Pentagon intelligence chief resigns
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stephen A. Cambone, the Pentagon's top intelligence official and a close ally of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, will step down at the end of the year, becoming the first key department member to leave in the wake of Rumsfeld's resignation.
It had been widely speculated that Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, would resign as the Pentagon prepares for the expected Senate confirmation of a new defense chief -- former CIA Director Robert Gates.
The Pentagon's intelligence-gathering has come under fire during Cambone's tenure, with critics accusing the Defense Department of trying to take expanded control over the nation's intelligence activities.
Cambone was in charge of intelligence when it was disclosed a year ago that a Pentagon database of suspicious activities contained the names of anti-war groups that had been found not be security risks. Cambone ordered a review of the program.
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Cambone was known in the Pentagon as Donald Rumsfeld's "chief henchman". [5] The orders to soften up Iraqi prisoners for intelligence interrogators (both military and private contractors) are said to have come directly from Cambone's office. [6] In a 2006 Counterpunch article, Jeffrey St. Clair reported that Cambone is responsible for intelligence operations like Gray Fox, a kind of sabotage and assassination squad. [7] Several sources report that Cambone has become so hated and feared inside the Pentagon as Rumsfeld's hatchetman that one general joked: 'If I had one round left in my revolver, I would take out Stephen Cambone.' " [5][7]
[edit] War crimes prosecution
On 10 November 2006, the German Federal Government announced that it had decided to permit the war crimes prosecution of Stephen A. Cambone for his alleged role in condoning the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison during his tenure from 2001 to 2003 as U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General, under the legal framework of universal jurisdiction. [8]
