Latest / She’s Smart / Karen Ackley - A Life of Leadership, Service, and Extraordinary Purpose

Transcript

Karen Ackley - A Life of Leadership, Service, and Extraordinary Purpose · She’s Smart

• 0:02
  Hey, everybody. Welcome to She's Smart. I'm your host, Maria Robotham.
• 0:06
  Each week, we sit down with incredible women to talk about life,
• 0:10
  work, and everything in between.
• 0:16
  Today's guest is someone whose career has shaped history, quietly,
• 0:20
  strategically, and with remarkable strength.
• 0:23
  Karen Ackley spent more than three decades in the Central intelligence agency,
• 0:28
  ultimately rising into the agency's senior intelligence service,
• 0:31
  the highest leadership tier.
• 0:33
  Her work spanned operations, counterterrorism, and global intelligence,
• 0:38
  supporting decisions at the very highest levels of U.S. government.
• 0:41
  Over her career, Karen served as deputy chief of station, deputy chief of operations,
• 0:48
  executive assistant to the director of the CIA, and later the senior intelligence
• 0:52
  advisor to a four-star general in Baghdad, spending 28 months in a war zone
• 0:57
  advising on operations that protected U.S. and allied forces.
• 1:01
  She helped lead operations targeting al-Qaeda, supported intelligence,
• 1:05
  security for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and earned major awards for innovation and leadership.
• 1:11
  But what makes Karen especially compelling is that she did all of this as a
• 1:16
  woman, often the only woman at the table.
• 1:19
  A pioneer navigating a world that was overwhelmingly male, high pressure,
• 1:24
  and not designed to make space for her voice.
• 1:27
  And she not only held her own, she led.
• 1:30
  Today we're talking about how she was recruited to the CIA, what it's really
• 1:34
  like working inside an agency most people only see in movies,
• 1:38
  how she handled risk, responsibility,
• 1:41
  and uncertainty, and the choices women make professionally and personally when the stakes are high.
• 1:47
  This was an incredible conversation, and I am beyond grateful to Karen for sitting
• 1:53
  down with me and telling us her story.
• 1:56
  So get cozy as we connect, learn, and laugh together with someone who has lived
• 2:01
  an extraordinary life in the service of our country.
• 2:04
  Karen Ackley, welcome to She Smart.
• 2:21
  So many questions. I'm so happy that you're here. Well, for like being interested. I'm beyond I am.
• 2:27
  It's not your usual. Part of the reason I started this is because I've become so curious.
• 2:32
  And I've always asked questions my whole life, probably more than people wanted me to.
• 2:36
  I'm curious about what people do and what led them to it. A lot of the women
• 2:40
  on here the first season were just friends who said yes.
• 2:44
  They were like, I'll sit with you. It'll be fun. And a lot of them do not like
• 2:48
  talking about themselves.
• 2:49
  Most of the women sitting in here are not those people. I think that's a female
• 2:53
  quality. I think so, too. We don't just sit here and brag.
• 2:56
  But I really wanted... I didn't grow up like that. But I really wanted them
• 3:00
  to. I wanted to understand... That's a good point. What brought them to this.
• 3:05
  Just how did it happen? That's my biggest question of the people's backstory
• 3:09
  and then where they got to where they were and what drives them to do it.
• 3:16
  Because we're women we make choices are we
• 3:19
  having a family are we not having a family are we getting married are
• 3:21
  we not getting married because evolution our job
• 3:24
  is to have babies and provide for our children and our husband and over time
• 3:29
  that's all changed now we get to choose and we get to have these amazing lives
• 3:34
  and try to have both obviously you don't get 100 of everything that's my bottom
• 3:38
  line i think that's the watchword is nobody gets everything no that's the way it is the way it It is.
• 3:44
  You try your hardest at everything you're doing. And all of these women were doing that.
• 3:48
  And some of them had help. They were able to have nannies or people helping
• 3:52
  with their children or their family members were around. And some people didn't.
• 3:55
  It's a grind. And I'm always very enamored of how women do what they do because
• 4:01
  I feel like we run everything.
• 4:03
  It is because of us that the world runs the way it does. Well,
• 4:07
  it would be maybe better if we were running it. But.
• 4:10
  It doesn't function without us in any capacity. There has to be that balance
• 4:14
  of men and women. You have to have both.
• 4:16
  I hope that never changes. I don't think it's going to. I don't want to change.
• 4:19
  It's not going to get stronger, I think.
