Cofer Black

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Cofer Black, vice chairman of army-for-hire contractor, Blackwater USA, is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s national security advisor. It raises the remote possibility that a mercenary, a believer in outsourced war, could wind up as a cabinet member in charge of national security affairs.



CIA career up to 1999

At the CIA, Black trained for the clandestine service and volunteered for Africa due to his childhood experiences there. During his CIA career, Black served a total of six foreign tours in field management positions.

Initially, he worked as a case officer in Lusaka, Zambia during the Rhodesian War next door. He transferred to Somalia for two years during a Cold War proxy conflict between Ethiopians and Somalis in the sands of the Ogaden desert. He worked in South Africa during the National Party government's's war against guerrilla movements opposing the apartheid system. While assigned to Kinshasa, Zaire, Black was involved in the Reagan Administration's covert action program to arm anti-communist guerrillas in neighboring Angola.

In 1993, Black transferred from London, England to Khartoum, Sudan, where he served as CIA Station Chief until 1995. This was at a low point in U.S.-Sudanese relations, particularly over the latter country's sponsorship of terror and the harboring of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Black oversaw the collection of human intelligence on terrorist cells and support structures, and toward the end of his tenure, he was targeted by Al Qaeda for assassination. Black was also responsible for the collection of intelligence that directly led to the 1994 capture of the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal.
In 1995, Black was named the Task Force Chief in the Near East and South Asia Division. From June 1998 through June 1999, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Latin America Division.<2>

]Director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, 1999-2002

In June 1999 CIA chief George Tenet named Cofer Black director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center (CTC).<3> In this capacity, Black served as the CIA Director's Special Assistant for Counterterrorism as well as the National Intelligence Officer for Counterterrorism.<4> Black's promotion was a part of Tenet's grand "Plan" for dealing with al-Qaeda. Black was the operational chief in charge of this effort. Tenet also put "Richard", one of his own assistants, in charge of the CTC's bin Laden tracking unit.

Black still headed the CTC at the time of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofer_Black

Meanwhile, Blackwater is deep in the camp of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Cofer Black is Romney's senior adviser on counterterrorism. At the recent CNN/YouTube debate, when Romney refused to call waterboarding torture, he said, "I'm not going to specify the specific means of what is and what is not torture so that the people that we capture will know what things we're able to do and what things we're not able to do. And I get that advice from Cofer Black, who is a person who was responsible for counterterrorism in the CIA for some thirty-five years." That was an exaggeration of Black's career at the CIA (he was there twenty-eight years and head of counterterrorism for only three), but a Romney presidency could make Blackwater's business under Bush look like a church bake sale.

.....

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071224/scahill

[bobthedrummer]

1. "Why isn't J. Cofer Black a household name? He should have recognition with we that know our BFEE"

(archived-started 10-3-2007)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1967405

[Orwellian_Ghost]

3. Essential info

Public Relations

On October 11, 2007, Blackwater announced their withdrawal from IPOA. According to the Wall Street Journal, a Blackwater spokeswoman said, “We have decided to take a hiatus from the association. We, like many other organizations engaged in this type of work, are pursuing other aspects and methods of industry outreach and governance."<1><2>

Blackwater's immediate departure from IPOA may have been to avoid an internal investigation from the trade association. <3>

Blackwater has started up their own organization, The Blackwater Peace and Stability Operations Institute, <4> and taken up the services of a well known public relations company.

The law firms representing Blackwater, McDermott Will & Emery and Crowell & Moring, have hired public relations giant Burson-Marsteller. Robert Tappan, one of the Burson-Marsteller executives working on the Blackwater case,<47> was formerly the deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the State Department. While in this capacity, he spent six months in Baghdad as the director of strategic communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority. <48>
According to PRWeek, Burson subsidiary, BKSH & Associates, was hired through an internal connection at Blackwater to help with Erik Prince's October 2, 2007 testimony to Congress and that this "temporary engagement has ended". <49>

Executives

Erik Prince, Chairman of the Board
Joseph E. Schmitz (former Inspector General, Office of the Secretary of Defense, under Donald Rumsfeld)<11>
J. Cofer Black, Vice Chairman of the Board (former Coordinator in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State, under Secretary of State Colin Powell)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA

[bobthedrummer]

4. "What questions would you like to put to Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince, next week?"

(archived-started 9-29-2007, and EP was co-founder along with Cofer Black)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1942542

select post from that parent thread
"Some useful links to help formulate questions for Mr. Prince to respond to"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1942542#1942667

[frogcycle]

2. holy batshit, batman!

"National security advisor?"
makes as much sense as rudy recommending his chauffer for Homeland Security, I spose.

But do none of these clowns have even the vaguest clue that this is not a pickup game of roundball, where you gather your best buds and try to thump everybody? That it is the most powerful country in the world, trying to share the globe with several billion people, many of whom are not nice, but most of whom are? That people with experience at something other than being a street cop or a mercenary soldier ought to be guiding policy on things like starting - and AVOIDING - wars?

Jiminy christmas, these people scare me. Frigging mafia is running the country.

[Make7]

5. A twenty-eight year career at the CIA.

Does that make him a "street cop or a mercenary soldier"?

- Make7