confirmation process. Obama urged lawmakers to confirm her “without delay.”
Power, the president said, has “been a relentless advocate for American interests and values, building partnerships on behalf of democracy and human rights, fighting the scourge of anti-Semitism and combating human trafficking.”
The appointments of Rice and Power not only represent the ascension of women to top roles on Obama’s national security team, but the rise of two officials who have made human rights a priority — at a time when the U.S. faces an agonizing decisions over Syria where President Bashar al-Assad has killed tens of thousands of civilians.
People close to Obama said early Wednesday that they expected Republicans on the Hill to continue their anti-Rice drumbeat, though they have no authority to stop her nomination — the position is one of the few at the senior level that requires no Senate confirmation.
They also predicted that Power’s confirmation hearings would likely become a forum for criticism of Rice and Clinton — a battle Obama, who was embittered by the attacks against Rice to an extent unmatched by nearly any other episode in his fight-filled presidency, is eager to engage in.
Some conservatives, particularly on the House side, did respond quickly — and negatively — to the Rice pick.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), one of the administration’s harshest critics on the Benghazi attacks, tweeted: “Judgement is key to national security matters. That alone should disqualify Susan Rice from her appointment. #benghazi #BadChoice.”
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