James L. Pavitt (born February 19, 1946 - died December 22, 2022) was
Deputy Director for Operations
The deputy director of the CIA for operations is a senior United States government official in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency who serves as head of the Directorate of Operations. The position was established December 1, 1950 and from Janua ...
(DDO) for the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
from 23 June 1999 until July 12, 2004, when he resigned a day after
George Tenet. The CIA said the resignations was for personal reasons.
Background
Pavitt was born in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
and graduated from the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...
(B.A., 1968) in
Columbia, Missouri[Dana Priest, ''Retired Official Defends the CIA's Performance'']
Washington Post, November 5, 2004 as a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
.
After graduation, he was a National Defense Education Act fellow at
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...
(1969). He is currently a Principal of
The Scowcroft Group, an international business advisory firm,
[James L. Pavitt Bio]
Scowcroft Group and was formerly on the board of the
Association of Former Intelligence Officers
The Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), formerly known as the Association of Retired Intelligence Officers is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization founded in 1975 by David Atlee Phillips to counter widespread criticism ...
(AFIO).
He was married with two children (from a previous marriage) and resided in
McLean, Virginia
McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxi ...
.
His hobbies included collecting art, especially primitive American art.
Intelligence career
Pavitt served in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
from 1969-1971 as an
intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way ...
and was a legislative assistant with the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
from 1971 until 1973.
After joining the CIA, Pavitt was posted to Austria, Germany, Malaysia, and Luxembourg between 1976 and 1983.
[Vernon Loeb, ''Rebuilding Clandestine Operations'']
Washington Post, September 20, 1999 He was
Persona non grata, expelled (PNG'd) from
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
.
He was chief of station in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
(1983-1986).
[Jason Vest, ''Spy Versus Spy'']
The American Prospect, June 4, 2004 He served as a Branch Chief in the Africa Division.
[Valerie Plame Wilson, ''Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House'']
pp 353., Simon and Schuster, , 9781416583363, Oct 22, 2007 From 1990 to 1993, he served on the National Security Council team under
Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft (; March 19, 1925August 6, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer who was a two-time United States National Security Advisor, first under U.S. President Gerald Ford and then under George H. W. Bush. He served as Military As ...
as Senior Intelligence Advisor to President
George H. W. Bush.
[James L. Pavitt Biography, , Patriot Defense Group] After being assigned to work across the Agency operational/analytical divide in the
Directorate of Intelligence, he became the founder and first Chief of the
Directorate of Operation's ''Counterproliferation Division'' (CPD).
Gordon Oehler, then Chief of the Directorate of Intelligence's
Non-Proliferation Center, criticized this as being redundant and stepping on his turf. This was considered a specious critique by veteran Agency HUMINT Operations Officers, however, especially those who had been assigned under Oehler previously and realized that Oehler held HUMINT counterproliferation operations—indeed, covert operations in general—in considerable disdain. Pavitt hand picked operations officers, some of which were
Nonofficial Cover Officers (NOCs) including
Valerie Plame
Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer ...
, to staff the CPD.
In 1997 he was appointed Associate Deputy Director of Operations. He was Deputy Director of Operations from 1999 until his resignation in 2004.
In 2003, the CPD took down the nuclear black market being operated by
Abdul Qadeer Khan.
After September 11, 2001, Pavitt was responsible for sending
Special Activities Division
The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015. Within SAC there are two ...
teams to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
,
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
, and
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
to capture
Al Qaeda members. The first
Hellfire missiles fired from
drones were under his command. They were aimed at an
Al Qaeda convoy in
Sudan in which all occupants, including an American citizen, were killed.
In April 2004 he appeared before the
9/11 Commission.
The BBC called his 9/11 commission appearance 'unprecedented'.
The commission's report said that shortly after Bush's election, Pavitt told the President-elect that
Osama bin Laden was one of the gravest threats to the country. He also added that killing the
Al Qaeda leader would have an effect but not stop the threat posed by the terrorist organization.
