The CIA official who oversees President Biden’s daily briefing apparently has a disagreement between the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
In 2013, Morgan Muir, then a senior CIA analyst, played a key role in pleading for the CIA’s inaccurate demands to defend its torture program, Buzzfeed News first reported.
The Senate committee found, based on the CIA’s own report, that ‘improved interrogation techniques’ against terrorist suspects were ineffective, but Muir led a series of conflicting meetings where the CIA attacked these findings.
After Buzzfeed questioned the CIA about their findings on Muir’s role, an agency spokesman said Muir would not inform the president directly. The New York Times reported for the first time last week that Muir would inform the president directly, and that the agency did not explain the appointment.
The then committee pressured the CIA to release its internal report condemning the CIA’s interrogation techniques. After the 6,700-page report was published, Daniel Jones, Senate investigator and lead author of the report, said Muir continued to defend the value of the torture program, and the information the CIA later acknowledged was inaccurate. .
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Jones said Muir’s history should disqualify him from the new role as he could not be trusted “to convey accurate information.”
“I would not trust him,” Jones said.
CIA spokesman Timothy Barrett said Jones’ allegations were “unfounded” and described Muir as an exemplary career intelligence officer whose strength of character is unquestionable. “
Former Democratic senator Mark Udall, an outspoken critic of the CIA’s torture practices in light of the 2013 report, urged Biden not to be informed by anyone defending the practices.
“President Biden has put together a strong national security team, but he must have serious concerns about entrusting his presidential Daily Briefing to anyone who could help cover up this dark chapter in our country’s history,” Udall said in a statement to Buzzfeed said.
“I can testify that it is critical that intelligence agencies provide the President and other leaders with unbiased, factual and honest information. As we now know, the CIA and its leadership have been misleading the public, senators and Senate staff for years. “CIA’s systematic and brutal torture of detainees,” he continued.
Muir also served a short term for President George W. Bush for three years.
Amanda Schoch, director of the national intelligence spokeswoman, denied that Muir would work directly with Biden in the oval office.
“He is not the president’s shortest case because the term is widely understood, and there are no plans for him to be in the oval,” Schoch said.
Schoch said Muir will oversee the integration of the mission, or to coordinate the intelligence in various agencies. She said he would play a role in overseeing the content of the President’s Daily Letter, but the letters would likely be delivered through various “expert briefings”.
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Jones said Muir was involved in a number of “false allegations”, including when the CIA was successful in extracting information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a recognized mastermind behind the 9/1l attacks. The agency said Mohammed gave up information about another terrorist operator after being on water drills, but documents in the report showed that the CIA obtained Mohammed’s information before using torture.