Where is Jose Rodriguez?...

Apparently in business with the brother of top Democrat on Intel Panel

I tend to agree with my colleague Scott Horton that Jose Rodriguez Jr., the former head of the CIA’s clandestine service, is being made the scapegoat for the destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of two Al Qaeda members. “This looks like he was tossed under a giant bus,” one former intelligence official told me. “How likely is it that he took this decision on his own, especially when he’s not in the videotapes and wouldn’t be effected directly? Not very likely.”

This person said that the fact that the tapes were made in the first place was hugely revealing. “It shows that by 2002, everyone at the agency thought they could be Jack Bauer, that the president thought this sort of thing was fine,” he said. “This is like making a snuff film. It’s incredible that they felt they could put it on tape.”
On the other hand, another former agency official told me he thought Rodriguez could have–and should have–taken the decision on his own. This person said:

When this idea first came up, it generated a heated discussion. The most experienced officers were to the man, against any effort to tape the interrogations. The object of having an intelligence service is to do things secretly. You don’t tape things unless there is a sound operational reason to do so. Jose was right to order the tapes destroyed.

They should not have been made. That said, the day they arrived and were viewed by the leadership, they should have been destroyed that day, not two years later. The tapes would have shocked the conscience of the public, and should not have been made. Nothing good would come of it.
This person said a key reason behind the decision to videotape the interrogations was that “it would eliminate the need to travel to these remote, dangerous, and uncomfortable locations. If they could watch the tapes at HQ, they didn’t need to travel to a remote place to watch. It was too far and too hard.”

Meanwhile, as the scandal spreads, Democrats are demanding an investigation by the Justice Department. “We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18 1/2-minute gap in the tapes of President Richard Nixon,” Senator Edward Kennedy was quoted as saying in the Washington Post.
Of course, Rodriguez could certainly help clear things up but so far he hasn’t made a statement or even surfaced. So where is he?

In the fall of 2006, I reported that Rodriguez, who was then still at the agency, was being recruited by Blackwater. He has a number of close friends at that firm, including Rick Prado, with whom he served in Latin America. I’ve been told that Rodriguez may still end up at Blackwater but with all the bad press that firm has been getting any definite plans were put on the back burner until the dust settles.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez, two sources have told me, is doing business in Texas with the brother of Silvestre Reyes, the Democratic chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where Reyes has served since 2001. From what I understand, Rodriguez and Chairman Reyes are extremely close friends, and the congressman “set up Rodriguez with his brother.”

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/12/hbc-90001879