A Year Later, Goss's CIA Is Still in Turmoil

When Porter J. Goss took over a failure-stained CIA last year, he promised to reshape the agency beginning with the area he knew best: its famed spy division.

Goss, himself a former covert operative who had chaired the House intelligence committee, focused on the officers in the field. He pledged status and resources for case officers, sending hundreds more to far-off assignments, undercover and on the front line of the battle against al Qaeda.

[snip]Some of the struggles that have dominated Goss's first year stem from a massive reorganization that stripped the CIA of its leadership role in the intelligence community and made it subservient to a new director of national intelligence. Congress ordered the shake-up after several public investigations blamed the CIA for failing to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, plot and erring in assessments of Iraq's weapons. The probes crippled morale inside the deeply secretive agency. Goss's staff says he is confident he can reshape the CIA and, despite persistent rumors, he has no intention of resigning. "Director Goss loves his job and is dedicated to the CIA team and his vision of modernizing and strengthening our numbers and capabilities across the board," his spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, said. "He wants to see that through."

Bush Cleaned Out State Department Hacks
October 20, 2005
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_102005/content/america_s_anchorman.guest.html[]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The timing of this is not coincidental. It is meant to be a pile-on with the CIA leak investigation. Let me treat you to the Washington Post version of the story. It's by Dana Milbank. "As Colin Powell's right-hand man at the State Department, Larry Wilkerson seethed quietly during President Bush's first term. Yesterday, Colonel Wilkerson made up for lost time. He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a 'Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal' that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: 'Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.' Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of 'cowboyism' and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as 'extremely weak.' Of American diplomacy, he fretted, 'I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore,'" and there you have the bug in this guy's rug. There you have the little pimple on his rear end that's upsetting him so much. There you have it burr in his sack, ladies and gentlemen. There you have the insect that's flown up his nose that's got him all atwitter and out of sorts. "'I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore.' And how about Karen Hughes's efforts to boost the country's image abroad? 'It's hard to sell (manure),' Wilkerson said, quoting an Egyptian friend." So Karen Hughes is manure. You get the point.

[] So Cheney stinks, Rumsfeld sticks, Douglas Feith stinks. Condoleezza Rice is incompetent and weak, and Karen Hughes is "(manure)." Who is this man? Who is this man, Larry Wilkerson? Larry Wilkerson was the chief of staff at the State Department until early this year. Now, it is said that he was the personal chief of staff to Colin Powell, but if he was chief of staff at the State Department till earlier this year, he stayed on after Colin Powell left, right? Here's what he also said. By the way, this New America Foundation, you know, it's a confusing name because there's the Young American Foundation, the Young Americas something or other, and I said, "Who is this bunch? This rings a bell." So I went looking last night while watching the Cardinals blow it to the Astros -- couldn't hit a lick, same thing in the World Series last year when they got in the World Series. The most potent offense in the major leagues, pfft! It petered out, same thing as the New Yank Yorkies. Anyway, so I'm watching that, and I go look this thing up. Folks, the New America Foundation is a pack of liberals. It is a new think tank. They've got a couple token conservatives there as "associate fellows," but for the most part it is just a huge lib think tank. It's made up of lib financiers, lib big-time bankers, lib scholars, lib business people -- and so this guy goes there to make this speech to basically tar and feather this administration, and it's also said of Larry Wilkerson, "He actually said what Colin Powell was always thinking but was too discreet to say!" Here's some other things Larry Wilkerson said.

"The man who was chief of staff at the State Department until early this year continued: 'If you're unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead, if you're declaring the Geneva Conventions not operative, if you're doing a host of things that the world doesn't agree with you on and you're doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you've got to pay the consequences.'" Well if I didn't know better, I would think I was listening to a rerun of the John Kerry for president campaign. "Wilkerson adds a new dimension to the criticism. A 31-year military veteran and former director of the Marine Corps War College, he worked for Powell in the public and private sectors for much of the past 16 years, and he was often described by colleagues as the man who would say what Powell was thinking but was too discreet to say. Wilkerson's beef with the administration was, for the most part, not ideological. He argues that U.S. forces must remain in Iraq, and he describes George H.W. Bush as 'one of the finest presidents we've ever had.' ... [Wilkerson] is part military man and part academic. He said 'hell' a lot but also used words such as 'desultory' and 'titular.' Peering from large wire-rimmed glasses, armed with a flag lapel pin, he spoke with barely restrained anger. He had given critical quotes about the administration before, but yesterday's New America Foundation speech was his coming out as an administration critic."
[]
Okay, so there are two really telling things here about Mr. Wilkerson's mind-set -- and I must admit I had not heard of him until I saw the story, and so I will also admit I don't know that much about him, but if he's going to sit there and say, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore," I want to take you back to this program. I don't have the exact date, but when Condoleezza Rice was named secretary of state, I said to you people, "What's happening here is the same thing that Bush sent Porter Goss over to the CIA to do and clean the place out," and we have talked countless times on this program about how liberal-infested the State Department is, a bunch of career libs, many of them held over from the Clinton administration, and they have a different world view. They have a liberal world view, and I know that many of you who are maybe new to all this or relatively new to it, within the State Department ask, "How can the State Department have people against US policy?" Well, how can we have liberals? Same question. You think that every American's patriotic particularly when we go to war? No, folks, there are some people that don't think that we deserve to win wars, and most of them are in the State Department or a lot of them are, and the whole point of sending Rice over there was to clean the place out. The whole point of sending Karen Hughes to the Middle East was to get rid of the influence in the State Department that regularly sells this country out and undercuts it.

