Posted on 11/18/2004 6:36:45 PM PST by nypokerface
WASHINGTON - A Democratic senator warned CIA Director Porter Goss Thursday that his efforts to make major changes could have "a significant and negative effect on the agency."
In a letter to Goss, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also said she feared the "politicization of our intelligence services" because of an e-mail Goss sent this week to agency employees telling them to serve the Bush administration.
Goss, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, took office in September and named some of his former congressional staffers to high-level positions at the agency.
Several senior CIA officials have resigned in recent weeks, an apparent sign of friction between them and Goss' aides.
The changes have raised concerns that agency turmoil could disrupt intelligence efforts at a time of war. But Goss' supporters say he is trying to make urgently needed reforms. Intelligence agencies have been sharply criticized for failing to stop the Sept. 11 attacks and providing inaccurate intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs.
Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Goss has the responsibility to minimize the difficulties that come with an overhaul. "I am concerned that recent developments run counter to that goal."
She said Goss' e-mail to employees "is likely to cause confusion at best and mislead agency employees at worst."
In the e-mail, Goss said, "We do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies. We provide the intelligence as we see it and let the facts alone speak to the policy-maker."
Feinstein wrote: "I hope that what you meant was that agency employees neither support nor oppose administration policies. But that is not what your communication said."
There was no immediate response from the CIA.
Another committee member, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., offered support for Goss.
"We urged Porter Goss to go in and shake the place up," Lott said in a brief interview. "He's doing it. More than likely it's a good idea."
What's that say about her?
In ancient Eygpt the civil service lasted well over 1000 years, in Mandarin China well over a 1000 years. Once entrenched it outlasts regime changes of all sorts. Tamanny Hall-type political cronyism -- the political spoils system -- had its problems, but civil service locks in the medicore forever -- a form of a national prisonhood.
CIA employees are smart people. They are not like intellectually challenged California Senators. They understand what Goss said.
They don't call her Chi-Fi for nothing.
True. But, I think they don't have the language advantage they used to.
Item 1 - During the campaign, the left's discourse was a lot of hateful name-calling, but I can't remember one positive dem sound bite (something good for them).
Item 2 - A lot of their favorite terms have now been overused for years. Jesse Jackson calling someone "racist" just doesn't have the same effect as 10 years ago.
Item 3 - the web helps cut through their junk science claims, and their bs in general (actually as an antidote to both the Dem's and the old media).
Hey, anyone know how to indent a line - like if I wanted to indent Item 1 say 5 spaces, is there a simple html tag? Sorry.
This is about much more than the retention of power. The liberal wing of the party is worried about something.
Ugh! Shudder!
Too ugly.
That's cool, DiFi. Perhaps if you and your party had shown
interest in maintaining a strong CIA in the last decade
maybe we wouldn't be having some of the problems we are
having today.
That would be Norinco, AKA China North Industries
Sorry. The longest headline in AP history!
Good. If Feinstein is against it, normal people are for it. ..."normal." I like that word.
Sure we need more of those impeccable "it's a slam-dunk" reports to the president.
I've tried HTML 4.01 Transitional to do that, and it doesn't work. So it's an ampersand (&) and nbsp; (no space between the ampersand and the nbsp; part, semicolon and all). Repeat as needed for more spaces. ...don't know how to escape that, offhand, so it wouldn't show here if I put it all together.
Or maybe someone here knows how to indent with XHTML if that would work.
A clear sign that they had moles planted deeply in the agency is the volume of their complaints in the media! Exactly!
_________________________________ ___________________________________
A Democratic senator warned CIA Director Porter Goss Thursday that his efforts to make major changes could have "a significant and negative effect on the agency".
Reason enough for me to clean house.
Thanks! No brackets, just ampersand and "nbsp" worked (I'm trying out 1st Page 2000).
Feinstein? And her concerns mean what in the overall scope of things?
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