Black, Cofer Xe

===

eginning in May of 2001, Tenet and Black launched an initiative called “the Blue Sky paper” and pitched it to Bush’s  national security team. The CIA called for a joint CIA  and military campaign to end the Al Qaeda threat by “getting into the Afghan sanctuary, launching a paramilitary operation, creating a bridge with Uzbekistan.”According to Tenet, the Bush administration said they wanted to back-burner the plan.“And the word back,” claims Tenet, “‘was ‘we’re not quite ready to consider this. We don’t want the clock to start ticking,’” meaning they didn’t want a paper trail.According to Black, Bush’s national security team was living in the past.“I think they were mentally stuck back eight years [before]. They were used to terrorists being Euro-lefties—they drink champagne by night, blow things up during the day, how bad can this be? And it was a very difficult sell to communicate the urgency to this,” he explained.In July, after receiving more confirmations of upcoming attacks, Tenet and Cofer demanded an immediate meeting with Rice.“Rich [Blee] started by saying, ‘There will be significant terrorist attacks against the United States in the coming weeks or months. The attacks will be spectacular. They may be multiple. Al Qaeda’s intention is the destruction of the United States.’”  Tenet remembered.According to  Tenet, “[Condi said:] ‘What do you think we need to do?’ Black responded by slamming his fist on the table, and saying, ‘We need to go on a wartime footing now!’”When asked “what happened?” after the meeting, Black said nothing much.“Yeah. What did happen?” Black said. “To me it remains incomprehensible still. I mean, how is it that you could warn senior people so many times and nothing actually happened? It’s kind of like The Twilight Zone.”In her memoir, Rice mentioned the meeting but found it indistinguishable from other meetings she had with intelligence officials because they were discussing threats “every day.” alternet

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BW bk:

-j cofer black cia zambia, somalia, s africa during apartheid

frustrated by rules. body bag talk, hired pvt; fired for tora bora leak> hired for ctc? quit  to BW

===

srcwtch:

Ambassador J. Cofer Black was the Coordinator in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/U.S._Department_of_State" title="U.S. Department of State">U.S. Department of State</a> from December 2002 to November 2004. "Black was sworn in on December 3, 2002, as the State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism with the rank of Ambassador at Large.

<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/J._Cofer_Black#" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>] </div>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/J._Cofer_Black#Overview">1 Overview</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/J._Cofer_Black#Corporate_Positions">2 Corporate Positions</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/J._Cofer_Black#Presidential_Candidate_Advisory_Role">3 Presidential Candidate Advisory Role</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/J._Cofer_Black#Related_SourceWatch_Resources">4 Related SourceWatch Resources</a></li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>Overview</h2>

"On behalf of the Secretary of State, Ambassador Black represents the Department on the Counterterrorism Security Group. His office plays a leading role on the Department of State's counterterrorism task forces organized to coordinate responses to international terrorist incidents. Ambassador Black's responsibilities include coordinating U.S. Government efforts to improve counterterrorism cooperation with foreign governments, including the policy and planning of the Department's Antiterrorism Training Assistance Program.

"Ambassador Black has had a distinguished 28-year career in the Directorate of Operations at the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Central_Intelligence_Agency" title="Central Intelligence Agency">Central Intelligence Agency</a>. Prior to joining the State Department Ambassador Black was the Director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center. In this capacity he served as the CIA Director's Special Assistant for Counterterrorism as well as the National Intelligence Officer for Counterterrorism.

"During his CIA career, Ambassador Black served six foreign tours in field management positions. In 1995, Ambassador 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.

"In addition to numerous exceptional performance awards and meritorious citations, Ambassador Black received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/George_H.W._Bush" title="George H.W. Bush" class="mw-redirect">George H.W. Bush</a> Medal for Excellence, and the Exceptional Collector Award for 1994.

"Ambassador Black was born in Stamford, Connecticut and received his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from the University of Southern California in International Relations."

Source: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/15367.htm">Department of State Biography: J. Cofer Black</a>.

<h2>Corporate Positions</h2>

In February of 2005, Cofer Black took a vice-president position at the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/PMC" title="PMC" class="mw-redirect">private military corporation</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Blackwater_USA" title="Blackwater USA" class="mw-redirect">Blackwater USA</a>.

In February of 2007, Black merged his own company, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Black_Group&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="The Black Group (page does not exist)">The Black Group</a> with two others to form <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC" title="Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC">Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC</a>, an commercial-inltelligence company which services are meant to "bring CIA-style intelligence services to Fortune 500" companies. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-20-2007/0004530623&EDATE=">[1]</a>

<h2>Presidential Candidate Advisory Role</h2>

On April 27, 2007, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mitt_Romney" title="Mitt Romney">Mitt Romney's</a> campaign announced Cofer Black would assume the position of Senior Adviser for counterterrorism and national security issues for Romney's presidential campaign. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/Cofer_Black_Joins_Romney_Campaign">[2]</a>

<h2>Related SourceWatch Resources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Blackwater_USA" title="Blackwater USA" class="mw-redirect">Blackwater USA</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC" title="Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC">Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Government-industry_revolving_door" title="Government-industry revolving door">government-industry revolving door</a></li>

</ul>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:War/peace" title="Category:War/peace">War/peace</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Terrorism" title="Category:Terrorism">Terrorism</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Intelligence_community" title="Category:Intelligence community">Intelligence community</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Private_military_corporations" title="Category:Private military corporations">Private military corporations</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

===

. Cofer Black. A former vice-chairman for the private security company Blackwater USA, Black has been involved with the Romney campaign <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=95556#axzz1tAqZ5VID">since 2007</a> [20], when he came on as a senior adviser on counterterrorism and national security.