Now, for this, the president deserves praise. He deserves plaudits! The best quote that Mr. Wilkerson said is, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore." What he means is it doesn't exist as he remembers it. That's good! That is flat-out good. Trust me. Go ask any of the Reagan administration people about the State Department. Go ask 'em, folks. Go ask 'em how tough it was. Conservative administrations have two enemies: whoever they are around the world, and the people in the State Department, particularly career people -- and the same thing existed at the CIA. This CIA leak business here? I don't know what's going on with it but I can tell you right now that many of the leaks that came out prior to the war with Iraq came from the CIA. Let's look at how incompetent the CIA was in stopping anything from happening before 9/11. The CIA didn't have any intelligence that was worthwhile. Heads should have rolled over there a long time. The CIA even authorized an ex-agent, which they never allow, to go out and write a book trashing the Bush administration because there are some people over there trying to hold onto their own power and trying to sabotage Bush administration because he's trying to clean the place up. It's become a career resolution place for a whole lot of people that pick up a paycheck and have some power and have some fun. State Department, same thing. They're ideologues and have an agenda but at the same time it's job security. Here comes Bush wanting to clean it all out. There's no guessing here why he is a huge enemy to the American left, the worldwide left, and the people that populate the State Department and the CIA who are also left -- and this speech is the greatest indication yet that Bush is having success in cleaning that cesspool up.

This little reference here, "If you're unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead..." What do you mean, unilaterally? We have one vote just like every other nation and we're not the only nation that didn't vote for it. Now, we're the world leader. Okay, we don't vote for it so a lot of other nations don't come along. We didn't "unilaterally kill Kyoto." It's a bad deal. Tony Blair has pulled out of it. He was an original supporter. Even he recognizes what a penalty it makes and causes to industrialized, advanced nations. It's silly. It's anti-American, this whole Kyoto is. It's worthless anyway. It's based on a bunch of junk science. The smartest thing in the world was backing out from it. You've got a guy here, in the State Department, totally devoted, making agreements with all the people around the world, never solving problems. That's what keeps your job security. You just open "dialogue," keep dialogue open but you never solve anything. You go through the motions to make it look like you're working on a solution but you never get there, because if you get there, what do you have left to do? So this speech by Mr. Wilkerson? The Financial Times is heralding this speech; the Washington Post is heralding this speech. (paraphrasing) "Hey look it, Bush is in such trouble now even a loyal chief of staff to Colin Powell can't hold it in any longer. He's telling everybody how really rotten this administration is, how incompetent they are." Folks, I'm telling you right now this is happening because Bush is succeeding in cleaning up these two places, the CIA and the State Department. They have been long overdue for this, and what this speech tells me is just how powerfully successful Bush has been. The whole Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame thing tells me just how successful Bush has been, because Bush is the epitome of the top of the big leagues, and he's taking on some people that thought they owned what they owned for the rest of their lives and he's pulled the rug out from under them -- and they are not going to let him get away with it if they can help it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let's go back to the good old days of Colonel Larry Wilkerson, shall we? The chief of staff to Secretary Colin Powell, Secretary of State Powell. Go back to the good old days that Larry Wilkerson misses, before Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld hijacked foreign policy. Let's go back to those good old days, shall we? The UN was effective. Nations in the world got along with one way or another, loved each other, shared resources. The UN was scandal-free. Why, there was no oil-for-food scandal, was there? There was no genocide in Rwanda. The United Nations was maintaining prosperity and opportunity in the continent of Africa, wasn't it? And France was right like they've always been: Next to us, right by our side. In every conflict we could count on the French and we could count on the Germans. Germany, Belgium, France all could be counted on, in the good old days before George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Karen Hughes and Condoleezza Rice. Iran, by the way? Iran was not developing nuclear weapons and they were not a sponsor of terrorism. No the State Department had all this under control, ladies and gentlemen! Iran was a peace-loving nation, simply wanting to be left alone. Hezbollah didn't exist. The Islamic Jihad didn't exist.