• 4:20
  I think that's good. It's funny. You were coming on today, and a friend of mine
• 4:24
  sent an article from the New York Times that some man wrote,
• 4:28
  and it was how women have ruined the workplace. Oh, my God.
• 4:32
  And I didn't get to read it, but I was like, what have we ruined for him?
• 4:37
  What have we done? What have we done?
• 4:39
  Hilarious. The comments, I'll send it to you, right? Yeah, I know.
• 4:42
  So it was pretty poignant for today's conversation. And where you started.
• 4:47
  But I am curious because I've asked you this at Thanksgiving or at one of our
• 4:50
  family holidays, how you got into the CIA. Yeah. How did that happen for you?
• 4:57
  It is the number one question I get. Okay. Because everyone has that question.
• 5:02
  It's not something that's on the normal speed.
• 5:07
  I never intended to work at CIA. My plan was, I'm going to be a State Department
• 5:13
  officer, a Foreign Service officer, hand out visas overseas,
• 5:17
  I'll learn to speak French.
• 5:19
  That was essentially what my thought process was.
• 5:23
  So I thought, I need to get an international relations degree.
• 5:26
  And I think I'll be in good shape for the Foreign Service exam.
• 5:29
  And you were at USC. I was at USC.
• 5:31
  And my junior year, one of my professors asked me to stay after class.
• 5:35
  And he said, you know, we've got CIA recruiters on campus. They've asked professors
• 5:40
  to recommend students that might be interested in a CIA career.
• 5:45
  And if you are, I'll set up a meeting. And I said, oh, yes, I would very much like that.
• 5:51
  I never thought of it because I thought it was too extraordinary.
• 5:54
  Like there was nothing normal about that. And I thought they won't happen.
• 5:59
  But he set up the interview. I spoke with the recruiter for about three hours.
• 6:03
  And then he must have recommended to headquarters that I be hired because in
• 6:09
  the next six months, I got an invitation to fly to Washington,
• 6:13
  which was very exciting for a junior in college.
• 6:18
  Yeah. It looks like I'm going to get a job and I haven't even graduated yet.
• 6:21
  I was like, this is looking good.
• 6:23
  So the testing was, do you want to hear about the testing? Yes,
• 6:26
  everything, please. The testing was two days.
• 6:29
  The first day we had an IQ test, had to do a writing sample.
• 6:34
  And then there was a personality test. And the people in charge kept saying,
• 6:39
  give us exactly your answer, not the answer you think we want.
• 6:43
  If you do that, you're going to mess up your test and you don't want that.
• 6:47
  So answer according to how you see it. And I thought, well, that's a good warning.
• 6:53
  And then I realized that test was really tailored for men because I remember one of the questions.
• 6:59
  Are you afraid of tall women in bars?
• 7:03
  No way. And I thought, oh, my God, this is meant for men. I was like,
• 7:08
  I'm not afraid of them. I'm just putting no.
• 7:11
  But that was done. We had the personality test done. And then I met with a psychologist for an hour.
• 7:18
  That was the end, I think, of the first day.
• 7:21
  And the second day, we had a full physical at CIA headquarters.
• 7:26
  That was the first time I stepped foot in it.
• 7:28
  And then the whole afternoon was dedicated to the polygraph exam.
• 7:32
  Have you ever taken one? I have never taken a polygraph, and I'm so curious.
• 7:37
  Do they go to your chest, like your pulse?
• 7:39
  They put a strap across your chest to measure your heart rate. Okay.
• 7:42
  They put a blood pressure cuff on your arm to measure your blood pressure.
• 7:46
  And they put sensors on your fingers to measure sweat.
• 7:50
  So you are wired, and they are looking for any deception.
• 7:56
  And your first polygraph with the CIA includes what we call the lifestyle questions.
• 8:01
  I don't know if they do that anymore, but they might.
• 8:05
  Because back in the day, if we had gay people who were not open,
• 8:10
  they could be blackmailed.
• 8:12
  And so CIA was like, we can't have that security threat inside our building
• 8:18
  because it doesn't work for the kind of work we're doing.
• 8:22
  So if I think now probably if you're open, it doesn't matter.
• 8:27
  The problem was when you weren't. And back in the day, not everybody was.
• 8:32
  Yeah. So they ask you about your sexual orientation.
• 8:35
  Okay. They ask about drugs, alcohol. Any use ever or current?
