Goss Plan to Strengthen CIA Is Ready

[Rose Siding]

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 16, 2005; Page A02

CIA Director Porter J. Goss plans to deliver to President Bush today his plans for increasing by 50 percent the number of clandestine operations officers and analysts to expand U.S. intelligence on terrorist networks and to counter the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, according to senior intelligence officials.

Goss will stress, as he did last year, that he wants to get more people overseas, "in the field," including not just clandestine officers but also knowledgeable analysts, one senior administration official said yesterday. His plan will focus on recruiting more officers and analysts who "look, sound and talk like" the groups being spied on, so that they "can have close access and learn plans and intentions," the official added.
...
"It is easy to say you are going to vastly increase the case officer output . . . but much harder to do in reality," said a senior official with long experience in clandestine service.
...
Another former operations officer said the agency had already begun to "change their whole way of doing things." An officer used to be able to use an embassy job as a cover for recruiting agents -- local people who could approach Russians or Chinese, he said. But people at embassy cocktail parties are not today's targets in the fight against terrorists. "You have to get out of the embassies and recruit 'dirtballs,' or . . . people who can get to those people," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27348-2005Feb15.html?nav=rss_politics

[Tempest]

1. How can he strengthen the CIA

After he purged it of all its long-time agents?


Orwell is spinning in his grave.

[leveymg]

6. It's called a "decapitation strike". Purge all the experience officers

makes everyone who replaces them afraid to do anything.

Stalin wiped out the Red Army officer corps in 1937-38. Look at the result. When the Germans launched their invasion along the Eastern Front, the Russian front-line comanders were so terrified that most did not even use their radios to report the German attack.

How is this going to make us safer? Go figure. :shrug: :eyes:

[DistantWind88]

9. How many agents did he purge?

What percentage of the long-time agents are now gone?

[Tempest]

11. No idea on how many, they never said

But from all the articles I've read, it was quite a few.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=goss+cia+purge

[DistantWind88]

12. Not even an estimate of numbers

I think he got rid of some of the higher ups, but what about the real worker bees?

[Tempest]

13. The worker bees were the ones let go, along with management

If I had to guess, I'd say more than 25% of the agents who had been in the CIA for more than 5 years.

I've read at least 10 different quotes from those let go, which obviously was just the tip of the iceburg.


And it's not so much how many were let go, it was the reason given for letting them go. They were let go because they either disagreed with Bush, or gave him intelligence he didn't like.

[DistantWind88]

14. I've seen nothing that says that

25% of the CIA's workforce had been let go. Do you have anything supporting that, or is it merely a WAG?

[Tempest]

15. What part of "if I had to guess" didn't you understand?

Read some of the articles from the Google search result I cited.

It'll give you some idea of how many were let go.

Pay particular attention to the direct quotes from Goss.

[DistantWind88]

17. I read them

Sorry if I upset you, not my intent. I see that Goss got rid of several senior members, but not large numbers of rank and file workers. I was just looking for some evidence of that; nothing more.

[insane_cratic_gal]

2. The brainwashing is in place n/t

[librechik]

3. DUCK!

[TahitiNut]

8. You called?

[Norquist Nemesis]

4. And Rummy "sees" another terror attack on the horizon

Wheeeeeee!!!

[mr_hat]

5. "Weakness is strength. Blindness is sight."

[papau]

7. Goss to Deliver Plan for Strengthening CIA

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-security-cia.html

Goss to Deliver Plan for Strengthening CIA - - Report
By REUTERS

Published: February 16, 2005


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA Director Porter Goss plans to deliver to President Bush on Wednesday plans for strengthening the intelligence service as recommended by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks, The Washington Post reported.

Last fall, Bush ordered Goss to submit within 90 days plans for the Central Intelligence Agency to increase by 50 percent the number of intelligence agents and officers in the clandestine unit, which recruits foreign spies and conducts covert operations overseas. Bush also sought to double the number of officers engaged in research and development.

A senior administration official told The Washington Post that Goss will stress that he wants to get more people overseas, ``in the field,'' not just clandestine officers but also knowledgeable analysts.

The official was quoted as saying the Goss plan will focus on recruiting more officers and analysts who ``look, sound and talk like'' the groups being spied on.<snip>

[TahitiNut]

10. "look, sound and talk like" ... 'dirtballs'

Well, birds of a feather and all that. If there were ever a cabal with such attributes, this one is it.

[Supersedeas]

16. knowledgable analysts like Valerie Plame in the field--ah, maybe not

she is politically expendable