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

NY Times ^ | November 14, 2004 | DOUGLAS JEHL

[neverdem]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 - Deep, unresolved tensions between new leaders and senior career officers at the Central Intelligence Agency threaten to set off a rebellion within the agency's clandestine service, according to current and former intelligence officials.

The tensions pit the new intelligence chief, Porter J. Goss, against the C.I.A.'s directorate of operations, the most powerful and secretive part of the agency. Winning allegiance from the career spies within the clandestine service is widely regarded as essential to the success of any intelligence chief.

For now, former intelligence officials say, 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.

The officials said discontent had reached a point not seen at the C.I.A. for more than 25 years, and they expressed concern that an atmosphere of ill will and apprehension could distract the agency from its work in the fight against terrorism.

The tensions have become particularly acute within the agency's directorate of operations, which is responsible for global covert operations, the officials said. Mr. Goss has described the directorate as dysfunctional, but after seven weeks on the job, he has not yet announced personnel changes or set a clear new course, the former intelligence officials said.

Among those at the center of the storm, the officials said, are Steven R. Kappes, who as deputy director of operations is the most senior official still in place from the team at the agency before George J. Tenet resigned as director, and Patrick Murray, a former House Republican aide who is Mr. Goss's new chief of staff.

John E. McLaughlin, the agency's No. 2 official, announced his retirement on Friday afternoon. Mr. McLaughlin had long been expected to step down, and he described his departure as a "purely personal decision." But a former intelligence officials said that Mr. McLaughlin had also warned Mr. Goss on Friday that the tensions had reached a dangerous point, and that Mr. Kappes was threatening to resign, in part because he regards Mr. Murray as undermining his authority.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Mr. Kappes had submitted a letter of resignation but had agreed to delay any decision until Monday. A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment.

Current C.I.A. officials are prohibited from talking to reporters without explicit authorization. The former intelligence officials who agreed to discuss the matter in recent days and weeks would do so only on the condition of anonymity, saying that they did not want to inflame the situation further by speaking for the record. The former officials included both supporters and critics of Mr. Goss's work.

Among those who expressed sympathy with Mr. Goss, several described his task of bringing change to the operations directorate without provoking a rebellion as an enormous challenge. These officials said they believed that Mr. Goss had been thrown off course by an early misstep, when he named an aide, Michael J. Kostiw, as agency's No. 3 official. Mr. Kostiw quickly withdrew from consideration after former intelligence officials mentioned that he had resigned from the C.I.A. in the early 1980's after an administrative leave in connection with a shoplifting case.

"Goss really needs to go in there and clean house," one former official said. "But he can only do that if it's clear that the White House is behind him."

But Mr. Goss's critics among the former officials said that his failure to forge alliances among career officials and to enlist them in setting a new direction for the agency had been highly detrimental. "You can make changes and cast them in the right way, and people will salute and go along with you," one former C.I.A. official said. "It doesn't look like that is happening."

A second former C.I.A. official said: "There's no clear direction from Goss. Does he want people to go west, south, east or west? Nobody knows."

The former officials described morale within the directorate of operations as at the lowest point since the late 1970's, when Stansfield Turner, the director of central intelligence under President Jimmy Carter, imposed changes that forced many officers at the directorate to retire.

At the heart of the tensions is resentment felt at the C.I.A. over criticisms of the agency's performance, particularly on Iraq and its illicit weapons. Many intelligence officials believe the C.I.A. has been unfairly blamed by the White House and Congress for what now appear to have been exaggerated prewar depictions of Iraq's arsenals.

Mr. Goss said in a private speech to agency employees in September that he was determined to encourage greater risk-taking within the operations directorate, as well as other changes intended to improve intelligence collection worldwide. But some former intelligence officials say that any attempt by Mr. Goss to make major changes, particularly in terms of personnel, would be unwarranted.

In some ways, the tensions now evident at the C.I.A. are an outgrowth of those seen since the summer between the White House and the agency over Iraq. After news reports disclosed classified intelligence estimates that cast doubt on rosy assessments of progress in Iraq and the war on terrorism, the White House blamed the C.I.A. for the leak and some Republicans cast the agency as disloyal.

As a former Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and as President Bush's appointee, Mr. Goss is regarded by many within the agency as someone whose primary allegiance lies with the White House.

Mr. Goss's most significant appointments have come in his selection of Mr. Murray, Mr. Kostiw and two other House Republican aides as senior advisers with broad but unspecified authority. Another has been the choice of a veteran C.I.A. logistics officer as the agency's executive director to fill the No. 3 post initially set aside for Mr. Kostiw.

So far, the new executive director has been identified only as Dusty, because he has worked under cover for most of his career. But that has not stopped some former intelligence officials from grumbling that his background does not qualify him to be the agency's day-to-day manager.

[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.