Hard Measures by Jr. Jose A. Rodriguez

Author:Jr. Jose A. Rodriguez [Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Threshold Editions
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Having the weekend to think matters over did nothing to change Kappes’s and Sulick’s minds. They announced to their employees on Monday morning that that day would indeed be their last at the CIA. The announcement, although anticipated for a few days, hit the headquarters like a bombshell. I went upstairs to their offices on the seventh floor but found a line of well-wishers stretched far down the hall. There must have been several hundred people there to extend heartfelt farewells. The line was so long I eventually gave up and went back to work in CTC.

Waiting for me was a note to call Dusty right away. He pressed me for an answer to the question, would I accept the job that Kappes had just left? Dusty gave me the full sales treatment once again. I was torn. Signing on as the DDO probably meant committing to stay in government for another couple of years. Working with the Gosslings held little attraction, and I didn’t want to advance my career at the expense of the misfortune of two fine officers, Kappes and Sulick, who had gotten cross-threaded with them.

I asked Dusty what his plan B was. Nobody goes into a situation like this without an alternative course of action if your initial one won’t work. He admitted they did have a fallback plan, which was to bring back to the Agency a former senior operations officer who had retired some years before. Dusty gave me the name. It was someone who had been a fine officer back during the Cold War but a person totally unfamiliar with the environment we were operating in now. “This could be another personnel disaster,” I thought to myself. I told him that I needed to call my wife and discuss it with her. I went back to my office and placed the call. Patti was supportive, as always. We talked about the pros and cons but eventually I told her that I thought I owed it to the rank-and-file members of the clandestine service, particularly those who at that very moment were serving in war zones, to take the job. I couldn’t, in good faith, leave them without an experienced hand at the helm. Patti said she would support my decision no matter what.

I hung up and called Dusty to tell him I would take the job. “Great,” he said. “Now we just need to get you cleared.”

The approval process for being assigned the most senior jobs at the Agency involved a six-point check with different offices in the CIA, including the Office of Security and the Office of the Inspector General. The IG’s office reminded the seventh floor of my troubles eight years earlier, which had resulted in my being fired from the Latin America Division. For the next eight to ten hours it looked as if I was about to be told that I was not suitable for the position I had very reluctantly agreed to accept. Late that evening I got

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