Deputy Director of the C.I.A. Michael J. Morrell, retiring after 33 years at the agency, will be replaced by Avril D. Haines, top lawyer at the National Security Council.
Haines, 43, will be the first woman in the agency’s second highest leadership position, reports the New York Times. Though Haines is not an intelligence professional, she has been very involved in intelligence programs in her two years at the White House.
John O. Brennan, who has served as C.I.A. director since March, made the announcement on Wednesday. He reportedly got to know Haines well in his previous position as President Obama’s counterterrorism advisor.
“She knows more about covert action than anyone in the U.S. government outside of the CIA,” Brennan said of Haines in an interview, reports the Washington Post.
“She has participated in virtually every Deputies and Principals Committee meeting over the past two years and chairs the Lawyers’ Group that reviews the Agency’s most sensitive programs,” he said in a statement.
Morrell, 54, has been deputy director for three years and served as acting chief twice, according to CNN. He was considered to take over the director position after David Petraeus resigned last year in the wake of an affair with his biographer.
“I want to and I need to devote more attention to my family,” commented Morrell, who has three college-age children, on his impending retirement.
Image: Twitter
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