Robert Grenier (CIA)

Robert Grenier, a longtime CIA officer who served as the CIA's top counter-terrorism official for about a year, was fired from that position on 6 February 2006 by CIA director Porter Goss. [cite news|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/07/AR2006020700016.html|publisher=Washington Post|title=Top Counterterrorism Officer Removed Amid Turmoil at CIA|author=Gellman, Barton and Linzer, Dafna|date=February 7, 2006] In July 2006, Grenier joined Kroll, Inc., as Managing Director. [http://www.kroll.com/services/ifai/professionals/rgrenier/]

In 2001, Grenier was the CIA station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan, where he helped plan covert operations in support of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. In the summer of 2002 he was promoted to the chief of the Iraq Issues Group, where he helped coordinate covert operations in support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The London "Sunday Times" reported that Grenier lost his job with the CIA "because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as 'water boarding'." [cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2036182,00.html|publisher=Times Online|title=CIA chief sacked for opposing torture|author=Baxter, Sarah and Smith, Michael|date=February 12, 2006]

CIA leak case and Libby trial

In early 2006, Grenier was identified in court documents in connection with the ongoing CIA leak grand jury investigation and charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Grenier told Libby on June 11, 2003, one month before the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity, that Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and was involved in arranging Wilson's 2002 trip to Niger. [cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/420152p-354720c.html|publisher=New York Daily News|title=2 in CIA to testify Libby lied on leak|author=Meek, James Gordon|date=May 23, 2006] Libby claims to have forgotten about the conversation.

On January 24, 2006, Grenier testified in the trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, telling jurors Lewis Libby asked him for information about Joseph Wilson's investigatory trip to Niger on June 11, 2003, and that he reported back to Libby about Wilson's wife's involvement in the trip, as well as Wilson's wife's employment by the CIA, later on June 11th. Grenier did not, however, mention Plame's name to Libby, which appeared in a column by Robert Novak a month later.

Grenier testified that it was unusual to get a call from Libby, and unusual to be called out of a meeting with CIA director George Tenet to supply Libby with answers. Wilson was sent on the February 2002 investigatory mission by the CIA, Grenier said, because the Office of the Vice President wanted answers about reports of uranium purchases from Niger, although the State Department and INR were interested in the CIA's take as well. Grenier testified that later media reports about the leak (which suggested Libby may have originally learned about Plame a month later from journalists) prompted him to contact CIA lawyers about his earlier conversations with Libby. According to Grenier, Libby thanked him personally a few days later for the information about Wilson's trip, telling him it had been "useful." [cite news|url=http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/24/libby-liveblog-robert-grenier-testimony-one/|publisher=firedoglake.com|title=Robert Grenier testimony liveblogging, January 24, 2007|author=Wheeler, Marcy|date=January 24, 2007]

References

ee also

*Peter Bergen

External links

* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032802973.html? Like the Wild, Wild West. Plus Al-Qaeda.] Washington Post March 30 2008
* [http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-09-voa78.cfm Terrorism Experts Predict Long Hunt for Bin Laden] VOA April 9 2008