Posted on 12/05/2004 8:11:10 AM PST by Former Military Chick
The CIA is the best place to work in the United States. No federal agency has a smarter, more dedicated or harder-working set of individuals than the CIA's women and men. I had intended to work at the CIA for the duration of my career, and I left it with deep regret and a great sense of personal loss. I was neither forced out nor pressed to resign. Resigning was my decision alone.
I cannot state these facts more clearly, and I fiercely deny the accusations that I am a disgruntled former employee. I am, however, a disgruntled American — one who decided that being a good citizen was no longer compatible with being a good member of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service.
I do not profess a broad expertise in international affairs, but between January 1996 and June 1999 I was in charge of running operations against Al Qaeda from Washington. When it comes to this small slice of the large U.S. national security pie, I speak with firsthand experience (and for several score of CIA officers) when I state categorically that during this time senior White House officials repeatedly refused to act on sound intelligence that provided multiple chances to eliminate Osama bin Laden — either by capture or by U.S. military attack. I witnessed and documented, along with dozens of other CIA officers, instances where life-risking intelligence-gathering work of the agency's men and women in the field was wasted.
Because of classification issues, I argued this point only obliquely in my book "Imperial Hubris," but it is a fact — and fortunately, no American has to depend on my word alone. The 9/11 commission report documents most of the occasions on which senior U.S. bureaucrats and policymakers had the chance to attack Bin Laden in 1998-1999.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/
While this Michael Scheuer fellow should get his fingers rapped for his johnny-come-lately
commentary, folks should remember John O'Neill, the late FBI agent who kicked and screamed at
his bosses (note that I don't
say "superiors") to pay attention to Osama.
And in the greatest irony of the OBL saga, finally quit to take a job in security at
the WTC towers...where he perished on 9-11.
Admittedly, the market for such stories spiked shortly after September 11, 2001.
So if seems to criticize the last years, he is called "trash," but when one looks at the Clinton dates in the article then this guy is okay? Seems to me this guy took his job seriously and his criticism runs over several administrations. I have heard him and read the book. And, what he says is eye opening. I take the mission seriously--no matter who is running the show.
Seems like this guy is talking about the CLINTON White House, and this is something he probably cannot do while working at the Agency.
He is confirming what many already presumed, and some knew about the Clintons.
Were they involved in the food for oil graft?
As for him, when you have had enough heat, get out of the kitchen. I never worked the same place 22 years, and he can probably get a decent slot as an 'analyst' somewhere.
Yes, the book was an election-year all-out assault on the BUSH administration, even though the incidents cites often were during the Clinton years.
Porter GOSS.... you beautiful creature... (laughing pounding the desk)..
Porter GOSS.... STOP IT.. you killing me.(laughing pounding the desk)..
Porter GOSS.... I said, STOP IT dude.... (laughing pounding the desk)..
It's embarrasing. An clear wild overstatement. Fantasical. He -- no one -- can say what the "best place to work in the US" is. Nor is there any ONE such place. Every work place and era in that place is a best fit for someone but not for some others. That's just simple reality. His lead is "Disneylandish".
Yet he is spot on, I'd guess, regarding the abject failure to properly respond to terrorism -- acts and plots -- by the Clinton Administration -- he is obviously struggling, and is confused, with many personal confusions about what the value of the CIA is, what his career amounted to, and what he wants to do next.
I question the timing of his memory and reflections. If you have followed his publicity trail you would know this is the first mention of thie very serious and damning charge against the Clinton Administration - and look at that, exactly one month after the election!
His strategy thus far? slam the Bush administration before the election and save the really damning stuff for December. That way I get all the talk show gigs before Novemeber, then throw out a little more controversy and get some more demand for my interview after.
Character and credibility be damned, his public relations person is a genius.
Sorry, I didn't spell check my post before I posted it!
"House cleaning here and at State is long overdue."
Don't forget the FBI and INS too, as in the statement "CIA, FBI and INS, the Larry-Curly-and-Moe of government agencies."
"struggling with personal confusions about what his life amounted to."
Nothing confusing about that. His life amounted to nothing. He accomplished nothing. He benefitted his country in no way. He simply wasted taxpayer money, as most of them do.The life of a pharmacy clerk at a drug-store adds up to more than his did. And these people are the "elite?" God help us.
This sound like a book where one might have to read between the lines. The author said he had to write about things "obliquely," and he may still have to write obliquely to get things published in the MSM.
I guess I am interested in the information this guy brings to the table, more than how he brings it.
ML/NJ
This article is a damning indictment of the Clinton administration's failure to act on the intelligence information supplied by the CIA. Richard Clarke, George Tenet, Sandy Berger, Louis Freeh are all condemned as girly men more concerned with foreign opinion than saving American lives.
I'll be honest and say, I don't know what to make of this guy
From the limited research I have been able to do with regard to Scheuer ... he has also written a Book about Clinton ... Yet you NEVER hear this in the media/press.
You are correct that he makes a damning indictment of the Clinton administration's failure
But every article I've read about him or interview that I have seen him give ... he never comes right out and says this
He only uses the dates of 1996-2000
He leads people to believe the failures are all due to the Bush Administration and the media/press are more then happy to help push that point.
Another thing I don't get is how he keeps saying we need to say get to the bottom of our intell problems and fix them ... But then will make a comment like this ...
At day's end, it may be worth pausing the intelligence reform process long enough to determine what role personal failure, bureaucratic warfare — which the Department of Defense continues waging today — and a lack of moral courage played in getting the United States to 9/11.
At the end of this article he says we should pause
Well .. which is it??
Should we reform our Intel or not??
Michael Scheuer is a buffoon blinded by self-importance. I nominate him for the Joe Biden Award.
So I'd have to read past the insults, slights and Ad Hominems in order to find a nugget of "truth?
No thanx..........
Unlike many posters I read the article. I think his criticism is primarily against the CIA bigwigs and the Clinton Administration fainthearts who failed us.
The headlines about him during the campaign were largely manufactured by the liberal press to defeat Bush.
Because the INFERENCE is that he was unhappy with the Bush admin .. exactly what the spin media loves .. and will continue to spin in that direction because it fits their agenda.
However, the public knows Bush didn't really take charge of the CIA until Porter Goss took over .. only now is Bush responsible for what goes on IMHO.
Scheuer appears to be a confused spook, a megalmaniac and a liar, confirmed by many contractions in his books. Need to be careful about this guy, he is the type of CIA analyst that should hve been gone many years ago!
I know 22-year veterans of the military I wouldn't follow through the check-out line at the PX. Merely managing to stick around in a beurocratic government agency doesn't make one honorable, faithful, or even an expert. Quitting that job & publicly criticizing someone trying to reform the beurocracy makes one a disloyal f###.
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