Actually, I believe that the CIA is a highly competent organization, or at least it was and only in comparison to other Washington institutions. This is from evidence from my wife's uncle who was in The Agency for many years (that nickname is always capitalized).
Like any bureaucracy I'm convinced it follows the 80-20 rule. 80% of the work (both quality and quantity) is done by no more than 20% of the workers. My impression was that The Agency was quite close to 80-20, while most Washington bureaucracies were closer to 95-5. In recent history that mix hasn't changed, but I believe that the Clintonistas maneuvered "politically reliable" types in the 80% of incompetent drones into positions of power and they're still there.
That's where operations like Feith's team or Able Danger came from, competent people fed up with the worthless pap being fed to them who started going around the bad bureaucrat's self serving "analysis" and trying to get at the raw data from the competent sources. What's truly frightening is the treatment the Able Danger people got and what Feith is going through now. It reminds me of the portrayels of the worst of the inherent corruption and petty "empire building" within the Roman and Byzantine governments during their last days.
If you ever have a chance to read the stories of Winston Churchill's "wilderness years" (my favorite is The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester) pay attention to the story of Ralph Wigram for the personal story that really crystalized this view for me.
ilovew....I am pinging you to this post, #659...where he references Winston Churchill...
I thought you might be interested...:-)