Posted on 10/28/2004 12:49:15 AM PDT by Cableguy
Porter Goss' initial moves as CIA director appear to herald a post-election purge at the already troubled spy agency, according to current and former top U.S. intelligence officials.
Goss, a former Republican congressman, has put at least four former Capitol Hill Republican staffers into top positions in his CIA office and has given them broad authority to make personnel and restructuring decisions, the current and former intelligence officials said.
One of the aides, whose identity Knight Ridder is not disclosing because he served under cover, has been "going around telling people they are to fire 80 to 90 people" in the Directorate of Operations, the CIA's covert arm, according to a former official.
His account was repeated by several knowledgeable current and former officials who maintain close ties to the agency.
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Tensions between an incoming CIA director and the agency's veterans, particularly in the Directorate of Operations, are common, as they are in any large institution resistant to change.
Most observers agree the CIA, along with the rest of the U.S. intelligence community, is in need of reform.
A Senate Intelligence Committee report issued in July found the CIA's pre-war assessment that Iraq had hidden weapons of mass destruction programs was exaggerated, lacked evidence and was driven by "group think."
Goss, who was sworn in Sept. 24 to replace George Tenet, pledged during his confirmation hearings that he would be a nonpartisan CIA director.
But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they were concerned by the partisan affiliation of Goss' team.
"If he has brought strongly partisan staff with him - and he has - that seems to call (Goss's pledge) into question," said another top official, who recently left the CIA.
A CIA spokesman, who asked to remain unnamed, said Goss has made no decisions on restructuring.
"We are not at the structural phase yet," the spokesman said. "These people ought to be given a little time. It's been less than a month since he's (Goss) been sworn in. That goes for some of the people he has brought with him."
He denied the reports that up to 90 people will be ousted from their jobs, saying, "I have heard no conversations to support any changes close to that number as of yet."
Goss brought with him three former Republican staffers from the House intelligence panel: Pat Murray, who was his chief of staff; Merrill Moorehead, senior adviser on strategic programs; and Joseph Jakub, senior adviser on operations and analysis.
The fourth aide, whose name Knight Ridder is withholding, worked for some time as a GOP congressional staffer.
Good!
That cesspool is overdue for a good cleaning.
When he's done, can he go over to the state department and start cleaning up there, too???
I thought this kind of housecleaning was done at the beginning of an asministration.
"Only 90, baby?"
(I'm trying to come up with a good Austin Powers-type line...help!)
This is payback for the way the Clinton Intelligence Agency (oxymoron) keeps stabbing the President in the back trying to secure a Kerry win. Maybe the "New Tone/Uniter, not a Divider" stuff wasn't such a good idea after all.
That cesspool is overdue for a good cleaning.
And the State Department.
Works for me!
After State, he can move on to the TSA, HUD, HHS, etc. ad nauseam.
Sack-a-delic?
It's wise to leave your enemies close sometimes, if only to be in a position to receive when you redirect the inevitable political mud to where it rightfully belongs.
Sounds like the adults are now in charge!
WAY TO GO!!!!! Throw out all the Clintonistas!
This is fantastic, encouraging news.
Maybe I was wrong about Goss-we'll see.
The CIA 'old guard' goes to war with Bush
Jim Pavitt, a 31-year CIA veteran who retired as a departmental chief in August, said that he cannot recall a time of such "viciousness and vindictiveness" in a battle between the White House and the agency.
[SNIP]
Bill Harlow, the former CIA spokesman who left with the former director George Tenet in July, acknowledged that there had been leaks from within the agency. "The intelligence community has been made the scapegoat for all the failings over Iraq," he said. "It deserves some of the blame, but not all of it. People are chafing at that, and that's the background to these leaks."
Goss sounds like the man to do the job.
I've read quite a bit about the liberal bias at the CIA.
Clean 'em out!
I have to agree. The klintoon appointees of the CIA should have been terminated when President Bush took office. Make America safer fire all the klintoon appointees now. Bush/cheney 2004
You are assuming that the problems within the CIA, and the State Department are solely the result of the "political" appointees left over from the Clinton Administration. This is not, nor ever has been, the case. The majority of these 90 people, I hope, are long time, "career" people, with covert, and sometimes not so covert, Arabophile tendencies. People like this have been infiltrating both "branches" of the State Department for many decades, and have been subverting the national interest for their own parcohial interests all along.
They belong to what I've been calling "the Foggy Bottom" crowd, and are fairly easy to spot, once you know their game. They are usually "sophisiticated urbanites", who have one or more degrees from "the right schools" (read an Ivy League college "center of indoctrination"), and are quite vocal at sneering at average Americans, should you be able to engage them in conversation in an unguarded moment...
the infowarrior
Uh huh.
That is my single biggest gripe with GW; he left too many people in a position to stick a knife in his (and our) back. Alot of those people are directly responsible for the mess we found (and find) ourselves in.
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