Posted on 05/25/2006 5:12:06 AM PDT by Gothmog
"As...CIA Director Porter Goss exits the agency, NEWSWEEK has discovered new details about a purge of top agency operatives shortly after Goss's arrival in 2004. A bitter secret feud over a Clinton-era counterintelligence case was apparently a major motivation behind the loss of those seasoned intelligence veterans, sources say. Gen. Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee to replace Goss as CIA chief, has signaled that when he is confirmed by the Senate, probably later this week, he intends to appoint one of the principal victims of the feud, former CIA operations chief Stephen Kappes, as deputy CIA director—a move that is regarded inside the intelligence world as a final insult to Goss and his inner circle.
[Snip]
"After President Clinton ordered the bombing of Belgrade...the American Embassy in the Serbian capital was evacuated of all personnel, including the entire CIA station. Before leaving the building, allegedly in haste, CIA officers were supposed to destroy all secret documents. ... When they believed they had burned everything, CIA officials left the Belgrade embassy, but not before locking the heavy vault door at the entrance to the office suite that housed the CIA station.
Nine months after the bombing stopped the CIA "opened the vault door into their suite" and "were alarmed to discover that some secret documents had not been destroyed. Instead, they were found left lying either behind desks and file cabinets or in open sight, depending upon which version of the story is being told. According to some accounts, the unburned material included papers or microfiche identifying undercover informants—the kind of information that is among the most sensitive of all secrets the CIA is supposed to protect."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
IMHO this is bad news for US intelligence/security. I had a bad feeling about Hayden when all those Dems came out in praise of him and now it looks like Negroponte's State Dept bureaucratic philosophy is making its presence felt.
Intel reform now means promoting all the old, liberal bureaucratic CIA analysts to new jobs overseeing and analyzing ALL the intel agencies material.
"When Kappes refused, both he and Sulick, regarded as two of the agency's most skilled field operatives and espionage managers, left the agency."
How much do y'all want to bet that it's the same type of Bush/conservative hating CIA sources like Valerie Plame who hold Kappes in such regard.
I simply cannot react to anything from the MSM in general and Newsweak in particular.
Hmm. Sounds interesting. Too bad it's in Newsweek, of which I do not believe a single printed word.
Here ya go..Can you please correct the spelling of "Feud" in the header..?
Too bad it was posted.
Fortunately, (according to Newsweek), Goss is out, Kappes is back in, and the policies and practices of the Clinton-era CIA can resume.
Oh joy.
The powerful protecting the powerful.
Yeah, you notice the CIA initially screwed up and even with Goss pushing for accountability the CIA "eventually returned to business as usual, with no officials being fired over the Belgrade incident (or nonincident, depending on whom you believe)."
Forget the venue (like don't shoot the messenger), what about the simple fact of re-hiring and promoting people who had been let go precisely because of major failures in the past?
That has nothing to do with MS&M or Newsweak or anyone else.
You ignore the actual case just because of who reported it?
"only people worth anything are the reporters on the ground even though most are also biased at least they are not sitting at their desks spewing erroneous opinions at very least"
Most of those people who you say are "worth anything" - the "reporters on the ground". They write the reports and it is their "bias" which is used to masquerade their "erroneous opinions" as news - and not "at the very least", but always.
The editors simply reinforce the reporters bias. They were all taught "advocacy" journalism at America's Marxist colleges.
You give the "reporters on the ground" an undeserved pass on their role in media bias.
We have no proof there IS an actual case. This IS Newsweek. (rolling eyes)
Yeah, I don't trust Newsweak any further than I can spit, but it is accurate that Goss did leave with lukewarm praise from Bush, and if Kappes is actually being hired back and promoted does seem to lend credence to the story.
Yup, anything from NewWeak is 99.99% probably a lie.
What a bizarre story. A story about nothing it would appear. Either it happened or it didn't.
What I take from this article is that CIA info might not have been compromised, but the fact (according to this article) that no one faced a penalty for allowing the possibility of it to occur is telling.
The CIA 'covered it up' by not taking accountability -- and someone should have. Someone obviously screwed up.
So now we're stuck with the re-institution of that same philosophy -- the CIA 'experts' know better, screw the elected officials. The same attitude that led to the whole Plame fiasco.
Has anyone searched Sandy Burglar's pants?
I happen to know him - and everyone should dismiss their bias against "Newsweek" and place their trust in this honest, filled with integrity reporter. He has good sources, and has been a provan trustworthy writer.
I, for one, took a second look at the article after I saw who wrote it. Everyone else should as well.
Please see my #19 above.
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