Career of incoming CIA head includes some magic touches

WASHINGTON -- John E. McLaughlin, who will become acting director of the CIA next month, has achieved near-legendary status during his 32 years at the agency, and not only because of his low-key intensity and reputation as one of its best-ever intelligence analysts.

It's also the magic tricks.

McLaughlin, 61, is an accomplished amateur magician whose sleight of hand has dazzled US presidents and foreign leaders as well as crowds of children at a rural Virginia fair where he performs every year.

Close associates say all the traits that make McLaughlin such a good magician also will serve him -- and the CIA -- well when he takes over from George J. Tenet on July 11.

Every trick seems effortless for McLaughlin, whether it is turning a $1 bill into a $100 bill inches away from astonished onlookers, or causing a deck of cards to levitate and split in two with a wave of his hand.

But the tricks, McLaughlin said in a recent interview, succeed only because of countless hours of intense study and practice.

''It's the seriousness with which he pursues the skill [and] the preparation beforehand that make it look easy," said John Gannon, once a top aide to McLaughlin at the CIA and now staff director for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. ''I don't know anyone who works harder or is more committed than John is. He's not casual about anything."

President Bush named McLaughlin acting director after Tenet announced his resignation Thursday.

Gannon and other intelligence specialists in and out of government said McLaughlin would make an excellent director on a permanent basis if Bush decides to appoint him.

''I think it's almost his destiny," Gannon said. ''I couldn't think of a better person for the job. . . . He also genuinely cares about the people working for him. He's a superb analyst, a substantive leader, and an envelope pusher and creative thinker."

But his closeness to Tenet and his role as the CIA's number two man might weigh against his chances. Like Tenet, he has endured criticism for the CIA's inability to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and for making assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, prompting the war in Iraq.

McLaughlin became Tenet's deputy in October 2000, about 28 years after joining the intelligence agency. He came up through the CIA's analysis side, not its operational division that does the undercover and clandestine work.

He spent the early part of his career on European, Russian, and Eurasian issues. He later worked at the State Department's Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, where he was responsible for following European relations with the Middle East, Central America, and Africa.

More recently, as deputy director for intelligence, he was responsible for the analysis of political, economic, and military events worldwide. He represented the intelligence community on numerous diplomatic delegations worldwide, with Tenet and on his own.

He also beefed up the CIA's analytic capabilities, creating a special CIA career track that enables analysts to rise to very senior rank without branching out into management.

McLaughlin graduated from Wittenberg University in Ohio in 1964 and later received a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a specialty in European affairs. He also served three years in the Army, with a tour in Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1969.

Several associates said McLaughlin was very close to Tenet, but in many ways his opposite. Whereas Tenet is affable and emotional, McLaughlin is even-keeled and reserved.

''George has often described him as the smartest man in America," said a senior CIA official who is close to both men. ''He is smart but avuncular, very decent, soft-spoken, extraordinarily nice but with a deep knowledge of a wide range of subjects. He was a perfect counterpoint to Tenet."

Like others who know him, Gannon said that in making the case against Iraq, McLaughlin was trying to work with the faulty intelligence at hand.

''It was not an airtight case; there were gaps," Gannon said.

''John is such a professional [that] he tried to make the best case that could be made. He didn't use his magic tricks on the evidence."