Time: Sidelining the CIA (WH memo excludes Goss from NSC mtgs)

[Rose Siding]

...The biggest changes in Washington often come about with just a few strokes of the pen. And so a dry, one-page internal memo quietly issued by the White House is being viewed as a kind of eulogy for the once mighty Central Intelligence Agency. After nearly 60 years at the pinnacle of American intelligence—and at the elbow of Presidents—the CIA director is no longer automatically welcome at the President's National Security Council (NSC) meetings. John Negroponte, the new director of National Intelligence, has taken his chair.

It's the latest evidence that Negroponte is consolidating his power as the nation's intelligence czar. The May 2 memo, obtained by TIME and also reported late last week by GovWatch.com, states that "effective immediately," Negroponte will participate in meetings of the NSC and its domestic counterpart, the Homeland Security Council (HSC). Meanwhile, CIA Director Porter Goss "will attend NSC and HSC meetings at the direction of the President."

That's the polite Beltway equivalent of saying, "Don't call us. We'll call you."...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1069065,00.html

[ckramer]

1. I think this is a serious mistake by messing up with CIA

Not good. Not good for the country.

[dArKeR]

22. When the Bad Guys become the Good Guys!

Could the Christians screw up America and world more?

[mbperrin]

2. Well, Porter, looks like you got rewarded for your years of

butt-kissing beyond the call of duty! While you were kissing, someone else was topping you!

How bout a nice cleansing enema?

Oh, and congrats to Negroponte, for still not ending up swinging from a rope for war crimes! How's it feel, buddy, to still be at large and gettin' the big promotion?!

Oh, say hi to the other guys on the death squad, k?

[KoKo]

3. Very odd...did they put Porter Goss in because they knew he would comply?

He would sit back and say...well that's just great...leave it to Negroponte?

[Dover]

4. Of course. Goss is incompetant in the position, except as a wrecking ball

They want control over intelligence by creating their own and essentially deleting the other by slowly removing their relevance to the main body (like cutting off the CIA's blood supply).

Goss won't go down with the CIA. They'll simply give him a new "host" to suck the life out of when he's through there.

[Supersedeas]

20. Ah, more layers of bureaucracy--Republican Smaller Govt?

[gordianot]

5. Typical

Cooperation in intelligence forget it. Rumsfeld and other Bush criminals have replaced the CIA.

[pfitz59]

6. Death-squad Negroponte........

seated at the right-hand of power. Do you suppose Shrub ever attends NSC meetings, or is it just Cheney, Kind-sleezy, Rummie and Negroponte?

[RamboLiberal]

7. Time Mag: Sidelining the CIA (Excluded from NSC Meetings)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1069065,00.html

Sidelining the CIA A new White House memo excludes CIA director Porter Goss from National Security Council meetings The biggest changes in Washington often come about with just a few strokes of the pen. And so a dry, one-page internal memo quietly issued by the White House is being viewed as a kind of eulogy for the once mighty Central Intelligence Agency. After nearly 60 years at the pinnacle of American intelligence—and at the elbow of Presidents—the CIA director is no longer automatically welcome at the President's National Security Council (NSC) meetings. John Negroponte, the new director of National Intelligence, has taken his chair.

It's the latest evidence that Negroponte is consolidating his power as the nation's intelligence czar. The May 2 memo, obtained by TIME and also reported late last week by GovWatch.com, states that "effective immediately," Negroponte will participate in meetings of the NSC and its domestic counterpart, the Homeland Security Council (HSC). Meanwhile, CIA Director Porter Goss "will attend NSC and HSC meetings at the direction of the President."

That's the polite Beltway equivalent of saying, "Don't call us. We'll call you."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. I'm not so sure it's a good idea to piss off the CIA.

Those guys know stuff...

[madrchsod]

10. no shit..

love them or hate them ,no doubt we have avoided some very bad things happening to us by their work. i wonder how dad is taking the dismantling of his beloved cia.

[truth2power]

16. I disagree, ocelot.

DUers have been saying, "Don't piss off the CIA", for a couple of years now. I don't see where Bush's abuse of the CIA has made one bit of difference.

Maybe I'm just in a blue funk today, but I don't see anything that would take Bush down. Sorry. Tired of getting my hopes up.

[havocmom]

17. They best be getting around to ACTING on what they know

Surely there are some spooks who really are in it for love of country who see the neocon junta as coming in somewhere under 'enemies foreign AND domestic'.

Fellas, do you love America or not? Do you believe the Constitution is worth defending or not?

Time to get on with the chess game and take the junta down.

[seemslikeadream]

9. Et tu Peter?

[kenny blankenship]

11. Speak Historians and tell me, Is this like when

Hitler gave the SA and SS, which were Nazi party organizations, official state POLICE powers ?
You know, replace an established non-partisan civil service or "augment it" with a new department which is under direct political control of the ruling party (soon to be the only party allowed to exist)?

[BattyDem]

12. I thought ...

the reason we needed a department of Homeland Security was because the intelligence agencies weren't communicating with each other, which allowed the terrorists to slip through the cracks. So ... how does eliminating CIA participation in intelligence meetings make us safer?


By the way ...
You don't spit in the wind,
You don't tug on Superman's cape,
and you don't piss off the CIA!

[dArKeR]

13. I thought it's been done to increase the time-table of Armageddon!

[cap]

14. you cant recreate the body of knowledge and contacts in the CIA

in a couple of years. We will have a major OOPS.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Many warned the cabal not to mess with CIA -- looks like the cabal won...

which should give us a terrifying idea of the kind of people we're dealing with here, and the kind of people who now wield almost absolute power over our country.

[cap]

18. I dont think it's over till it's over

I am waiting for our version of "Deep Throat".

[fujiyama]

19. They've been sidelining

the CIA for years now.

The whole point is to politicize the intelligence. THat was what Cheney created in the run up to the war. They created another intelligence agency/commitee when they realized the CIA wasn't telling what they wanted to hear.

These agencies were originally contructed so that they would be as free of political interference as possible. That's the way intelligence should be collected.

Not so anymore.

[dchill]

21. Well, Porter himself said...

that he wasn't qualified for the job. Who needs the CIA when you've got Rove & Negroponte?