"Flies-On-The-Eyeballs Guy" Heads Romney Counterterror Advisory Group

Thursday, September 13, 2007

MITT ROMNEY

I've held off on posting every time a candidate announces his advisory boards on this issue or that issue. But I raised my eyebrows when I saw that Cofer Black is the new chair of Mitt Romney's Counter-Terrorism Policy Advisory Group.

Other members include terror finance expert David Aufhauser, former Lieutenant General John "Soup" Campbell, Samuel Cole, a former defense analyst with the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis; Kent Lucken, a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service; John McClurg, a former CIA deputy branch chief and current Vice President of Honeywell Global Security; Larry Mefford, a 24-year veteran of the FBI; Ambassador Tibor Nagy, Jr.; Cal Temple, a former DIA manager and Executive Vice President of Total Intelligence Solutions; Ed Worthington, a 31 year veteran of the FBI.

The Romney campaign offers his bio, but I recognized his name from Bob Woodward's account:

Black, 52, a veteran covert operator, was one of the agency's legends, credited with helping in the 1994 capture of Carlos the Jackal, one of the most notorious international terrorists prior to bin Laden. Tall, well-dressed and almost hulking, Black was a bit of a throwback to the agency's earlier, more colorful days. ...
If Tenet had been businesslike in his presentation that morning, Black was theatrical in describing the effectiveness of covert action. Animated and enthusiastic about the plan's potential and the agency's capabilities, he kept popping up and down from his chair as he made his points, gesturing wildly, throwing paper onto the floor as he described putting forces on the ground in Afghanistan.
Black wanted the mission to begin as soon as possible, and he didn't have any doubt that it would succeed.
"You give us the mission," he said, "we can get 'em." At one point he threw his fist in the air.
"We'll rout 'em out," he said, echoing the president's public language about smoking out the terrorists from their caves.
"They'll have flies on their eyeballs," he said – an image of death that left a lasting impression with a number of war cabinet members. Black became known in Bush's inner circle as "the flies-on-the-eyeballs guy."

09/13 01:01 PM Share