• 8:39
  Actually, they will listen to you if you say, yeah, I did it in high school,
• 8:42
  but I don't do it anymore. Yeah. It's not a problem.
• 8:45
  I was a typical college student who has an allowance, and I get it on the first
• 8:50
  of the month. It never lasts a whole month.
• 8:53
  No, no. It just doesn't. So on the 28th, the 29th, I would write checks because
• 8:58
  I knew the money would be there, and I never bounced a check.
• 9:01
  But the plurifer informed me that it is a financial crime. I have been committing
• 9:06
  financial crimes for like three years.
• 9:09
  And I'm like, damn it, why didn't they put the polygraph first? And that's...
• 9:13
  Test because they're not going to hire me. I just committed a financial crime. I didn't know.
• 9:18
  I didn't know that was a financial. Yeah, that's what I said.
• 9:22
  I was heartbroken. I was like, I'm just flying home thinking I'm not getting hired.
• 9:27
  I just committed a financial crime repeatedly.
• 9:31
  So I go back, totally destroyed. I was like, this was so sad.
• 9:35
  They should have put that test up front.
• 9:37
  But about six months later, I get a conditional offer of employment. So honest about it.
• 9:43
  You didn't know. You didn't know. Or they just liked that you did it.
• 9:47
  We'll get her in here. She got away with it. Yeah. But I did not expect that. So I was delighted.
• 9:53
  And that begins a one-year background investigation where they talk to your
• 9:58
  friends, your family, your teachers, your pastors.
• 10:02
  Every address you've ever had, you have to give to them. And it takes them about
• 10:06
  a year to get in touch with each person that you've listed and get more details
• 10:11
  about what kind of person you are. That takes an awfully long time.
• 10:15
  So while I graduated in 78, it was summer of 79 before I got to walk in the door.
• 10:23
  When they called your parents, your brother, what happened?
• 10:28
  Did they know they were getting phone calls? Did you let them know they were
• 10:31
  getting called or was it?
• 10:32
  No, I didn't. I mean, because I didn't even know who was going to.
• 10:37
  But they're saying Karen Ackley is in the process of getting a security clearance.
• 10:41
  Based on that, we have to ask you some questions about her as a person.
• 10:46
  Like, how do you know her? Is she trustworthy?
• 10:49
  Does she lie, cheat, and steal?
• 10:51
  Does she do drugs? They ask all the questions with the understanding that she's
• 10:56
  trying to get a clearance. So we just got to get through this.
• 10:59
  Okay. So I think I got through that.
• 11:01
  I finally did get a start date. And that first week there is pretty fun.
• 11:07
  There's about 30 people there who also were in my start class.
• 11:12
  You get the history of the CIA, the mission, the organization.
• 11:16
  And at the end, you do the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution
• 11:20
  of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestics to help you God.
• 11:24
  And then they give you a piece of paper and say, here's your room number.
• 11:27
  Go forth. I still don't know what job I have. But in my head, I think I do.
• 11:32
  I told my recruiter I wanted to be an operations officer in the director of operations.
• 11:37
  I figured since I said that, that's what I would be.
• 11:41
  This is back in the Carter years, 1979. We had a terrible energy crisis.
• 11:47
  And people were getting gas on even and odd days. It was horrible.
• 11:51
  But they forced federal buildings to cut the light and reduce the thermostat down to 62.
• 11:58
  It was freezing, and I couldn't see.
• 12:02
  I'm wandering down this hall. I don't know where I am. CIA is a huge headquarters.
• 12:07
  I'm asking people, I see, like, where is this room number?
• 12:11
  It's freezing. I finally find my office door. I ring the doorbell.
• 12:15
  Doors are not left open at CIA. I meet the branch chief, and he tells me,
• 12:20
  you're a telemetry analyst for Soviet naval cruise and ballistic missiles.
• 12:25
  I was astonished because, and I think I told him, I said, I don't know anything about that.
• 12:31
  And he's like, well, you will.
• 12:34
  He shows me to my desk. All the people around me have gloves on. It's so cold.
• 12:40
  He says, that's your in-basket. You can start reading through and the others
• 12:45
  will help you get sorted.
• 12:46
  My heart is racing. It was dark. And then I picked up the paper from my in-basket,
• 12:52
  thinking it will become clear.
• 12:54
  There's code words all over it. Nobody explained to me what they were.
• 12:57
  I'd say something like, top secret, alpha, zarf, orange.
• 13:04
  Like, what does that mean? Each one of them is supposed to tell you the source
• 13:07
  of the information. I think I'm going to get fired on my first day. I can't do this job.
