New Chief Sets Off Turmoil Within the C.I.A.

NY Times ^ | November 14, 2004 | DOUGLAS JEHL

[neverdem]

Deputy chief resigns from CIA (CIA Said to Be in Turmoil Under New Director Goss)

That link is to the WaPo story. Use bugmenot.com if you don't want to register with WaPo.

[oceanview]

clean 'em out.

[corkoman]

flush the place - its a beurocracy best suited to defending itself

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

Gut `em like a rotten fish.

Toss out all NYT/WaPo liberal plants and Clintonistas.

All your intelligence are belong to us!

[CWOJackson]

Tension? Another term for pending unemployment?

[denydenydeny]

The pigs are squealing. In this case, to the New York Times and Washington Post.

[StJacques]

I've posted this elsewhere before when discussing the CIA, but I'll post it again now.

I believe the CIA has done too much recruiting among the eastern schools over the years, and especially among the Ivy League. And they've gotten just what they've bargained for, a bunch of over-sensitive Mama's boys obsessed with their own sense of self-importance, who'll go along with the rest of the gang (group think) so as not to cause waves within the establishment and never think twice about leaking sensitive information to media reporters who know how to pander to their inflated sense of being.

I hope Goss cleans house outright!

[Gibtx]

clean the house...... middle managment .....

[dasboot]

all their sources in jeopardy

[5Madman2]

I know Tom Clancy writes fiction, but in one of his books he described an initiative within the CIA to recruit cops and security types as case officers, people that are used to developing, training ang working informants.

As a theory-might not be a bad way to go, given our lack of HUMINT

[Whispering Smith]

Concur.

[dasboot]

Probably correct, because my kid was a a recruitment seminar for FBI and associated agencies about a year ago. She was told by the recruiter that they would not even consider any with a Lib Arts degree anymore....only candidates from engineering, hard sciences, and preference for military and para-military schools (merchant academies, West Point, Navy Academy, etc. CIA may follow suit??
(kiddo is an engineer and deck-licensed Merchant Marine officer...they told her to ring them when she turned 25. My kid...the spook?)

[SierraWasp]

The new broom must sweep clean!!!

[cookcounty]

" many career C.I.A. officers do not know whether to regard Mr. Goss as someone dispatched by the White House to punish the agency for past failures, or to rebuild its capabilities to make it stronger. "

Uh, probably both.

[StJacques]

I think Tom Clancy is worth mentioning too Madman, and I also recall reading that, because I read EVERYTHING that Clancy writes, at least everything in the "Jack Ryan" series. In fact, my reading of Clancy was in part what motivated me to post what I did.

I believe the CIA could benefit from people who think in terms of the "real world," knowing that very basic human emotions like greed, love and hate, pride, megalomania, and more are a natural part of the human condition. As field agents, the "security types" you mention would be perfect. But even at the analysis level, you need people who are not so prone to fall into those traps that "nations act in terms of their interests" and that "no one wants to undermine the system that preserves the right of nations." The reality of human life is subjective and people with plain common sense and an exposure to the real world understand "the human factors" and the way they impact the behavior of nations much better than the "academic types."

And by the way, as an individual with an advanced college education in the Liberal Arts, I fall under the heading of the "academic type." I think I know them better than anyone.

[trentonrevolution]

It's a shame they aren't recruiting people with liberal arts backgrounds. I have a liberal arts background. I guess having knowledge of history and the classics and the analytical skills they teach really aren't that important when trying to understand both short and long range cause and effect.
The inability to separate one definition of the word "liberal" from the other goes to show what deep doo-doo we really are in. It's like we used to say, you can always tell an engineer, you just can't tell them much.

[Cicero]

The liberal arts as they used to be taught were a fine preparation. The problem is they are not being taught properly any more. It's all deconstruction, gender studies, "theory," and other kinds of politicized nonsense.

A liberal education should prepare you to do anything; but it's a scarce commodity these days. You pretty much have to plan your own studies on the side and do your own reading, because most of the teaching is completely useless.

Harvard, Yale, and Princeton used to turn out a lot of very capable people. Yale and Princeton were even conservative. No more. Now they're all packed with PC idiots.

[5Madman2]

Yes, I understand. I am a high school dropout that worked his way through over 20 yrs in the AF and I am now a cop. I have a personal affection for Clancy's theory.

I think we can be served better by people that have done some "living" along the way than Ivy league Theorists.

If you look at President Bush's history, he has an Ivy League background coupled with some "living" along the way.

Personal trials, successes, failures, and an understanding of life. It may be the philosophy he directed Mr Goss to have.

We can only hope it is true and that it has results

[trentonrevolution]

Liberal Arts and a liberal education are two totally different things. I would define Liberal Arts curriculum as a catch-all designation. It can be where an 18 year old can go to fulfill an obligation to his/her parents in order to keep the gravy train rolling. It also attracts 11.25* thinkers, people who don't feel comfortable being put in a box, more like those who can't stay inside the lines. When that personality becomes disciplined they have the capacity to become great leaders as they can view a problem from many different perspectives.
A liberal education is nothing more than an excuse for a classroom of 30 kids or so "discovering themselves". In other words, being kept in a holding pen so the rest of us can live without disruption for a while.

[CyberAnt]

GOOD!

TICK OFF ALL THE PRIMA DONNAS AND GET RID OF THEM.