On his blog Thomas Joscelyn comments
"Lest we forget, this is the same agency that had no good human intelligence assets in Iraq prior to the war; that had no good HUMINT assets inside of al Qaeda prior to 9-11; that thinks that Iran is a decade away from building a nuclear bomb (even though the U.S. assembled one in less than half that time decades ago); that has leaked disinformation time and again to the press; that allowed Michael Scheuer to work there for more than two decades; etc. etc. etc."
Draining top talent? Or, cleaning out the incompetents?"
"The word on Bob was that he was a good officer, but not the one for the job and not quite as aggressive as he might have been," one official said.
Here's the next ex-CIA to mouth off to the press about the Bush admin, leak secrets etc.
If he was soft of terrorists, he didn't need to be in authority. Personally I recommend Jack Bauer as his replacement.
the Afghan operation was handled well by CIA, not sure how much input this particular fellow had in that. but generally speaking, Goss needs to clean house.
"Museum grade artifacts" Whaddya suppose he did on his lunch hours? And how undercover could he have been really?
It's nice to see Porter Goss firing these entrenched bureaucrats...
No doubt that Mr. Goss knows that those incompetents failed to predict India's nuclear tests, Pakistan's nuclear tests (hence, the guy in question for this thread being fired, finally), 9/11/2001, as well as botched the call about Iraq's WMDs.
Three cheers for Goss cleaning house at the CIA!
Is it me or has CIA been lacking balls since Cofer Black left.
Draining the swamp. The biggest snakes are the ones that are found and bagged first.
IMO, probably a leaker or complicit in some matter that was less than confidential.
Second choice is incompetance, but given the house cleaning Goss has been performing I'd wager the first.
When is his book scheduled for release?
Hmmmmmmmmmm. Calling Vince Flynn. We need Mitch Rapp.
Robert Grenier reminds of one of the characters in a Vince Flynn book. IIRC the name of the book is "Third Option".
The agency needs to completely revamp its internals to rebuild what Carter destroyed so long ago.
Reminds me of my father's experience long ago, with a certain bowling ball Company based in Mclean, VA. Back then, at parties given for bowling ball sales agents in various countries we lived in, my father's friends would boast to me how their language skills rivaled my fathers. I would snicker to myself, as these guys really thought that they could challenge a native bowling ball maker at his own naturally absorbed craft - spending a couple of years at an intensive bowling ball school in Monterey just don't compare.
But the point is - at least they were trying. They understood that the key to understanding the market was to absorb the culture - and try to swim unnoticed in its waters. But then, that disgusting POS Carter went and said that it was not nice to look at other people's bowling balls - and the whole sales department was fired or resigned enmasse.
Now, whadda we got? Unmitigated careerist PC crap. We have an organization that will put an African-American in a lily-white Eastern European nation, who doesn't speak the language, all because he threatens to sue the Company for limiting his career-advancing postings. Similarly, we have females demanding postings in countries where women don't get close to the power centers of anything. Screw that - they want their careers, they're willing to sue - so oh what the hay...post'em.
Not to pick on the "more equal" members of our deranged PC society, since sales agents from the less pampered segments of our nation were also were picked on a completely useless basis of sterling resumes at the nation's top schools, and who could hardly muster the language skills necessary to hail a cab from the local Hilton to the airport when the shittaki begins flying.
The damage that's done is never immediately apparent - it's just aggregated over something as nebulous as reduced visibility into the inner workings of nations everywhere. Meanwhile, these careerist clowns advance into more senior positions, and haul up their fellow useless colleagues along with them.
So, this fellow has museum-quality pieces from all the countries he was stationed in? Great. Maybe if he'd concentrated on the word on the street, while ducking in and out of antique shops, we could have a better idea of what the heck is going on with the Pakistanis. Are they with us or not? Nobody knows. Good job.
I don't know what it will take. A full house-cleaning, involving mass firings? But...how much is possible with the prevailing PC insanity in the culture at large? Just a case in point. At a certain army base training facility I did some work at - (it wasn't Charlie Force, nor Echo Force), there were some very serious men - who were quite clear about how they handled business in the field. You didn't hear about "rights" and "due process" for the people they faced off against, but strolling some of the buildings, I was struck by the bulletin boards announcing mandatory "Sensitivity" briefings, commitments to Affirmative Action, and warnings about Sexual Harassment for these highly effective Warriors. Only in the fairy-tale land of a government bureaucrat can killing machines like these guys prance through the daffodils singing "We are the World", while taking up firing positions on an Al Qaeda bunker.
Until we figure that out - we're not going to be all that effective anywhere in this global jihad to come.
So they are disclosing information about a agent who was covert in the last 5 years?
So when does Jack Bauer start work?
Let's break this down....
a polished and smooth-talking man
This is the Washington Post letting its readers know: He is one of us! A metrosexual! A Nuancy Boy! Not one of those beastly coarse Bush people.
museum-quality mementos of his service overseas
There are really only two things a CIA officer can do in Islamabad. Run agents, or collect Oriental carpets. I bet Post reporters will be treading those carpets for a cup of tea with the great man, forthwith.
Reached at home late last night, Grenier declined to comment.
What'd I tell you! Unfortunately the Post does not report whether teh carpets were Shiraz or Bokhara.
Grenier's departure comes at a time when the agency is bleeding top talent, robbing the CIA of institutional memory and damaging morale among case officers and analysts.
Translation: "Oh, drat. There goes another confidential source!" (Although to be fair to Grenier, I note that he has been or is being offered another job in CIA. If he were a security violator, that job would be ... reading the Washington Post in a cubicle in a non-secure area with the other "unclean," waiting for security to decide what to do with him).
I wonder how he was regarded as a chief of station. I bet I will hear the word "politician"...
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Cleaning out elitist Yaliets with more "polish" than brains? Maybe...