Robert L. Grenier is a career

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 federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

officer who served as the agency’s top

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

official from 2004 to 2006.

Career

Grenier joined the CIA in January 1979 and worked field assignments in North Africa, Middle East and Western Europe till 1991. Grenier was station chief in

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

, Algeria in 1990. He served as Special Assistant to the

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs The Under Secretary for Political Affairs is currently the fourth-ranking position in the United States Department of State, after the secretary, the deputy secretary, and the deputy secretary of state for management and resources. The current un ...

Peter Tarnoff Peter Tarnoff (born April 19, 1937) served as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs during the first Clinton term, from 1993 to 1997. In May 1997, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented him the Department of ...

(1993–94) and first Chief of Operations, Counter-Proliferation Division (1994–96). From 1996 to 1999, Grenier was Director of Operational Training at

Camp Peary Camp Peary is an approximately 9,000 acre U.S. military reservation in York County near Williamsburg, Virginia. Officially referred to as an Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA) under the authority of the Department of Defense, ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq

In 2001, Grenier was the

CIA station chief The station chief, also called chief of station (COS), is the top U.S. Central Intelligence Agency official stationed in a foreign country, equivalent to a KGB Resident. Often the COS has an office in the American Embassy. The station chief is the ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, where he helped plan

covert operation A covert operation is a military operation intended to conceal the identity of (or allow plausible deniability by) the party that instigated the operation. Covert operations should not be confused with clandestine operations, which are performe ...

s in support of the

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operation ...

. In the summer of 2002 he was promoted to the chief of the

Iraq Issues Group Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, where he helped coordinate covert operations in support of the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. Grenier served as Director, CIA's

Counterterrorist Center The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Mission Center for Counterterrorism (often referred to as the Counterterrorism Mission Center or CTMC, formerly the Counterterrorism Center, or simply CTC) was established in 1986, and is a division of the CI ...

for about a year, but was fired from that position on 6 February 2006 by the

Director of the National Clandestine Service 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 ...

Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr. . He was succeeded by

Michael D’Andrea Michael D'Andrea (born 1954) is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer who played an instrumental role in American counterterrorism efforts during the War on Terror. He served nine years as director of Counterterrorism Center (CTC), and h ...

. In 2006, Grenier joined

Kroll, Inc. Kroll is an American Private investigator, corporate investigation and Risk and strategic consulting, risk consulting firm established in 1972 and based in New York City. In 2018, Kroll was acquired by Duff & Phelps. In 2021, Duff & Phelps decid ...

, as Managing Director.

CIA leak case and Libby trial

In early 2006, Grenier was identified in court documents in connection with the

CIA leak grand jury investigation The CIA leak grand jury investigation (related to the "CIA leak scandal", also known as the "Plame affair") was a federal inquiry "into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee's identity", a possible v ...

and charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Grenier told Libby on June 11, 2003, one month before the leak of

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 ...

's CIA identity, that she worked for the CIA and was involved in arranging her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson's 2002 trip to

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesRobert Novak Robert David Sanders Novak (February 26, 1931 – August 18, 2009) was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the ...

a month later. Grenier testified that it was unusual to get a call from Libby, and unusual to be called out of a meeting with CIA director

George Tenet George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the P ...

to supply Libby with answers. Wilson was sent on the February 2002 investigatory mission by the CIA, Grenier said, because the Office of the Vice President wanted answers about reports of uranium purchases from Niger, although the State Department and the

Bureau of Intelligence and Research The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is an intelligence agency in the United States Department of State. Its central mission is to provide all-source intelligence and analysis in support of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. INR is t ...

were interested in the CIA's take as well. Grenier testified that later media reports about the leak, which suggested Libby may have originally learned about Plame a month later from journalists, prompted him to contact CIA lawyers about his earlier conversations with Libby. According to Grenier, Libby thanked him personally a few days later for the information about Wilson's trip, telling him it had been "useful".

Post-intelligence career

In 2009 Grenier was appointed Chairman of ERG Partners, an independent financial and strategic advisory firm solely focused on the security and intelligence sectors. He is a lifetime member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

Political commentary

In the wake of the

January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The mob was seeking to keep Trump in pow ...

, Grenier argued in an op-ed for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and interview with

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

that widespread violence from "the dawn of a sustained wave of violent insurgency within our own country, perpetrated by our own countrymen" may be imminent, describing former President Trump's popularity as "insurgency leadership" in "subversion of the Constitutional order." He compared Trump's enduring presence in American politics to

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

and

Osama Bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

, suggesting that avoiding

reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

violence requires a sustained domestic

counter-insurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...

campaign to "affect the environment" and a concerted effort to publicly shame and permanently diminish Trump. He described conviction of the former president in his second impeachment trial as a national security imperative.

References

External links

*
Chairman's profile
at ERG Partners

''

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 30, 2008
Terrorism Experts Predict Long Hunt for Bin Laden
''

VOA Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

'', April 9, 2008
Israel's cost benefit calculation
''

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة‎, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...

'', March 1, 2010
Livni's guidance on Arab democracy
Robert Grenier, ''

'', 9 March 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Grenier, Robert People of the Central Intelligence Agency American spies Living people People associated with the Plame affair American expatriates in Pakistan Year of birth missing (living people)