“This is more like an alarming job application by Morell. He would love to have a senior position in any Clinton’s administration — if she were to be elected — and so he is saying what he thinks she would like to hear about how America should deal with the situation in the Middle East.” Annie Machon

Michael Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, appeared on the “Charlie Rose Show” recently with a “Strategic Plan” to end Syria’s civil war. Follow us on Twitter:@INTEL_TODAY

In that interview, Michael Morell suggested that the US should “covertly” kill Russians and Iranians in Syria.

Morell’s Grand Plan for Syria has attracted quite a bit of criticism from former CIA analysts. (We have already presented the views of Ray McGovern and Philip Giraldi. Others, such as Larry Adams and John Kiriakou, have expressed similar opinions.)

In the US, Constitutional Lawyer Bruce Fein has also harshly criticized Morell’s Plan for its amateurism. [ Is this the best the CIA has to offer? ]

“Mike Morell owlishly explained the solution as “a transition of power from [President] Assad to a … transitional government that represents all of the Syrian people. That is only going to happen if Assad wants it to happen, if Russia wants it to happen, if Iran wants it to happen.” The former deputy director said the Morrell Plan is urgent because, “[t]he Syrian civil war has to end, and the reason it has to end is because It is feeding extremism in Iraq and Syria.” “If Mr. Morell is the best the CIA has to offer, the agency should be replaced with a subscription to The New York Times at a savings of approximately $15 billion annually.” “The Morell Plan exemplifies the sophomoric nature of the CIA’s prescriptions which caused Lichenstein’s despair. The plan is clueless about what a transitional government representing all the Syrian people would look like and how it would be selected. Will the Syrian people be represented along religious, tribal, ethnic, geographic, or other lines? Will representatives be elected on a one-person, one-vote principle, and will the millions of Syrian refugees be permitted to vote? Will the executive be plural or singular? Will there be an interim constitution to govern the transitional government? How long will the transition government serve and what comes after the transition? Why does Mr. Morell believe a Syrian transitional government will end the civil war when transitional governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Libya did nothing to end civil wars in their respective countries?”

Russia and Iran have suggested that Morell should seek the professional help of a good shrink. Levan Dzhagaryan –Moscow’s ambassador to Tehran — told the Tehran Times:

“I am very worried about the health condition of this person [Richard Shirref] and I recommend that he see a psychotherapist. This holds true of the ex-CIA official [Mike Morell] whose interview was published by the CBS news agency.”

Former MI5 officer Annie Machon

Today, we will listen to the view expressed by a former MI5 officer: Annie Machon.

Annie Machon (born 1968) is a former MI5 intelligence officer who left the Service at the same time as David Shayler, her partner at the time, to help him blow the whistle about alleged criminality within the intelligence agencies. By doing this, they had to give up their careers, go on the run across Europe (August 1997), live in hiding for a year, and then spend the next two years in exile in Paris. They, and many of their friends, family, supporters and journalists, claim to have been intimidated, and some of them were arrested and put on trial. A death threat was announced against her on a Middle Eastern radio station. In 2005, Machon published her first book, Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers: MI5, MI6 and the Shayler Affair in which she offers criticism of MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service based on her observations of the two whilst in the employment of MI5. [ WIKIPEDIA ]

PS: By the way, I remind you that Mike Morell is widely regarded as a top choice candidate for heading the CIA IF Clinton were to win the election.

INTERVIEW

REFERENCES

Using Our Intelligence — Annie Machon

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Former MI5 Annie Machon Discusses Morell’s “Strategy” in Syria