• 13:13
  I was having a heart attack. And over time, I picked up what the routine was.
• 13:20
  Over time, it started to make sense.
• 13:22
  But the good thing was, and I think America should be happy that a sorority
• 13:27
  girl was not in charge of Russian missile tests.
• 13:32
  I wasn't.
• 13:34
  And all I did was triage it. I could say these five missiles were fired from
• 13:40
  the Kamchatka Peninsula last night.
• 13:43
  They landed successfully or they blew up in air.
• 13:47
  And I take all of the telemetry and hand it to our very smart engineers and
• 13:53
  scientists who would go through those blue lines and figure out what it all meant.
• 13:57
  So I figured it out. And it was fine.
• 14:01
  And I thought, well, it still isn't really what I want to do.
• 14:06
  So about six months in, I made an appointment with my personnel officer.
• 14:12
  This is very memorable. If I could find her now, I would thank her.
• 14:16
  But I made an appointment with her and I said, you know, this isn't really what
• 14:20
  I thought it was going to be. I don't think it's a good fit.
• 14:23
  And she said she was like barely suppressing a smile. And she says,
• 14:29
  you know, I've had a chance to look through your very thin personnel file.
• 14:34
  And I can tell you, you are lucky to be here because we don't hire people like you.
• 14:39
  We hire people with graduate degrees and people with work experience and a track
• 14:45
  record of performance. You have none of that.
• 14:48
  So my advice to you is get a graduate degree as soon as you can and make sure
• 14:54
  every performance you get from now on is as good as you can do.
• 14:59
  And I thought, this is really brutal. This is not at all what I expected.
• 15:04
  But she's not wrong. So I went to Georgetown University and applied.
• 15:10
  They accepted me in the School of Foreign Service. I spent two years going at
• 15:14
  night to get my degree, and I changed everything about the way I worked.
• 15:19
  I was the first one in in the morning, the last one to leave.
• 15:23
  I volunteered to work holidays.
• 15:25
  I was always asking the branch chief for more things to do.
• 15:28
  And I think that changed everything for me.
• 15:32
  I don't think I ever worked another eight-hour day in my life.
• 15:36
  In fact, those first six months is probably the only eight-hour days I ever worked at CIA.
• 15:42
  But you know what? It's easy because the whole,
• 15:46
  Agency is very motivated. Things are going on 24 hours a day.
• 15:50
  Another thing that really impressed
• 15:52
  me was it isn't unusual to see people running down the corridors.
• 15:58
  At first, it was startling, but then it's like it happens.
• 16:02
  I don't think you'd see that at another federal agency.
• 16:06
  At a certain point, we'd say either something went really well or something went really badly.
• 16:11
  But the kind of work we do there, there can be emergencies.
• 16:15
  So you do see a lot of that. And I thought this is kind of the atmosphere I
• 16:20
  think I'd be really happy. It's consequential.
• 16:22
  You're doing something that matters and that time matters and that being as
• 16:26
  good as you can and as fast as you can be, it matters.
• 16:29
  So that was, I think those early days were good learning days for me. And over time I did.
• 16:37
  Try to find something a little more in my league that was not as technical.
• 16:42
  And it happened to be in my best friend's office.
• 16:45
  And this is a little bit funny.
• 16:48
  I ended up with a missile account that was as boring as it possibly could.
• 16:54
  There was SS-4 and SS-5 missiles that were like 50 years old. What are those?
• 16:59
  Those are medium range and intermediate range ballistic missiles.
• 17:02
  So they were targeted at NATO.
• 17:04
  And we've known about them forever. They have silos in the ground. We can count them.
• 17:09
  Nobody has any questions about them at all, but that was my account.
• 17:14
  You just check on them every once in a while. I was like, I'm working with my
• 17:17
  friend. I've got this boring missile account.
• 17:19
  But six months in, the Russians deployed the SS-20 mobile missile with refires,
• 17:27
  and it was a game changer.
• 17:29
  Everyone was shocked because now we can't count them. now we
• 17:32
  don't know where they are and we were in arms control negotiations
• 17:35
  and i had to brief everyone i
• 17:38
  was briefing congressmen and senators i was
• 17:41
  flying to europe to brief our nato allies i had a hot account i was writing
• 17:48
  papers that everyone was reading everyone was hungry for more information i
• 17:53
  felt like i just fell into like the best thing ever by accident and i think the reason i think,
• 18:01
  They got to see that I can do the job. Yeah. I can write. I can brief.