Writing in the Daily Beast, the right-leaning national security reporter <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/11/meet-mitt-romney-s-trusted-envoy-to-the-dark-side-cofer-black.html">Eli Lake explained that Black was Romney’s</a> [21] “trusted envoy to the murky world of the U.S. intelligence community who is also treated like a close political aide.” According to Lake’s reporting, Black sets up intelligence briefings for Romney from former CIA officers, and used his contacts in the Egyptian and Israeli intelligence worlds to debrief Romney on events in the region.

As Lake notes, Black’s claim to fame as a CIA officer is that he did “much of the street work” that led to the apprehension of Carlos the Jackal. He was part of the CIA team that tracked bin Laden in the 1990s. Black, a 28-year CIA veteran who directed the agency’s counter-terror center from 1999-2002, also served during the Bush administration as State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, and resigned shortly after Bush’s 2004 reelection.

According to Jeremy Scahill’s book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Black played “an essential role in crafting and implementing the Bush administration’s counter-terror policies.” Specifically, Black played an integral part in the use of “extraordinary renditions,” the euphemism for the Bush administration’s program of kidnapping alleged terrorists and spiriting them off to secret CIA prisons around the world to be tortured.

In 2005, Black joined the Blackwater USA team, the well-connected private security company that has been derided as a “mercenary” group, as vice chairman. He stayed on until 2008, a year after Blackwater agents committed the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, an event that resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians.

Black's influence on Romney's views on torture is clear. In a 2007 debate, Romney was asked whether water-boarding was torture. His response was noncommittal, but noted that he gets advice on those questions “from Cofer Black, who is a person who was responsible for counter-terrorism in the CIA for some 35 years.” In November 2011, <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-12/politics/politics_gop-cbs-debate_1_waterboarding-foreign-policy-gop-candidates?_s=PM:POLITICS">Romney advisers made clear</a> [22] that the candidate does not believe that water-boarding is torture. alternet

<h3>CIA-Pentagon-Blackwater <a title="Government-industry revolving door" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Government-industry_revolving_door">"revolving door"</a></h3>

"A number of senior CIA and Pentagon officials have taken top jobs at Blackwater, including firm vice chairman <a title="J. Cofer Black" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J._Cofer_Black">Cofer Black</a>, who was the Bush Administration's top counterterrorism official at the time of the <a class="mw-redirect" title="9/11" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=9/11">9/11</a> attacks (and who famously said in 2002, 'There was before 9/11 and after 9/11. After 9/11, the gloves came off')," Ken Silverstein wrote September 12, 2006, in Harper's Magazine.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40">[41]</a>

In fall 2005, <a title="Robert Richer" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Richer">Robert Richer</a> "resigned from the post of Associate Deputy Director of Operations; he immediately took a job as Blackwater's Vice President of Intelligence. Richer is a former head of the CIA's Near East Division and long served in Amman, where, for a period beginning in 1999, he held the post of station chief. For years he was the agency's point man with Jordan's King Abdullah, with whom he developed an extraordinarily close relationship," Silverstein wrote.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40">[41]</a>

Also, Silverstein wrote in September 2006, "there's talk at the agency that Blackwater is also aggressively recruiting <a title="José Rodriguez" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jos%C3%A9_Rodriguez">José Rodriguez</a>, the CIA's current top spy as director of the <a title="National Clandestine Service" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Clandestine_Service">National Clandestine Service</a>. Rodriguez has a number of former agency friends at Blackwater, most notably <a class="new" title="Rick Prado (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Prado&action=edit&redlink=1">Rick Prado</a>, with whom he served in Latin America and who is now Blackwater's Vice President of Special Programs."<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40">[41]</a>

Recent Cofer Black start-up and merger, <a title="Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC">Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC</a>, is a merger of three companies, <a class="new" title="The Black Group (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Black_Group&action=edit&redlink=1">The Black Group</a>, <a class="new" title="The Terrorism Research Center, Inc. (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Terrorism_Research_Center,Inc.&action=edit&redlink=1">The Terrorism Research Center, Inc.</a> and <a class="new" title="Technical Defense (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Technical_Defense&action=edit&redlink=1">Technical Defense</a>. TIS very well may fall outside the legal corporate domain of Blackwater, however two of the top executives at TIS, Cofer Black and <a class="new" title="Enrique Prado (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Enrique_Prado&action=edit&redlink=1">Enrique Prado</a> still hold positions at Blackwater, and Robert Richer recently left his position at Blackwater to take on responsibilities at TIS. As well, it should be noted that one of the three companies merged to create TIS, The Terrorism Research Center, is owned by Blackwater founder Erik Prince.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-41">[42]</a>

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worked for Monsanto ~ greens