Dec

What in the World is Going on at Langley?

I’ve thought so for a few years now but today, it’s official. The CIA is out of control.

President Bush’s enduring failure has been his inability to take the CIA and the State Department in hand and remind the career bureaucrats in each place exactly who their boss is (Hint: He lives in a big white house. He does not work in a cubicle or office). It started with hiring the feckless Colin Powell and retainind the clownishly-incompetent George Tenet and it’s continued to this day. Things really took a bad turn when the whiners at the CIA manages a coup against Porter Goss, the one man in a decade who look as if he had the gumption to turn the CIA back into a functional and competent part of our national security apparatus. Alas, politics won the day and the CIA stumbles along, as dysfunctional as ever.

It should be obvious today. The CIA is out of control and, short of cleaning house almost completely, I can’t imagine how it might be fixed.

UPDATE: Bryan at Hot Air says that a good part of the blame lies with Congress for not having the courage to do its job and clearly legislate what is and is not legal. It’s a compelling argument and lays a lot of blame on the most vocal Senator on the issue, John McCain. I think he has a lot of it right. Congress has used waterboarding and the so-called torture techniques as political brickbats instead of taking care of the interrogators who are doing a very difficult job and who have, thus far, done their part to keep us safe from another terrorist attack.

Posted by Jimmie The Good Old US of A Subscribe to RSS feed

4 Responses to “What in the World is Going on at Langley?”

Maggio says:
December 7, 2007 at 12:28
“It should be obvious today. The CIA is out of control and, short of cleaning house almost completely, I can’t imagine how it might be fixed.”
Put them in uniform. Subject them to the chain of command with the very real threat of courts martial, and or dishonorable discharge. They may not like the CIC, but if they leak or undermine him, their lives can be easily ruined by an Article 32 hearing. Try getting one of those post government service, big money consulting positions with a dishonorable discharge on your record.
nannyloulou says:
December 8, 2007 at 08:09
J: “Porter Goss, the one man in a decade who look as if he had the gumption to turn the CIA back into a functional and competent part of our national security apparatus.”
Um, this happened on PG’s watch, bud.
Jimmie says:
December 8, 2007 at 08:14
I realize that. That obviates my point how, nanny?
nannyloulou says:
December 9, 2007 at 00:14
J: “I realize that. That obviates my point how, nanny?”
You’re saying Goss was an angel, yet Rodriguez was Goss’s guy. Here’s the official story:
A career spy, Rodriguez was promoted to the job by then-CIA Director Porter Goss.
Goss learned of the tapes’ destruction “a couple of days” after it happened, a government official familiar with the events said. The official said Goss did not order an investigation or inform Congress.
Goss was upset by the tapes’ destruction but did not take any action because the decision was within Rodriguez’s authority, a former intelligence official told the AP. The CIA’s spy service has broad latitude to take actions to protect operational security.
“Though Goss believed this was a bad judgment it falls within prerogatives of the directorate of operations,” said the former official, who like other current and former officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
http://ap.google.com/article/A.....gD8TDJE5O0
It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that Goss knew or even put him up to it. Goss put him in his job, which implies a close, trusted relationship. Bush put Goss in. He didn’t alert anyone even though he knew Congress wanted the tapes. Taking the CIA’s above explanation at face value is the height of naivete’. Of course, it’s all supposition on both our parts. We’ll see what comes out in the hearings.