[] There was no Osama bin Laden. There was no Al-Qaeda. There were no airplane hijackings. No, folks, do you realize what a lovely, pristine place the world was prior to Bush and Cheney and Rice and Karen Hughes and Rumsfeld -- and let's throw Mary Matalin in there. They think she's going to be indicted now. Syria, Bashar Assad? They were peaceniks. They were marching around the world trying to forge peace! They hated the conflict in Israel between the Palestinians and the Israelis. So did the Egyptians. The Egyptians and the Syrians and the Jordanians were constantly trying to make peace. Nobody fired one weapon as anybody. No nation warred with any other -- and the North Koreans? Why, they were just good old boys, and their people were overfed. They didn't have to eat dogs and cats in North Korea back when Larry Wilkerson ran and worked at the State Department. No! The North Koreans, why, they weren't even interested in nuclear weapons -- and the Chinese? They weren't propelling missiles into outer space testing nuclear warheads -- which the Clinton administration gave them. Ah, yes, my friends, the State Department in the good old days before Bush and Cheney and Rice and Rumsfeld came along and destroyed world peace. Isn't it just a shame?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: More on Larry Wilkerson. This is a CNN story: "Armitage, Bolton Often Clashed, Aide Says -- Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage often clashed with President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, according to a close aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Armitage also restricted John R. Bolton's public speaking unless his comments were personally cleared by him, Larry Wilkerson told the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wilkerson, who served as Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, was one of more than 30 witnesses interviewed by staff members of the committee, which is expected to vote on Bolton's nomination on Thursday." I don't know what the date of this story [May 10, 2005] is, but it obviously goes back to the days where Bolton was before he had been recess-appointed. Transcripts of Wilkerson's testimony and that of others interviewed by committee staff members last week were provided by a Democrat on the panel who opposes Bolton's nomination." CNN story, by the way. "Wilkerson, a close friend and longtime aide to Powell, said he was speaking in his own capacity and not as a proxy for his former boss or Armitage. He said he was surprised by comments Armitage made last week calling Bolton 'eminently qualified' for the job and saying he supported Bush's choice. Wilkerson said Bolton, who is undersecretary of state for arms control, was a source of tension at the department and 'overstepped his bounds' on several occasions."

Wilkerson, in his testimony transcript, "recalled Bolton's 'moves and gyrations' to prevent Mohamed ElBaradei from securing a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Wilkerson said Bolton went 'out of his way to badmouth (ElBaradei)," makes me like him even more, "to make sure that everybody knew that the maximum power of the United States would be brought to bear against them if he were brought back in.' Wilkerson also cited several problems with speeches and testimony given by Bolton that were not properly vetted, eventually prompting Armitage to restrict Bolton's speeches and testimony unless Armitage personally cleared the comments. In particular, Wilkerson cited a July 2003 speech on the eve of six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program. In the speech, Wilkerson said, Bolton offered about 40 negative references to North Korean leader [the pot-bellied] Kim Jong Il. Wilkerson said the speech set off much consternation throughout the U.S. government." No, it didn't, probably through the State Department.

So what do we have here? We have Wilkerson who's dumped on Rumsfeld and Rice and Bush and Cheney for hijacking foreigner policy. Now he didn't like John Bolton. He's a big fan of the United Nations, a huge fan of Mohammed ElBaradei -- and he got real ticked off that Bolton nailed Kim Jong Il and dared tell the truth about him. I'm telling you that this guy, Wilkerson and others like him in the State Department, are privately fuming over what Bush has done to dismantle the structure of the State Department -- particularly now that Condoleezza Rice is over there, folks. This story today from that New America Foundation speech that Wilkerson gave, going back here and looking at his thoughts on John Bolton. This is nothing more than testimony to the fact that Bush has succeeded in shaking the rugs over there and getting some of the long-time problems out and start the restructuring. It's a great indication of success that's underway at the state department, and I assume the same thing is happening at the CIA with Porter Goss, because they're complaining as loudly about him.

"He hasn't gotten anything done! Porter Goss, he's rotten to the core!"

There must be a lot of success happening there, too.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Articles...
(Washington Post: Colonel Finally Saw Whites of Their Eyes)
(Weekly Standard: The White House, the CIA, and the Wilsons - Stephen F. Hayes)
(CNN: Armitage, Bolton often clashed, aide says)
(Slate: Plame's Lame Game - Christopher Hitchens)
(Bob Novak: Wilson contradictions leave Democrat senators speechless)
(Weekly Standard: Four Facts and Five Conclusions)
(NewsMax: Novak: Wilson's Wife Not a Covert CIA Agent)
(WSJ: The End of the Plame Kerfuffle!)
(WS: Additional Views. What did Rockefeller say back in 2002? - Stephen F. Hayes)
(Kansas City Star: Wife Suggested Wilson for Inquiry, Report Says)
(NRO: Exposed and Discredited, Joe Wilson Might Consider Going Back)

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