- OPEN SOURCETuesday, January 15, 2013
By JEFF STEIN
William Colby, a lifetime covert CIA operator who ascended to the
leadership of the agency during its troubled 1970s, once said that the
ideal spy had a “face a waiter would forget.”
Mike Sulick probably qualifies, on several counts. He spent decades in the shadows, from the back alleys of the Cold War to the executive suites of the CIA. But unless you’re an intelligence insider, or a member of one of the oversight committees in Congress, you’ve probably never heard of him.
Only rarely has his name gotten into the press. Most prominently in 2004, Sulick told one of the right-wingers who arrived with Porter Goss to run the agency to go to hell. The aide then demanded that Sulick be fired, but his boss, another longtime covert operative named Steve Kappes, refused. Both men quit--and both returned to the agency in triumph in 2006 after the right-wingers were expelled. From 2007 to 2010 Sulick was chief of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the home of the spies.
All of which would seem to make Sulick the perfect author of a book called “Spying in America.” But don’t expect any big revelations, backbiting, or tales of his own derring-do. The book’s subtitle is “Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War.” And a virtual textbook it is, by a pro's pro.
Sulick’s point is a simple one: Whether you approve or not, whatever your thoughts about the CIA's record, espionage has played a vital role in the foreign and military policies of the United States and its enemies. The failure of our spies -- and theirs -- can turn victory into defeat.
Sulick was expected to elaborate on these themes in his appearance Tuesday at the International Spy Museum in Washington.
No doubt, however, the legendary operative will get questions about “Zero Dark 30,” the controversial movie that depicts torture as a key element in getting Osama bin Laden.
If his past utterances are any guide, Sulick will carefully hedge his answer, noting that he wasn’t at the CIA when bin Laden was liquidated.
But he will also likely join those who say torture is overrated.
In March 2010, Sulick said that the spy agency had seen no fall-off in intelligence since waterboarding was banned by the Obama administration.
"I don’t think we’ve suffered at all from an intelligence standpoint," Sulick told students and some faculty members at Fordham University, his alma mater, on March 25. "But I don’t want to talk about [it from] a legal, moral or ethical standpoint."
As I reported in my Washington Post column at the time, Sulick said it was tough for any U.S. agencies dealing with terrorism to balance security and civil liberties, according to the university’s news service.
He added: "We have to find some way to achieve that balance. We have to find the common ground between maintaining our values and safeguarding Americans."
No one's going to argue with that.
Mike Sulick probably qualifies, on several counts. He spent decades in the shadows, from the back alleys of the Cold War to the executive suites of the CIA. But unless you’re an intelligence insider, or a member of one of the oversight committees in Congress, you’ve probably never heard of him.
Only rarely has his name gotten into the press. Most prominently in 2004, Sulick told one of the right-wingers who arrived with Porter Goss to run the agency to go to hell. The aide then demanded that Sulick be fired, but his boss, another longtime covert operative named Steve Kappes, refused. Both men quit--and both returned to the agency in triumph in 2006 after the right-wingers were expelled. From 2007 to 2010 Sulick was chief of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the home of the spies.
All of which would seem to make Sulick the perfect author of a book called “Spying in America.” But don’t expect any big revelations, backbiting, or tales of his own derring-do. The book’s subtitle is “Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War.” And a virtual textbook it is, by a pro's pro.
Sulick’s point is a simple one: Whether you approve or not, whatever your thoughts about the CIA's record, espionage has played a vital role in the foreign and military policies of the United States and its enemies. The failure of our spies -- and theirs -- can turn victory into defeat.
Sulick was expected to elaborate on these themes in his appearance Tuesday at the International Spy Museum in Washington.
No doubt, however, the legendary operative will get questions about “Zero Dark 30,” the controversial movie that depicts torture as a key element in getting Osama bin Laden.
If his past utterances are any guide, Sulick will carefully hedge his answer, noting that he wasn’t at the CIA when bin Laden was liquidated.
But he will also likely join those who say torture is overrated.
In March 2010, Sulick said that the spy agency had seen no fall-off in intelligence since waterboarding was banned by the Obama administration.
"I don’t think we’ve suffered at all from an intelligence standpoint," Sulick told students and some faculty members at Fordham University, his alma mater, on March 25. "But I don’t want to talk about [it from] a legal, moral or ethical standpoint."
As I reported in my Washington Post column at the time, Sulick said it was tough for any U.S. agencies dealing with terrorism to balance security and civil liberties, according to the university’s news service.
"If you're a civil servant in any agency dealing with national security issues, you have to grapple with these conflicts," said Sulick, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fordham in Russian studies and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. He joined the CIA in 1980."It’s not easy,” Sulick said. “You’re faced with defending the public trust and are often faced with difficult decisions that affect the public good. Sometimes there are merits on both sides."
He added: "We have to find some way to achieve that balance. We have to find the common ground between maintaining our values and safeguarding Americans."
No one's going to argue with that.
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