Based on what I know (my Dad lived it) if you get an a**hole with a grudge who thinks he knows everything as a new boss (especially a 'Chief of Staff'??, anyone with retirement ready is going to leave.
What is it with American managment? A manager gains the most when he/she LISTENS to people with experience.
At this point, even given that the story originated in the NYTimes, I side with those that are leaving.
The same "experience" that gave the President the WMD info.
That is why I said I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.
If they are cleaning out the anti-Bush holdover, who really aren't professionals, because professionals wouldn't engage in breeching security for politics, that's good.
But if they are coming in being brash and disrespectful of professional agents, who worked there for many years and know reality, and who are true professionals, then it's bad, because the good people are leaving and the bad ones are staying.
I can't tell from either the editorial, or from the other articles on the subject.
Don't forget -- the ones who are confronted will never go sweetly (does YOUR teenager?). Good riddance to the bad rubbish, I say.
There's been something rotten at Langley for a long time. Time to clean up both the CIA and State.
State can be handled by some reassignments to some of the more God forsaken places on this earth, since most of them don't have the pride to quit.
It might be related to the management style of Patrick Murray.
You make your case privately, not in a politically damaging way to the President. Those people politicized the CIA; they should be fired.
The recently appointed head of the Directorate of Operations (spy side of the CIA)Stephen Kappes turned in his resignation because he didn't want to be bossed around by a guy Goss brought in to help him, Patrick Murray. Murray may have overplayed his hand.
Kappes is a person who can recruit agents. He is a professional who came into the CIA from the Marines. He speaks Russian and Farsi. He ran a Russian intelligence officer, a linguist, who spoke an African language. He probably also recruited others, but this guy was finally caught by the Russians so we know about it.
The White House asked Kappes not to resign.
I predict that Goss will have to put a leash in his underling Patrick Murray. Murray didn't do too well when he worked at the CIA and is now back trying to lord it over others because of his patron.
The sad thing is if we lose good people, it hurts the American people who these CIA people are to protect with intelligence. These are very smart people with huge egos who do not want anything they say questioned. Many have certainly messed up but it was not all their fault.
If there are bad people, dump them out of patriotism, they owe the CIA info on what they know.
Having been a government bureaucrat for over 35 years including being a senior manager, the problem isn't that political appointees are not listening to the advice of careerists, but rather, the political appointees are not following their advice. That said, many careerists look with condescension on the political appointees and try to undermine their decisions through various bureaucratic tricks including leaks, inaction, and the interjection of various legalisms and rules. Their (careerists) hubris is only surpassed by their incompetence.
The President has every reason to expect that the Executive Branch will support and implement his policy decisions. The CIA was clearly off the reservation during this past election cycle and needs to be reined in. The performance of the Agency has been found wanting for several decades. The failures of the intelligence community have been well-documented from Iran to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to North Korea to India/Pakistan to al-Qaeda. A shake-up in the careerists is long overdue. They need to be held acountable for their poor performance.
The point is there are those in the CIA who will tell lies in order to try and bring down President Bush.
Why you would "side" with such is, well, disgusting.
Every one has one and its called opinion or asshole take your pick.
"...seeing it in the New York Times, we can all be sure it's claptrap."- theFIRMbss
See # 59
"Then, when they're done there, send them over to State."- kenth
You got it!