When Bush put
Porter Goss
Porter Johnston Goss (; born November 26, 1938) is an American politician and government official who served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1989 until 2004, when he became the last Director of Central Intellig ...
in charge of the agency, Pavitt reportedly opposed the internal reorganizations announced by Goss, on the ground that they might "do damage to a strategic effort that has produced excellent work on terrorism and a variety of other important issues."
On June 4, 2004, he unexpectedly announced his retirement one day after
George Tenet. The CIA said Pavitt's decision was unconnected with Tenet's departure. Pavitt was succeeded by his deputy,
Stephen Kappes
Stephen R. Kappes (born August 22, 1951) was the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (DDCIA), until his resignation on April 14, 2010. He had served in the CIA since 1981, with a two-year hiatus. A career clandestine operations pro ...
.
On June 21, 2004, Pavitt delivered one of his last speeches as DDO to the Foreign Policy Association.
[''Remarks by Deputy Director for Operations James L. Pavitt at the Foreign Policy Association'']
June 21, 2004 He resigned in July 12, 2004, one day after of Tenet's resignation.
Pavitt is a recipient of the CIA's
Distinguished Intelligence Medal
The Distinguished Intelligence Medal is awarded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for performance of outstanding services or for achievement of a distinctly exceptional nature in a duty or responsibility.
Recipients
This list includes only ...
.
He is also a recipient of the CIA
Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal
The Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal is awarded by the Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of ...
, the CIA
Director’s Medal and the Donovan Award.
Post-CIA work
He is an advisor to the Patriot Defense Group, LLC,
to Olton Solutions Ltd. in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and to
The Scowcroft Group.
[Forbes Profile: James Pavitt](_blank)
Forbes, retrieved 2013-03-13 He is a director of
CACI International, Inc.
Criticism and controversy
Some former operations officers are critical of Pavitt, citing his four international postings over ten years in a 30-year career as insufficient experience for a Deputy Director of Operations.
The
Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture
The Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program is a report compiled by the bipartisan United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s Detent ...
found that Pavitt was told that rectal exams of at least two CIA prisoners had been conducted with "excessive force" but he took action to stop this behavior.
External links
Appointment of James L. Pavitt as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs June 24, 1992
''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', March 24, 2004
In photos: Counterterrorism officials testify on IT challenges- Dan Verton of ''
Computerworld'', April 16, 2004
Press Release: CIA Deputy Director for Operations Announces Retirement ODCI, McLean, VA. June 4, 2004
Ex-spy master praises CIAs effectiveness; MU graduate advises caution in revamping- Josh Flory of ''Columbia Daily Tribune'', October 9, 2004
-
Dana Priest
Dana Louise Priest (born May 23, 1957) is an American journalist, writer and teacher. She has worked for nearly 30 years for the ''Washington Post'' and became the third John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the Univ ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', October 27, 2004; Page A21
Retired Official Defends the CIA's Performance-
Dana Priest
Dana Louise Priest (born May 23, 1957) is an American journalist, writer and teacher. She has worked for nearly 30 years for the ''Washington Post'' and became the third John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the Univ ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', November 5, 2004; Page A23
Goss pushes change at CIA-
Bill Gertz
William D. Gertz (born March 28, 1952) is an American editor, columnist and reporter for ''The Washington Times''. He is the author of eight books and writes a weekly column on the Pentagon and national security issues called "Inside the Ring". Du ...
of ''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...
'', November 19, 2004
James L. Pavitt's ResumeThe Scowcroft Group
*
Speeches
Jim Pavitt, Deputy Director for Operations, April 11, 2002
James L. Pavitt on the 60th anniversary of the Office of Strategic Services, CIA's Predecessor, June 8, 2002
James L. Pavitt at the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security Breakfast Program, January 23, 2003
Deputy Director for Operations, before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, April 14, 2004.
Foreign Policy Association, June 21, 2004
Foreign Policy Association, June 21, 2004
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavitt, James
1946 births
Living people
People from St. Louis
People from McLean, Virginia
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
University of Missouri alumni
United States Army officers
Recipients of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal