Jose Rodriguez (intelligence)

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Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr. is a senior U.S. government official who is the current Director of the National Clandestine Service (D/NCS) of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He was the last to serve as the Agency's Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) before that position was upgraded to D/NCS.

[edit] Background

Rodriguez is originally from Puerto Rico.

[edit] Military service

Rodriguez served as military attache to the U.S. Embassy in Argentina from 1994-1996. There is speculation that Rodriguez was also working for the CIA at the time.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] CIA career

From 1996 to 1998, Rodriguez was CIA Station chief in Bogotá, Colombia and was instrumental in confirming the complicity of then-president of Columbia Ernesto Samper with the Cali cocaine cartel.^{[citation needed]} Rodriguez's tenure in Columbia was tainted by a 1997 incident in which he apparently tried to help a friend get out of a drug-related arrest.[1] He transferred to Mexico City in 1999 where he was the Station chief responsible for approximately 500 CIA assets operating there. Rodriguez was later appointed Chief of the Latin America Division for the Agency's Directorate of Operations. In May 2002, Rodriguez assumed the post of Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center (CTC).

In 2004, Rodriguez advised the organizers of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, including the chief organizer, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, on security matters and counterterrorism.

[edit] DDO appointment

In November 2004, Rodriguez succeeded Stephen Kappes to become the Deputy Director for Operations. Soon after his appointment was announced in the media, Rodriguez seemed to have dropped out of the public spotlight and the Agency never reported any reassignment for him. This is likely in keeping with the Agency's policy of not publicly naming the current head of the DO for security reasons.[2] The assumption is that Rodriguez continues in his capacity as the head of CIA clandestine operations, now as Director of the National Clandestine Service. In this expanded role, Rodriguez is the chief of all human intelligence gathering (HUMINT) conducted by the U.S. government, including other agencies besides the CIA.

[edit] NCS management

On February 7, 2006, Rodriguez fired Robert Grenierm his successor as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, for not being "aggressive" enough in dealing with terrorists.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• "Destabilizing the CIA," The Nation, November 24, 2004
• Expose article about Rodriguez and CIA policies regarding the War on Terror