Jacob Cohn Photo
R. James Woolsey (right) at a reception at Kroon Hall.
Despite the troubling intelligence coming out of Pakistan, that nation and the U.S. nevertheless need to work together, the former head of the CIA said in a visit to town Tuesday night.
R. James Woolsey said that the U.S. and Pakistan must repair their relationship because they have no choice. He acknowledged the “terrible” recent allegations of Pakistani leaks of U.S. intelligence to insurgents as well as the arrest of CIA informants involved in the finding of Osama bin Laden. He also said that Pakistan must take responsibility for its own defense. But a larger concern hovers over those issues, the former CIA director said: the need to work together to prevent Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists from dominating large areas of Pakistan.
“It’s a real difficult situation,” Woolsey said.
Woolsey was at Kroon Hall on Prospect Street to serve as keynote speaker at Yeshiva of New Haven‘s 34th-anniversary gathering. The yeshiva also honored Charles E. Clark, Jr., president of health care product manufacturer Perrigo, with its Civic Achievement Award.
Answering questions during a schmooze hour before the dinner, Woolsey said he planned to focus his address on the topics of the situation in the Middle East and the need to find and exploit alternatives to oil. Woolsey said his new job as a partner at a venture capital firm focuses on investing in companies that provide alternative sources of energy.
“I’m always looking for ways to have us use less oil” because it is neither safe nor renewable, Woolsey said. He cited the statistic that member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries control 78 percent of the world’s supply of oil.
Woolsey served as director of central intelligence from 1993 until 1995 under President Bill Clinton.