• 18:06
  I can. You can speak to people. I can speak to people. She's not bad.
• 18:09
  The organization started this new program called Analyst Overseas.
• 18:15
  Okay. The first location was Warsaw, Poland. I thought, I'm going to apply because
• 18:19
  my best friend is now in Geneva.
• 18:22
  And we can meet in the middle. We can vacation together.
• 18:27
  I applied and I got it because they already knew me. Yes. They saw me perform
• 18:32
  and said, yeah, she can do it.
• 18:34
  So they sent me to Polish language for a whole year, which was torture, one-on-one.
• 18:39
  It's the hardest thing ever. You have a monkey on your back every waking hour.
• 18:44
  So I get through it. I speak Polish. I'm sitting on the plane.
• 18:49
  I'm still 26 years old. I'm sitting on the plane thinking I have a one-way ticket
• 18:54
  to a communist country under martial law.
• 18:58
  Like, is this a good idea? Oh, my gosh.
• 19:01
  Now, are you, do you have a weapon at this point? Are you given a weapon?
• 19:04
  Do you get one when you get there, when you get into like, how does that work?
• 19:08
  Because we watch all these silly movies that portray the CIA in all these different
• 19:12
  ways. And I'm never really sure what's actually true.
• 19:14
  In that particular job, there was no requirement for weapons training.
• 19:18
  But in that job, I did not need it, did not have it.
• 19:22
  And that two years went really fast. It was an exciting time because this was
• 19:27
  the beginning of the fall of Eastern Europe. You had solidarity there.
• 19:30
  We're reporting on the riots. And it was a great two years.
• 19:36
  When I came back, my Polish was pretty fluent as you're living there that long.
• 19:40
  Within two weeks, the director of operations contacts me and asks me to come work for them.
• 19:47
  If I do, they will put me through training to be an operations officer.
• 19:51
  I'll be the fighter pilot. It's what I always wanted.
• 19:54
  You did. I got there. The path was the way it was supposed to be.
• 19:57
  Yeah, and that language made a difference because I was now maybe the best Polish
• 20:03
  speaker in the whole division.
• 20:05
  And when I got my training to become a case officer, you can't learn that in college.
• 20:10
  Yet, no. We have our own training down at We Call the Farm for about a year. It's really intense.
• 20:16
  I became an operations officer, refer to it as a headquarters operations officer,
• 20:22
  meaning whenever agents come out and they want to be met, they have a phone
• 20:28
  number we give them to call and that will trigger a meeting.
• 20:31
  Okay. So I'll fly out. If he calls, I'll fly out two days later and meet him
• 20:35
  at the train station. Got it. So I was meeting agents all over Europe.
• 20:39
  And I was getting my fighter pilot credentials, right? So now I'm a player.
• 20:44
  I'm not, you know, some girl looking for a better job.
• 20:48
  That was really amazing. So I stayed with SE Division for about eight years.
• 20:55
  Were you all over the world? All over the world. And it was great.
• 20:59
  I mean, I really enjoyed it. But I couldn't do it forever.
• 21:03
  And when the wall came down, the poor division, they had a lot of restructuring to do.
• 21:09
  And they had to change everything. And I thought, you know what,
• 21:11
  this is a good time for me to get out and start working on my performance precepts.
• 21:16
  You have to do certain jobs to be considered for your next promotion.
• 21:20
  So I had to work in the counterintelligence center. I had to go to a senior school.
• 21:25
  And I had to get a major group sheet job. And I thought, I'm just going to start working on that.
• 21:30
  Perfect timing and so I was able to go to the National War College got my master's
• 21:38
  degree so two master's degree on CIA didn't pay a penny.
• 21:42
  And I got the CIC box checked, and I had to get a major management job.
• 21:48
  And the first one I applied to, I got, it's like 500 people,
• 21:53
  like four branches. And I thought, this is going to be great.
• 21:57
  Oh, my gosh. And so I feel like I'm on my way. I'm going to get my 15. It's going to happen.
• 22:02
  Everything's been set up, and I get my 15. the man in charge of the division,
• 22:08
  unbeknownst to me, had made a pitch to the director of operations that I should
• 22:12
  take one of two executive assistant positions on the seventh floor.
• 22:16
  The seventh floor is where all the senior executives are at CIA.
• 22:19
  And the director of operations is in charge of all operations at the CIA.
