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| Home Front: Politix |
| How the CIA Came Unglued |
| 2006-05-12 |
| To understand what went so badly wrong at the CIA under Porter Goss, it's worth examining the career of his executive director, the onomatopoetic Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. His rise illustrates the conservative cronyism, leak paranoia and political vendettas that undermined Goss's tenure. Foggo was an affable employee of the CIA's Directorate of Support, managing logistical activities in Germany, when he came to the attention of then-Rep. Goss and his aides on the House intelligence committee. Foggo is said to have endeared himself to Goss and his staff director, Patrick Murray, by facilitating trips overseas for members of the House panel. More Appeasement When Goss and Murray arrived at the CIA in the fall of 2004, their first choice for the agency's No. 3 job of executive director was a former CIA officer named Michael Kostiw, who had many friends in conservative political circles. But Kostiw's nomination was sabotaged when a CIA insider leaked the fact that he had once been accused of shoplifting. The charges were dropped after Kostiw resigned and agreed to seek counseling. Kostiw's past made him an inappropriate choice for such a senior position, in the view of many career CIA officers, but to Murray the leak was evidence of a liberal cabal at the CIA that was determined to obstruct the Bush administration's agenda. Goss's second choice for executive director was the ingratiating logistical officer. As is standard procedure with such senior appointments, Murray and other senior aides were briefed on Foggo's file, which included what one former CIA official describes as instances of "dumb personal behavior." The briefers included Mary Margaret Graham, then chief of counterintelligence, and Jeanette Moore, then head of the Office of Security, who, according to ABC News, had once reprimanded Foggo about alleged insubordination, though the CIA says a formal letter was never filed. Murray rejected the material about Foggo as petty and is said to have warned Graham, "If this leaks, you're dead." Foggo was duly installed on the seventh floor and, to the amusement of his colleagues, began placing pictures of himself prominently around headquarters. Meanwhile, a period of internal bloodletting ensued that was worthy of the Soviet NKVD under Joseph Stalin. The associate deputy chief of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, Michael Sulick, complained angrily to Murray about his tongue-lashing of Graham, arguing that he was treating CIA officers as if they were Democratic congressional staffers. An indignant Murray thereupon demanded that Sulick be fired for insubordination. His boss, Operations Deputy Director Stephen Kappes, refused Murray's demand, and both he and Sulick resigned. The political fallout from Foggo's appointment continued. Graham left in 2005 to become a top aide to the new director of national intelligence, John Negroponte. Moore, the head of security who had reprimanded Foggo, soon retired; at the time she was the agency's highest-ranking African American woman. And what became of Foggo? As executive director, he is said to have continued as an aggressive CIA logistician, though that sometimes put him crossways with the new DNI structure and magnified the tension between Goss and Negroponte. Foggo also carried on Murray's cold war with the operations directorate, telling agency colleagues that no unit at the CIA was more important than any other and that, in a phrase meant to urge unity, "We're all purple." The sad last act of the Foggo drama involves allegations of corruption. It turned out that he had attended poker parties hosted by his old school pal Brent R. Wilkes, a military contractor whose activities were described in the bribery indictment of former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.). According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the CIA inspector general's office has been investigating whether Foggo, back when he was a support officer in Germany, helped steer to one of Wilkes's companies, Archer Logistics, a roughly $3 million contract to supply bottled water to CIA operatives in Afghanistan and Iraq. Foggo, who resigned from the CIA on Monday, has denied any wrongdoing. The chronic mismanagement of the CIA under Goss and Murray has been an open secret for many months, and the real question is why it took the Bush White House so long to fix it. When I posed this question a few weeks ago to a senior administration official, he repeated the line that the agency was full of leakers and obstructionists. The political vendetta against the CIA went to the top, in other words. It did real damage to the country before President Bush finally called a halt. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #8 I do agree the the 'spook about breaking up the CIA. At least separate the clandestine and paramilitary ops from the analasys and move them to someplace where people like having a CIA. Like my house for example. If that's not big enough build them an HQ in Texas or someplace where less B.S. surrounds them. Lets be honest, the paramilitary part should work closely with U.S. Special Forces and should therefore be on a military base. Good place for the clandestine to be too if you ask me. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2006-05-12 15:06 |
| #7 I spoke with someone today who knows a lot more about the CIA than I do, and he figures just about the same as Oldspook does. He traces the CIA degradation back to the fall of Russia. There was a few years of an extremely confident CIA until it finally sunk in that the major purpose was gone. Without purpose, pride honor and duty tend to erode and we eventually get what we have now. A typical Gov't beaurocracy. To a lot of people at the CIA keeping a job is the most imortant thing going because they have lost that strong feeling of needing to protect the country like they once had. He also concurs that the leaks will continue as they adjust to the new director. Hayden will rub a lot of people the wrong way, which is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, no fires or jailings are likely. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2006-05-12 14:51 |
| #6 As I type this, the FBI is scouring Dusty Foggo's house. Looks like I called this last night. Let's see if anyone has any canoeing accidents on the Potomac in the next day or two. |
| Posted by: Rory B. Bellows 2006-05-12 14:46 |
| #5 There have been some good successes, but recently, other than the Ops finally workign in SW Asia, there's not much out there. And the reason is that the agency IMHO, rotted from within by being led by political hacks and a loss of purpose in the 1990's. It promoted people who were good with twiddling budget numbers, spinning reports, and protecting their jobs and their power in the agency (by curring favor to those like themselves all the way up to Clinton and Bush I). And thats what they did instead of serving the nation, they served themselves. Hayden needs to take a flamethrower to the place. And you'll see even more politically motivated leaks as these rat bastards try to damage the nation in hopes of holding their jobs and power and dishonest way of living. I hope Hayden fires and jails scores of them. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-05-12 14:02 |
| #4 The MSM is trying to pin the CIA's failures on a member of Bush's administration? I'm shocked, I tell you! |
| Posted by: Raj 2006-05-12 08:14 |
| #3 Oldspook: It should be in the nature of of a good clandestine service that the victories are little known. But in the case of the CIA, the defeats over the past thirty years have been so public and so manifest, I've simply got to ask, when was the last time this outfit had any success of any kind? |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2006-05-12 05:10 |
| #2 The Russians figured out a long time ago how to multiply moles at will. The Russians didn't just recruit for the sake of pilfering information, they fed successes to their moles, adjusted disinformation ploys, instructed moles to promote other moles, and forced out the honest and competent talent. The Russians turned the agency into their puppet, and destroyed it in the process. |
| Posted by: Rory B. Bellows 2006-05-12 04:42 |
| #1 The CIA was coming unglued long before Goss got there. Iran hostages Afghanistan. Soviet Union Collapse Iraq invading kuwait 9/11 leak war against th Bush administration the resistance in Iraq Its missed a ton and only succeeded in reducing, not enhancing the secuiryt of the US. It needs to be completely restructured and reformed or else dismantled. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-05-12 04:30 |