Tuesday, November 16, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The CIA is an unmitigated mess. That's just a fact. It saw weapons of mass destruction where there weren't any. It failed to warn domestic agencies, namely the FBI, about suspicious figures who ultimately were involved in 9/11. Its resources in the Arab speaking world where they were needed the most have been so bad it never has been able to pinpoint the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. It believed that Iraqi citizens would welcome Americans with open arms. Can anyone spell insurgency and Fallujah?
Now at the most crucial time since the end of the Cuban missile crisis, its mission is being further eroded and disrupted by an all out squabble in the Directorate of Operations, the tail that wags the much larger dog. The warfare, according to reports, stems from unhappiness of Directorate of Operations veterans over changes being made by former Rep. Porter Goss who succeeded George Tenet as overall agency chief. Resignations have come from the deputy director and probably will from other top personnel. Morale is said to be declining rapidly.
Well, the morale of Americans isn't much better when considering that this and the often-incompetent FBI are the lead agencies in keeping the barbarians' bombs away from our gates.
Starting over
Is it any wonder then that there is growing support for tearing up things and beginning again -- which Congress, in effect, has taken a step toward in pending legislation that would create a new overall Central Intelligence Director with budgetary authority over the activities of both the CIA and the FBI? The next move logically would be to create a brand new agency modeled after Britain's MI5 with both domestic and foreign intelligence responsibilities, although that will be some time off.
The latest CIA problem is one that President Bush probably inadvertently brought about with his appointment of Goss. A onetime employee of the agency and chairman of the House committee on Intelligence, Goss seemed a good choice to succeed Tenet despite complaints of partisanship. He may understand agency needs, but apparently he has trouble making changes without causing chaos, if that isn't too harsh a word. He reportedly is relying on personnel, some with CIA backgrounds, who came with him from Capitol Hill and who have ruffled the feathers of agency veterans.
Goss, meanwhile, has refused to listen personally to complaints or advice, if these stories are accurate. Ironically, Louis Freeh made the same mistake when he took over the FBI. He brought with him a cadre of outsiders who angered veterans, and he ended up being considered by many the worst of the bureau's directors since the death of J. Edgar Hoover. While Freeh came from the federal judiciary, one would have thought an elected official with Goss' experience would have understood the political subtleties needed in handling the longtime operatives.
Getting on with it
No matter who is to blame for this nonsense, which includes damaging leaks to the press, James Woolsey, a former CIA director appearing on television Sunday, was correct in his assessment that the agency needs to put it aside and go on with the business of trying to protect the nation from another terrorist disaster. Americans should be outraged at even the suggestion that personnel matters and personality disputes and power struggles are being put above their safety. As their supreme representative, Bush needs to intervene.
Over the decades the CIA has been assaulted by any number of reformers who seemed to cling to the notion that gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail. That silly stance, of course, was put to rest once and for all by 9/11. The super clean concept of national intelligence gathering was first propounded and then imposed on the agency by the misguided former Sen. Frank Church of Idaho. Church's Senate hearings ultimately resulted in demonizing the CIA and virtually destroying human resources in favor of satellite surveillance in key areas like the Middle East. It has no place in today's realities nor would any sane person argue otherwise.
If the agency is to convince Americans that it is populated with mature men and women and not boys and girls playing spy, its top personnel must end the internal conflict. If Goss can't bring this about in an orderly fashion, the man who appointed him should look for someone who can. Perhaps better yet, it may be time to really reform the way we gather intelligence.
X Thomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard.