Where Goss Sees Trouble
"The CIA's new director sees his job as making sure the agency gets smarter and faster after a string of embarrassing intelligence failures. But is Porter Goss a reformer, or does he just want to enforce loyalty in the ranks?"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101041129-785385,00.html
FAILING TO CONNECT THE DOTS Before al-Qaeda's attacks, the agency was still risk averse, a result of investigations into power abuses in the '70s. Key intelligence — including proof that al-Qaeda suspects were entering the U.S.--wasn't shared with other agencies until it was too late, and field officers were more likely to be stationed in embassies than inside enemy territory. Congress is debating reforms, and Goss wants to encourage more risk taking
CONNECTING TOO MANY DOTS Former Director George Tenet reportedly told President Bush the agency had a "slam dunk" case that Iraq was developing WMD. But as analysts prepared the National Intelligence Estimate of Iraq's capabilities, important caveats were cut. The agency had almost no operatives in Iraq after 1998, so it had to rely on information from foreign intelligence services, defectors and exile groups. Much of it was ambiguous and, in some cases, just plain wrong
UNAUTHORIZED LEAKS Two months before the election, unnamed CIA, Pentagon and State Department professionals began grumbling to reporters that Iraq was in much worse shape than Bush was claiming on the stump. After the leak of a July National Intelligence Estimate predicting Iraq could be in civil war by the end of 2005, conservative columnist Robert Novak accused the CIA of trying to undermine the President's re-election
FREELANCING The former top analyst in the CIA's bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, published an anonymous book last summer — cleared by the agency — accusing the Administration of botching the war on terrorism. A 22-year CIA veteran, Scheuer repeated his charges in frequent media appearances, even after superiors ordered him to stop. Critics say he should never have been given approval to write the book in the first place. Scheuer resigned from the agency two weeks ago
A look at the top insurgents in Fallujah
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/world/10240754.htm
BAGHDAD, Iraq - (KRT) - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born suspected terror mastermind with a $25 million bounty on his head whose group has claimed dozens of beheadings, bombings and kidnappings, is perhaps the best known leader of Iraq's insurgent groups. Some other key leaders:
_Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi, the Emir of Fallujah. A firebrand cleric, he headed the Mujahedeen Shura, the insurgent council that controlled Fallujah for six months. His fate is unknown, but The Washington Post published an interview with him reportedly conducted in Fallujah on Nov. 15.
_Sheik Zafir al-Ubaidi. A prominent Fallujah cleric, he provided religious guidance to the insurgents' council and issued religious edicts that were enforced with public floggings and, some Fallujah residents said, executions without trial. Rebel sources say al-Ubaidi survived the Fallujah offensive.
_Moayed Ahmed Yasseen, also known as Abu Ahmed. Suspected leader of Mohammed's Army, a group for former intelligence agents, army, security officials and high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime, Yasseen has been arrested by the Iraqi government, according to a Nov. 14 announcement.
_Abu Abdullah Hassan bin Mahmud. The leader of Ansar al Sunnah, a deadly group said to include Kurdish Ansar al Islam operatives, foreign Islamic radicals and militant Iraqi Sunnis and allied with al-Zarqawi, Mahmud's whereabouts are unknown. His group has executed several hostages, including 12 Nepalese and 11 Iraqi national guardsmen, and claims about 40 suicide bombings.