• 22:25
  And so having a job up there is like gold because not only does everyone know
• 22:30
  you at that point, but you get to meet everyone. Now, it can be tricky because
• 22:35
  if you face plant, everyone will know.
• 22:37
  Like you are on a big stage. So you've got to really be sure that you know what
• 22:43
  you're doing and work as hard as you can. I did that.
• 22:48
  One of two executive assistants on the day that 9-11 happened.
• 22:53
  And I was on the seventh floor. I'd just given my first briefing of the morning.
• 22:57
  I gave two, one at seven and one at nine.
• 22:59
  And we're just watching TV and seeing that aircraft crash into the Twin Towers.
• 23:04
  We all started walking to the director's office for the nine o'clock briefing.
• 23:09
  This is the head of the CIA.
• 23:11
  And we watched the second one. We thought, it's intentional.
• 23:14
  I think we're under attack.
• 23:16
  We thought that one aircraft was going to CIA because we'd been chasing bin
• 23:21
  Laden for many years, waiting for the Twin Towers.
• 23:24
  Al Qaeda knew that CIA was hot
• 23:26
  on their trail. So we just felt like that plane could be coming our way.
• 23:32
  So we evacuated the building. Everyone's getting their keys and their wallets.
• 23:36
  My boss says to me, Karen, grab everything that's important.
• 23:43
  Like he's absolving himself of doing anything and he's going to say,
• 23:47
  well, I told her to get the important stuff. I was like, what is that?
• 23:51
  So I ended up grabbing the three ring binder. We had it super thick.
• 23:57
  It's got every phone number of everyone at the White House, at the Pentagon,
• 24:01
  at the Secretary of State, has all our foreign partners' phone numbers.
• 24:06
  I brought the right thing. You brought the right thing. I brought the right
• 24:09
  thing. That was a lot of pressure.
• 24:11
  Well, yeah, because what are you going to do, bring up a computer down?
• 24:13
  Where are you even going to set it up? You can't. Thank God it was in paper.
• 24:17
  Yeah, and thank God it was something that was available to grab.
• 24:20
  It was some kind of safe or whatever.
• 24:22
  It went as well as it could go. And then from there, we just watched the whole thing unravel.
• 24:28
  And then CIA became all focused on counterterrorism.
• 24:33
  That was where I shifted. I was doing Russian, Soviet, East European stuff and
• 24:38
  then became a counterterrorist specialist because that's what the White House cares about.
• 24:42
  That's what the world cared about. That's where you wanted to be.
• 24:44
  You wanted to be in the fight. Did they start transitioning everyone that was in there?
• 24:48
  Like everyone else, as you transitioned, were people all transitioning towards
• 24:53
  counterintelligence? There was a huge push.
• 24:56
  People wanted to be there. They were abandoning their jobs, but the rest of
• 25:00
  the agency and the counterterrorist center grew.
• 25:04
  Civilians that were like, sign me up. There were. Firefighters,
• 25:07
  Marines, put me in the Army.
• 25:09
  Everyone. It changed. It changed. Everybody was on the same sheet.
• 25:12
  We got to find the bad guys.
• 25:13
  This counterterrorist center was huge. One of the men I had met on the seventh
• 25:18
  floor, really one of my heroes, an agency legend, was the chief of operations
• 25:25
  at the Counterterrorist Center.
• 25:27
  So he's kind of running the show, basically. He asked me to be his deputies.
• 25:32
  I am so happy. I love this man so much. And I've got the best job.
• 25:37
  Within a month of my arrival, he asked me to go on a 30-day TDY to a secret
• 25:44
  location in Southeast Asia. What is a TDY?
• 25:47
  Temporary duty. Okay. So 30 days in the field.
• 25:51
  I'll have about 15 people there working for me. So I do it. And it's exactly
• 25:55
  on the one-year anniversary of 9-11.
• 25:58
  So it was kind of like everyone remembers that, too. because it's still so raw.
• 26:04
  And right before I'm coming home, I get a phone call from headquarters and the
• 26:11
  director of central intelligence has asked me to be his executive assistant.
• 26:16
  Holy cow. Which, of course, I'm going to say yes to. You don't say no to that.
• 26:20
  And I did. It's supposed to be a one-year job because it's really hard.
• 26:25
  You have to be there before he gets there and you can't leave before he leaves.
• 26:30
  And he starts every morning with the president of the United States. This is a huge job.
• 26:37
  Have you heard of the president's daily brief?