From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Jun 02 2009 - 09:57:11 EDT
New Yorker killed in Ethiopia in 2003 revealed as CIA spy
BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Tuesday, June 2nd 2009, 4:00 AM
WASHINGTON - CIA clandestine operative Gregg Wenzel's official cover was
lifted Monday, when it was revealed that the New Yorker killed in 2003 was a
spy - not a diplomat, as claimed.
Wenzel, 33, was an operations officer who died in Ethiopia. He had been
listed as a U.S. foreign service officer.
The cause of death was said to be a random traffic accident. The actual
circumstances remain murky, Wenzel's father said.
"My son wanted to make a difference, and he did," Mitch Wenzel told the
Daily News after his son was honored at CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters.
"He wanted to give back by joining the Clandestine Service."
Wenzel and a still-anonymous operative killed last year became the 89th and
90th gold stars engraved on the Memorial Wall in the lobby of the agency.
The elder Wenzel wrote letters to ex-President George W. Bush every year
asking for his son to be publicly acknowledged as a CIA hero.
The beefy lawyer - who was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx and
upstate Monroe - was a distinguished public defender before joining the CIA
in 2000.
He graduated training in the first class after the 9/11 attacks. "Gregg
stood out as a leader" with a huge intellect, sense of humor and "great
penchant for fun," CIA Director Leon Panetta said at a ceremony Monday.
The Wenzels were marathoners, and Mitch sent his son "bags of sneakers to
give to Ethiopian kids." The U.S. ally is a CIA hub for operations against
Al Qaeda in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.
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