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UA graduate Morell wins praise, is named director of intelligence
By Bob Dyer
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
If the Central Intelligence Agency screws up another weapons-of-mass-destruction report, we'll know exactly where to lay the blame.
At the feet of one of our own.
Michael Morell — born and raised in Cuyahoga Falls, a graduate of the University of Akron — has been named the CIA's top intelligence analyst.
CIA Director Mike Hayden said Wednesday that Morell will become director for intelligence on May 5.
Morell has spent the last year and a half in the agency's third-highest position, associate deputy director. That job was created in June 2006 after the CIA was placed beneath the director of national intelligence.
This job returns him to his roots — analysis, rather than internal administration. He has spent most of his career analyzing information in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, and that's the type of work he prefers.
But Hayden praised Morell's ability as an administrator.
''Michael has sharpened the agency's day-to-day administration with his passion, energy and critical thinking,'' he said in a news release. ''Perhaps more than anyone, he has made real the ideas of Strategic Intent, our blueprint for CIA's future.''
Morell, 49, also knows his way around the White House. When President George W. Bush first moved in, it was Morell who delivered the daily briefings.
Married with three children, Morell grew up just like any other Akron-area resident, hanging out at the city pool in the Falls, playing baseball, watching the Browns and Indians, working as an usher at the old Coliseum. He had no clue he would wind up playing a central role in the world's biggest spy agency.
Neither did his family. His sister, Karen Gaone, a nurse at Akron City Hospital, once said that her brother was clueless as a youngster:
''One day he wanted to be a garbage man, the next day he wanted to be a brain surgeon. So it was anybody's guess. But when he said he was moving to Washington and had a job with the CIA, that was the last thing I expected.''
He had sent a resume at the suggestion of a friend. When he went for an interview, he came away impressed with the agency's mission and approach.
The CIA financed his postgraduate work at Georgetown University, where he earned a master's degree in economics and finished the coursework for his doctorate.
Morell replaces John Kringen, who, in the often-sketchy public wording of the CIA, ''will move to a senior intelligence community post outside the Washington area.''
Probably not Akron.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
If the Central Intelligence Agency screws up another weapons-of-mass-destruction report, we'll know exactly where to lay the blame.
Get the full article here.
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