Newsday, which recently misquoted yours truly, is now quoting the latest avatar of that ubiquitous critter the “CIA Leaker,” latterly known as “a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House.” Whatever. These self-serving bottom feeders of the intelligence world seem to be everywhere except doing their jobs. If they spent half as much time learning Pashtu as they did and do whispering into the ears of Seymour Hersh, et al, the state of our intelligence services might be somewhat better than abysmal.
This particular anonymous leakazoid is sallying forth in defense of Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, “the CIA’s most powerful division,” according to Newsday. Kappes is on his way out and the Bush Administration is evidently happy to see him go. Well, duh. Let’s get serious (Newsday won’t, so somebody better)… that same clandestine services division of the CIA has been a near disaster for the last decade (over two adminstrations, Newsday, got that? Complicated for you?). In fact the CIA, were it a private corporation, would be filing Chapter 11 along with United Airlines by now. Restructing is long overdue (along with those discount tickets to Ft. Lauderdale).
And those of you who always come out when I criticize the CIA to remind me there are good people inside the organization - I know that! But like most bureaucracies, after a certain amount of time, its original intent, in this case intelligence gathering for the defense of a nation, gets distorted into self-preservation of its own structure and personnel. Read Julien Benda’s great La Trahison des clercs for an account of how that happens.
(via Power Line)
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15 Comments
1. DEagle:It’s way past time to clean out the political partisans and lazy bureaucrats from the CIA. I can only hope that Goss has the fortitude to complete the purge
Nov 14, 2004 - 9:02 pm 2. Frank Martin:Last time I checked, the CIA worked for the US Government and not the other way around, someone might want to type up a nice little email and send it around foggy bottom. Maybe a little monday morning team building session that shows the Goverment Org Chart and their role in it.
I’d say the place was due for a purge for some time. Did they project the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union? Come to think of it, has the CIA ever been right about anything? Cuba? Vietnam? Kosovo? Iraq? Iran?
I want spies dammit, not a bunch of monitor watching signals interpreters to tell me what I already know after it happens.
Get rid of these half ass monday morning quarterbacks and get me some people who can overturn a foreign government or assasinate an uncooperative head of state now and then. I want loyal men who know bad things about our enemies and are willing to exploit every advantage we have to win, not preppy boys out to pad their expense accounts and resumes. I cant tell you how much it pissed me off to see that book by ‘anonymous’, whos side is that jackass on? Does he really think that by publishing that book that the president is going to be more likely to listen to his side? A real fricken genius he is. Hows he supposed to topple another government when he cant even deal with one thats on his side?
We need to stop hiring from Harvard and Yale and start hiring from the streets. We need people who know how to get out of comfy cubicle and out under a barbwire fence now and then.
Nov 14, 2004 - 9:27 pm 3. richard mcenroe:Considering how the Dem mouthpieces were chewing on him on MSNBC this morning, Goss is branding at least some sacred cows over there…
Nov 14, 2004 - 9:42 pm 4. Sandy P:The ox has begun being gored. The WP has a story quoting “anonymous” about Goss and the housecleaning.
Bros. Judd has an excerpt but his link didn’t work.
When the CIA doesn’t think the islamofascists and frogistan are more of a threat than the current administration….
Nov 14, 2004 - 11:23 pm 5. Sandy P:Quelle surprise, look who wrote the article, nope, no bias there:
Four Fear New Chief Is Isolating Himself (Walter Pincus and Dana Priest, November 14, 2004, Washington Post)
Within the past month, four former deputy directors of operations have tried to offer CIA Director Porter J. Goss advice about changing the clandestine service without setting off a rebellion, but Goss has declined to speak to any of them, said former CIA officials aware of the communications.
The four senior officials represent nearly two decades of experience leading the Directorate of Operations under both Republican and Democratic presidents. The officials were dismayed by the reaction and were concerned that Goss has isolated himself from the agency’s senior staff, said former clandestine service officers aware of the offers….
Nov 14, 2004 - 11:25 pm 6. David Thomson:ìWe need to stop hiring from Harvard and Yale…î
I long ago concluded that a liberal arts degree from Harvard or Yale should be looked upon with a certain degree of suspicion. Elitist snobbery underpins the thinking processes of many of their graduates. It took our host, after all, decades to undo the damage inflicted upon him during his school years. I normally consider anyone associated with Harvard as an idiot until proven otherwise. This is a common sense approach that should be encouraged.
Nov 15, 2004 - 2:34 am 7. klrfz1:Thanks Roger,
Steven Dutch’s website is enormously entertaining. I don’t know why I clicked on your La Trahison des clercs link since I don’t know French but I’m glad I did.
I also want to preemptively debunk on this thread the oft repeated claim that any clandestine service like the CIA will look bad since their successes must of necessity mostly stay secret. Porter Goss knows the CIA’s secrets, even their successes. So if he has changes to make he probably has good reason.
Nov 15, 2004 - 4:59 am 8. Aulus Gellius:David Thompson quoth:
“I long ago concluded that a liberal arts degree from Harvard or Yale should be looked upon with a certain degree of suspicion. Elitist snobbery underpins the thinking processes of many of their graduates.”
He was responding to Frank Martin’s
“We need to stop hiring from Harvard and Yale.”
I would like to mention that Porter Goss is a Yale graduate.
Let us not replace one kind of snobbery with another.
Nov 15, 2004 - 5:52 am 9. richard mcenroe:Aurelius Gellius ó Yes, but what was Goss’ degree in? It’s not as good as if he was hired from Clemson or Auburn, but it might help…
Nov 15, 2004 - 6:53 am 10. JJay:While we’re on the subjects of spys and secrecy, what happening with the Sandy Berger case? Is that going to be allowed to quietly go away?
Nov 15, 2004 - 6:54 am 11. thibaud:The CIA’s beyond reform. Raze it to the ground. Start over.
And this time, instead of the J Leverett “Buzzy” Saltonstall types, perhaps the geniuses at the Directorate of Operations might recognize the wisdom of recruiting young of this country’s thousands of brilliant young asian-americans who actually speak pashto or farsi or mandarin.
Nov 15, 2004 - 6:57 am 12. thibaud:Everyone from Bob Baer to Reuel Marc Gerecht has admitted that the CIA’s biggest failing is a lack of assets in the middle east. So why the hell do our spies remain predominantly white boys “living like businessmen in suburban houses”, in Baer’s phrase?
Nov 15, 2004 - 7:01 am 13. Jamie Irons:I have a Yale degree in Molecular Biology and Biophysics.
Still, I would be perfectly useless as a spy.
Jamie Irons
Nov 15, 2004 - 7:20 am 14. Patrick Tyson:Porter Goss—Bachelor of Arts in Greek Classics from Yale University in 1960.
Nov 15, 2004 - 11:43 am 15. The Fop:Newsday must be a tax write off for either Castro, Soros, or LaRouche. I can’t imagine Long Island suburbanites actually reading such garbage.
Nov 15, 2004 - 1:50 pm