Bury Me Broken

Goss Still Struggling as CIA head

With almost a year in his position, Bush appointee to head the C.I.A., Porter Goss is still struggling according to a New York Times article:

Current and former intelligence officials say considerable turmoil remains within the agency, particularly within the directorate of operations, which is responsible for human spying around the world. The directorate's No. 2 official, Robert Richer, has become the most recent high-ranking official to announce his departure, and he has told officials at the White House and in the C.I.A. that he had lost confidence in Mr. Goss.

Of course, this reporter is in lockstep with the rest of the media repeating the notion of failure of intelligence on the 'war on terrorism' and Iraq as part of the trouble at the CIA:

Mr. Goss's task was bound to be complicated, partly because the agency was reduced in power and stature by the reorganization of intelligence after its failures on terrorism and Iraq.

The problem is that there weren't massive failures of intelligence on terrorism and Iraq. When this administration was spewing about aluminum tubes for enriching uranium, experts were saying they were for missiles. When this administration was spweing about drones dispersing chemical and biological weapons over here, experts were saying that Iraq didn't have that technological capability. When this administration received the August 6 PDB saying "that "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings," this administration failed to act on it. When this administration was told the yellowcake uranium attempted purchase in Niger was not true, the president used it in his state of the union address anyway.

This administration has been chocked full of ivory tower theorists with little hands on experience. So it doesn't come as any surprise that Goss would come in and his aides swashbuckling their 'change is on the horizon' swill would cause the #1 and #2 senior members of the CIA to leave along with countless others. The whole cowboy, 'dead or alive,' 'bring 'em on,' Bolton to the UN and cronyism appointments is just a continual downward spiral of this administration and America with them.

posted by niteskolar @ 12:13 AM