Somewhere, Phil Mudd Is Quietly Sobbing

Jeff Stein reports:

As we reported last night, DHS intelligence chiefs were expected to take some heat Wednesday morning at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, chaired by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.).

But the hearing had hardly opened before the full committee chairman, Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), big-footed into the proceedings to blast the DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis Caryn Wagner, in office only three months.

“Unfortunately, your I&A has still never established a specific and effective strategic plan that both describes and delivers results, measures those results, and helps course correct if or when those results are insufficient,” Thompson said, reading from a prepared statement.

Philip Mudd, a veteran CIA and FBI terrorism analyst, was supposed to be the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence chief. Instead, he recently left government service, joined the New America Foundation, and wrote a piece about al-Qaeda for Newsweek.