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Goss plans post-election (and much-needed) purge of the CIA old guard
Porter Goss' initial moves as CIA director appear to herald a post-election purge at the already troubled spy agency, according to current and former top U.S. intelligence officials. Goss, a former Republican congressman, has put at least four former Capitol Hill Republican staffers into top positions in his CIA office and has given them broad authority to make personnel and restructuring decisions, the current and former intelligence officials said. One of the aides, whose identity Knight Ridder is not disclosing because he served under cover, has been "going around telling people they are to fire 80 to 90 people" in the Directorate of Operations, the CIA's covert arm, according to a former official. His account was repeated by several knowledgeable current and former officials who maintain close ties to the agency.Tensions between an incoming CIA director and the agency's veterans, particularly in the Directorate of Operations, are common, as they are in any large institution resistant to change. Most observers agree the CIA, along with the rest of the U.S. intelligence community, is in need of reform. A Senate Intelligence Committee report issued in July found the CIA's prewar assessment that Iraq had hidden weapons of mass destruction programs was exaggerated, lacked evidence and was driven by "group think." The Directorate of Operations, which oversees clandestine intelligence collection, has been criticized in particular for failing to recruit human spies in Iraq who might have given an accurate picture of Saddam Hussein's regime and WMD programs. But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they were concerned by the partisan affiliation of Goss' team. "If he has brought strongly partisan staff with him - and he has - that seems to call (Goss's pledge) into question," said another top official, who recently left the CIA. A CIA spokesman, who asked to remain unnamed, said Goss has made no decisions on restructuring. "We are not at the structural phase yet," the spokesman said. "These people ought to be given a little time. It's been less than a month since he's (Goss) been sworn in. That goes for some of the people he has brought with him." Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-10-23 |
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