Porter Goss Begins Destroying The CIA
by Steve Soto
George W. Bush’s politicization of the CIA through his installation of the partisan hack Porter Goss is already paying dividends – of the worst kind. As a result of the heavy-handed partisan atmosphere enveloping the Agency since Goss came over with his highly political staff from the House Intelligence Committee, senior staff are leaving the Agency, with more on the way.
The deputy director of the CIA resigned yesterday after a series of confrontations over the past week between senior operations officials and CIA Director Porter J. Goss's new chief of staff that have left the agency in turmoil, according to several current and former CIA officials.
John E. McLaughlin, a 32-year CIA veteran who was acting director for two months this summer until Goss took over, resigned after warning Goss that his top aide, former Capitol Hill staff member Patrick Murray, was treating senior officials disrespectfully and risked widespread resignations, the officials said.
Yesterday, the agency official who oversees foreign operations, Deputy Director of Operations Stephen R. Kappes, tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Murray. Goss and the White House pleaded with Kappes to reconsider and he agreed to delay his decision until Monday, the officials said.
Several other senior clandestine service officers are threatening to leave, current and former agency officials said.
"It's the worst roiling I've ever heard of," said one former senior official with knowledge of the events. "There's confusion throughout the ranks and an extraordinary loss of morale and incentive."
Current and retired senior managers have criticized Goss, former chairman of the House intelligence committee, for not interacting with senior managers and for giving Murray too much authority over day-to-day operations. Murray was Goss's chief of staff on the intelligence committee.
Transitions between CIA directors are often unsettling for career officers. Goss's arrival has been especially tense because he brought with him four former members of the intelligence committee known widely on the Hill and within the agency for their abrasive management style and for their criticism of the agency's clandestine services in a committee report.
Three are former mid-level CIA officials who left the agency disgruntled, according to former colleagues. The fourth, Murray, who also worked at the Justice Department, has a reputation for being highly partisan. When senior managers have gone to Goss to complain about his staff actions, one CIA officer said, Goss has told them: "Talk to my chief of staff. I don't do personnel."
The overall effect, said one former senior CIA official, who has kept up his contacts in the Directorate of Operations, "is that Goss doesn't seem engaged at all."
So let’s recap: a political hack who isn’t engaged and doesn’t care about personnel, who allows his cadre of political hacks he brought over from the House to run roughshod over the Agency at a time when accurate intelligence is essential on Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and the Middle East. And this comes after the “anonymous” author of a recent critique from within of the Agency’s hunt for Bin Laden is himself now leaving so that he can critique the Agency more directly.
I wonder how those Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee now feel about giving Goss a pass at his confirmation hearings.