Goss leaves behind a wrecked CIA

The sudden departure of Porter Goss has refocused attention on the dictatorial nature of the Bush administration —an administration obsessed with control and secrecy. Most importantly, it is an administration obsessed with justifying —ex post facto if necessary —Bush's various crimes. Clearly that was the task that had been assigned to Porter Goss and just as clearly the effort has backfired. Goss leaves behind a weaker CIA and more tragically for the nation — a compromised national security.

That was the thesis of my previous article and, it would seem, that Dana Priest of the Washington Post has come to the same conclusion.

CIA chief leaves behind weaker, demoralized agency

During Porter Goss' tenure, the agency saw an exodus of senior officers and a growing uncertainty over its role in fighting terrorism

By Dana Priest, The Washington Post.

WASHINGTON -- Porter Goss was brought into the CIA to quell what the White House viewed as a partisan insurgency against the administration and to re-energize a spy service that failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks or accurately assess Iraq's weapons capability.

But as he walked out the glass doors of the CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters Friday, Goss left behind an agency that current and former intelligence officials say is weaker operationally, with a workforce demoralized by an exodus of senior officers and by uncertainty over its role in fighting terrorism and other intelligence priorities, said current and former intelligence officials.

In public, Goss once acknowledged being "amazed at the workload." Within headquarters, "he never bonded with the workforce," said John Brennan, a former senior CIA official and director of the National Counterterrorism Center until last July.

"Now there's a decline in morale, its capability has not been optimized and there's a hemorrhaging of very good officers," Brennan said. "Turf battles continue" with other parts of the recently reorganized U.S. intelligence community "because there's a lack of clarity and he had no vision or strategy about the CIA's future." Brennan added: "Porter's a dedicated public servant. He was ill-suited for the job."

As a result of all these factors, said these sources and outside experts who work with the CIA, the number of case officers has skyrocketed, but there has been no dramatic improvement in how spies collect intelligence about terrorist targets. ...

I must point out, however, that it was Bush who failed to prevent 911. Bush has the intelligence to act and willfully did not do so.

It was Bush who read and ignored the PDB of August 6th entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the United States!

It was Bush who willfully ignored the warnings of Richard Clark.

It was Bush's state department that warned Taliban representatives —before 911 —that Afghanistan would be carpet bombed if it didn't reach an agreement with U.S. oil companies (Unocal and Exxon-Mobil) on a pipline.

It was Bush's administration that failed to scramble fighters until it was too late.

It was Bush who desparately needed the pretext for war that only an attack on U.S. soil would provide.

It was Bush who was and is willing to compromise American security in order to further a fascist/big oil agenda.

Priest goes on to write that the real battle lines now being drawn are between Negroponte and Donald Rumsfeld. The Bush administration has played politics with this nation's security by appointing war toadies and megalomaniacs to positions of high responsibility. Not content with demoralizing and politicizing the CIA to the detriment of national security, now Bush plays the same game with the Pentagon.

It's all been a tragic disaster for the people of America and the world.

CIA, WMD, War on Terror

---

'Toons by Dante Lee; use only with permission

HOME