Newsweek: CIA: 'An Agency Version of the "Jerry Springer Show"'

[RamboLiberal]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9468670/site/newsweek/

Personal and political feuding at CIA headquarters is turning into a soap opera. Morale has declined for months as CIA chief Porter Goss has purged senior managers and critics have assailed the agency for fumbling intelligence on Al Qaeda and unconventional weapons in Iraq. And last week frustrations at Langley, Va., boiled over as career spies lobbed broadsides against Goss's stewardship.

Only sketchy accounts are available of what may have been the most telling critique of Goss's leadership, presented to a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee by veteran operative Rob Richer. Richer served nine months as deputy chief of the CIA's spy branch before resigning earlier this month. He told senators he was unhappy about how Goss ran the agency, including the director's absentee style of management, say three sources familiar with his testimony who declined to be identified because it's classified. Richer "struggled mightily to be respectful but did not pull punches," says one of the sources. (A supporter says Richer isn't speaking to the media.)

[aquart]

1. Goss is another worthless crony appointment.

And, therefore, a danger to us all.

[teryang]

2. The DHS and DNI "reforms" were designed to destroy

...residual institutional power in Executive agencies. The appointment of incompetent sychophants like Brown to FEMA and Goss to CIA was to complete the reduction to impotence.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. You go, career spies!

"And last week frustrations at Langley, Va., boiled over as career spies lobbed broadsides against Goss's stewardship."

I'm hoping they're on our side. :-)

[baldguy]

4. Remember, Goss said the He wasn't qualified to work at the CIA?

That almost guaranteed that Bush would appoint him.

[weiser]

5. We saw what happened when the "unqualified" were appointed at FEMA

...... can you imagine the damage a person "unqualified" to run the CIA can do?


It's probably already starting, but it'll take years to realize the damage caused by Bushits political appointment at the CIA.

[0007]

6. A Banana Republice has the same symptoms.

The man with the most medals on his chest carries the biggest stickl.

0h' 0h, here comes junior with the marine marching band and a big suitcase.

[librechik]

7. how can freepers insist we are a great country still when stuff like this

happens everyday. This incompetent messed up stuff is not MY America! MY America conquered the national debt and reduced poverty! These guys can't even stay the course from the previous administration! They take over the wheel and we drive right into a sandbar! Their pride and hatred of Clinton's makes them destroy everything good about us, just because a Democrat touched it!

That is Un American! We are in this together, damn it, but they want to follow the strutting fascist in his shiny boots--right off a cliff! I'm not with them, and they are a tiny minority.

[depakid]

8. Hey, remember that Dems weren't supposed to fight

that's what most of the responders to Porter Goss threads said when his nomination was up for confirmation.

Something about "strategy" as I recall.

[ugarte]

9. My heart breaks for the poor helpless CIA...

What a tragic loss for humanity, after all the good they've done.

:rofl:

[DubyaSux]

10. Is it possible this is good?

Let's face it, the CIA is old and busted. Maybe these people leaving are being forced out because they can't fit into Goss's version of a new/better CIA. Maybe they are part of the problem and won't become part of the solution.

Don't flame me...I'm not defending anybody. But as fucked up as the CIA is now, it's not like they can make it worse by leaving.

[krkaufman]

14. Ummm... no, it's not good. They're not getting rid of the CIA...

They're purging the CIA of independent personnel, those that they cannot control, and replacing them with stooges.

Whatever ill feelings one might have had of the CIA in the past, the new Bush-appointed CIA should really have you shaking.

[davsand]

11. Unhappy employees leak to the media.

If you were a (p)Resident that had a LOT of dirty laundry you needed to keep under wraps, would YOU piss off a bunch of CIA folks to the point they started quitting? Would YOU piss off CIA employees to the point that Newsweek is writing articles about it being like the Jerry Springer show?

The CIA has never evoked warm fuzzy feelings for me (or most of us, I expect) but it IS, an agency that performs a necessary function--and national security is a large part of that. What Newsweek is telling Americans is that the agency charged with providing information needed for our national security is now messed up to the point that it has become almost a joke. We are not safer...

What I find so particularly fascinating about the entire situation, is that the CIA is probably the ONE agency we have here that has people in it that have experience bringing down dictators and rigging elections--and shrub has pissed THEM off.

I doubt that most of those folks at the CIA are any different than most of us. They go to work, drive home and eat their meatloaf or chicken. They have kids, they own homes and they are AMERICANS. Somewhere along the line they loved this country enough to go into that line of work, and now it is being made a farce by the current regime.

Unhappy government employees talk to the media, and unhappy CIA people maybe have an awful lot to talk to the media about. Some of them even have the past history of bringing down entire regimes thru covert activities and, this has never been proved,(sarcasm)murder.

I wouldn't want to have them all pissed off at me...


Laura

[depakid]

12. So far, it's been a paper tiger

Though I'd like to subscribe to your theory (it does make sense)- I haven't seen any evidence for it... yet.

[davsand]

13. I think the article IS evidence.

How much did we hear in the media about unrest in the CIA under Nixon or Kennedy? Not much, from what I can remember. Yet, a LOT of people speculate that the CIA had something to do with bringing both of those guys down.

I'll grant you that this IS a different time--the media does report in a different way--but even today, you just don't usually see stuff that is unfavorable to the CIA.

There were reports during and post Viet Nam that led us to think the CIA was a bunch of bumbling idjits (rather a useful image to have if you want to be underestimated, really.)

There were reports of individual turf wars inside the agency.

There have never been reports (that I can remember, anyway) of THIS level of anger inside the agency, nor have there been reports that make it seem almost comical. If anything, there has been speculation the the media is semi-controlled by our CIA...

Frankly, just seeing an article like this one makes me wonder how big the internal CIA civil war really is.


Laura

[weiser]

15. CIA are responsible for the torture in Iraq...

If you read the transcript of the latest torture reports to surface, you'd see that the Intelligence Agent, would take the suspects away and torture them for information....

The CIA are "primarily" responsible for all the torture that has occurred under the watchful eye of Bush...

[Mr Rabble]

17. Wrong. Thats DIA or military intelligence.

Even contractors are in on the torture. Since they are contractors, they are not bound by Geneva- according to *.

while CIA may indeed have a role, the primary actors in the torture are not CIA.

[CJCRANE]

16. Gossie's doing "a heck of a job" nt