more on Goss out

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tom Fairlie <tfairlie () frontiernet net>
Date: May 5, 2006 5:33:21 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: kelley () inkworkswell com
Subject: Re: [IP] Goss out

Dave,

I don't doubt that the CIA, like any other government bureaucracy,
has its share of waste, inefficiency, and corruption. However, what
I don't understand is why Washington and its obedient press corps
continue to push the "intelligence failure" meme.

When exactly did the CIA have this "failure"?

Was it on 9/11? No, I would characterize that as either an Air
National Guard/FAA/DOD failure to guard our skies (something
they did on thousands of other occasions, except on that one day),
or perhaps even a plot to cause such a failure. Everyone in the
intelligence community seemed to know that such an attack was
possible, and perhaps even probable. I don't see any failure here.

Was it in Iraq? No, I would call that a misuse of intelligence by
the Bush administration, who, we now know, discarded good
intelligence and used only the evidence that supported their case.
The CIA and State Department knew that al Qaeda did not operate
in Iraq (the State Dept. web site archive even proves this), and a
LOT of people around the world were telling us that WMDs did
not exist and to let the inspectors continue their job.

Was their failure, perhaps, in politicizing intelligence? Well, that's
a close call, but.. No, they do not directly politicize intelligence.
They certainly use propaganda and pull strings behind the scenes,
so that's similar to a "political" use, but the only obvious cases
have been their purging of non-Bushites in the CIA. A project,
I remind you, that was spearheaded by Goss himself.

I guess there was a failure after all, and perhaps now it might be  
fixed.

Tom Fairlie

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
To: <ip () v2 listbox com>
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 2:59 PM
Subject: [IP] Goss out

Begin forwarded message:

From: kelley () inkworkswell com
Date: May 5, 2006 3:45:32 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Goss out

Hi Dave,

This is interesting news. Porter Goss is stepping down as Director of
the CIA. As the article says further below, and which probably
surprises no one familiar with the topic, the agency is in disarray.

Best,
Kelley

Porter Goss Announces Plans To Step Down as CIA Director

Associated Press
May 5, 2006 2:26 p.m.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter Goss resigned
unexpectedly Friday, leaving behind a spy agency still battling to
recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America's
worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S.
rationale for invading Iraq.

It was the latest move in a second-term shake-up of President Bush's
team.

Making the announcement from the Oval Office, Mr. Bush called Mr.
Goss's tenure one of transition. "He has led ably," Mr. Bush said,
with Mr. Goss at his side. "He has a five-year plan to increase the
analysts and operatives." Mr. Goss said, "I believe the agency is on
a very even keel, sailing well," adding: "I honestly believe that we
have improved dramatically."

The president didn't name a successor, but said that person would
continue Mr. Goss's reforms. "We've got to win the war on terror, and
the Central Intelligence Agency is a vital part of the war. So I
thank you for your service," said Mr. Bush.

When Mr. Bush nominated Goss in August 2004, in the midst of the
president's re-election campaign, he said he would rely on the advice
of the CIA officer-turned-politician on the sensitive issue of
intelligence reform.

Mr. Goss, a former congressman from Florida, head of the House
Intelligence Committee and CIA agent, had been at the helm of the
agency only since September 2004. He came under fire almost
immediately, in part because he brought with him several top aides
from Congress who were considered highly political for the CIA.

'Free Fall'?

He had particularly poor relations with segments of the agency's
powerful clandestine service. In a bleak assessment, California Rep.
Jane Harman, the Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, recently
said, "The CIA is in a free fall," noting that employees with a
combined 300 years of experience have left or been pushed out.

Under Mr. Goss and the sweeping intelligence overhaul Congress
approved in December 2004, the CIA lost considerable clout among U.S.
spy agencies. With the installation of the country's first national
intelligence director, John Negroponte, Mr. Goss no longer sat atop
the 16 intelligence agencies. Negroponte took that role -- and many
of the CIA director's responsibilities. That includes Mr. Bush's
morning intelligence briefings.

Mr. Goss also had some public blunders. In March 2005, just before
Mr. Negroponte took over, Mr. Goss told an audience at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library that he was overwhelmed by the many
duties of his job, including devoting five hours out of every day to
prepare for and deliver the presential briefings. "The jobs I'm being
asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this
mortal," Mr. Goss said. "I'm a little amazed at the workload."

Plugging Leaks

Mr. Goss has pressed for aggressive probes about leaked information.
"The damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our
mission," he told Congress in February, adding that a federal grand
jury should be impaneled to determine "who is leaking this information."

Just two weeks ago, Mr. Goss announced the firing of a top
intelligence analyst in connection with a Pulitzer Prize-winning
story about a network of CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. Such
dismissals are highly unusual.

The realignment of Mr. Bush's team amid the president's sagging poll
standings started with the resignation of Andrew Card as chief of
staff and his replacement by Joshua Bolten, who had been the budget
director. There has been rampant speculation that Treasury Secretary
John Snow would be leaving.


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