Howard Bane

Howard Thomas Bane (August 5, 1927 – July 27, 2007) was an American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer.

He started his career with the United States Department of the Army, running an operation to recover downed airmen during the Korean War. He transferred to the CIA and worked on the CIA Tibetan program.

He is particularly associated with his work in Africa including postings to Kenya and Ghana. Bane received the Intelligence Star for his key role in the 1966 pro-Western Ghanaian coup.

Bane helped coordinate the response to the 1974 French Embassy attack in The Hague and helped plan the CIA involvement in Operation Eagle Claw, an unsuccessful military intervention to resolve the Iran hostage crisis. He warned of the rise of Islamic jihadism but was hampered by cutbacks at the agency in the 1990s. He was brought out of retirement following the September 11 attacks to assist with a rapid expansion of the CIA and was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

Early life and career Howard Thomas Bane was born on August 5, 1927, in Virginia, United States. Bane took the advantage of less oversight during an eight-month interim period between ambassadors following the departure of William P. Mahoney Jr. in 1965 to further the coup.

Bane was able to give his seniors at the CIA 24 hours notice of the coup, which took place in late February, despite press reports at the time that it came as a surprise to the US government.

Bane had proposed going further and using the coup as cover for the Special Operations Group to storm the Chinese embassy in Accra, kill the occupants, and steal secret records. This would have been highly valuable to the agency, particularly as this was the only Chinese embassy in Africa at the time. Permission was refused, and Bane was said to be enraged that his superiors "didn't have the guts to do it".

In 1979 he headed the CIA's involvement in Operation Eagle Claw, the unsuccessful American attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis by force. Bane secured the services of a former Yugoslav partisan who came out of retirement in Italy to work undercover in Iran. Had the operation gone to plan, the partisan would have played a key role in the rescue. At some point before 1989 Bane became head of the CIA's African Division and was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

During the 1980s Bane was involved in a major reform of the CIA and also served as a member of President Ronald Reagan's transitional team and Vice President George HW Bush's Task Force on Terrorism. In the early 1990s Bane was one of the first CIA officers to recognize the threat posed by Islamic jihadism and tried to focus his teams on the Middle East. He spoke out against cuts made to the agency's operations and monitoring posts in the region. After the September 11 attacks he was brought out of retirement, on an annuity, to help run operations while the agency undertook major expansion. He attempted to pass on the creativity and innovation he demonstrated in his career to the new officers.

Bane, who chewed tobacco and smoked cigars, was diagnosed with cancer and on July 27, 2007, died in Virginia .