Goss Reportedly Rebuffed Senior Officials at CIA -- Four Fear New Chief Is Isolating Himself

Washington Post ^ | November 14, 2004 | By Walter Pincus and Dana Priest

[Stultis]

CIA Critic of U.S. War on Terror Resigns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A CIA analyst who wrote a book that criticized the U.S. war on terror has resigned from the spy agency after it effectively banned him from publicly discussing his views, his publicist said on Thursday.

Michael Scheuer, whose book "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror" was signed as "anonymous" and published this summer, will resign effective Friday after 22 years at the Central Intelligence Agency.

[...snipage...] Scheuer decided that it would be in the best interests of the intelligence community and the country for him to resign in order to continue speaking publicly with regard to Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the 9-11 Commission Report."

Bad news is that the rats will be running straight to 60 Minutes and other borderline (or not) seditious elements of the MSM. So what. Run 'em out anyway, Porter!

[Wolfstar]

Aculeus, when I said I wouldn't mind if Goss stripped the place bare and rebuilt from scratch, I was using hyperbole. Of course the CIA is not 100% rotten. However, it had become sclerotic, risk-averse, and too political over time. It's had a long string of intelligence failures, and is long overdue for a shakeup.

Whether or not Goss is "using a heavy hand," which is the concern you raised, only time will tell. He's only recently been confirmed, so I find it quite reveling how quickly several CIA bureaucrats have begun screaming like scalded cats. If they were loyal and truly interested in improving the agency, you'd think they'd at least give the new Director a chance. Instead of trying to tell him what to do, you'd think they'd give him some room to implement his own ideas.

[Stentor]

So if Goss purges all the senior personnel, from where will he obtain experienced replacements?

Gonna be difficult to find experienced disloyal leakers.