Bloodletting at the CIA
Promises of nonpartisanship were lies and there will be no more telling the public the truth about anything else
Michael Scheuer is the senior intelligence analyst who created and advised a secret CIA unit for tracking and eliminating bin Laden since 1996. He wrote the book Imperial Hubris under the pseudonym “Anonymous”.
Newly minted DCI Porter Goss, now ratified by the election result, has revealed his tool set for disciplining his CIA subordinates. Contrary to promises of non-partisanship sworn before Chairman Pat Roberts and the rest of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Goss has staffed up his office with Republican hatchetmen. And the first to pay the price will be those agency employees who spoke in public about the disasters befalling this country due to manipulation of intelligence, like Michael Scheuer who is already out.
“There will be no more ‘Imperial Hubris’ books,” said an intelligence official quoted in the article linked above. “The word is out: The place is under lockdown.”
The bloodletting since last weekend has included two senior spook managers.
Call the latest shakeup “perception management“, where Bush will now “hear even fewer contradictions to his judgments”.
See also this story and these comments by former intelligence officer and agency critic, Mel Goodman.
November 19th, 2004 at 21:33
So he is now trying a little hubris himself to cover up the fact in 8 years of looking for Bin Laden he failed. sounds like sour grapes to me. He should have been fired after 9/11 and the CIA cleaned out of all the beaurcrats who now are trying to protect ineffective feifdoms of power they control. They should be tossed out on their ass. Now they whining likethe rest of the left to hell with them. Get some real spooks in there to wafe an effective war against terrorism. Tenet didn’t get it done and had to go and if Goss does get it done get someone else in there to do. Our leaders and troops need the best intelligence that we can supply them with it. Not leaks and books written to deflect blame from their own inadequecies.
November 19th, 2004 at 22:41
Will these guys ever give up the power that they are building up now? Bush has moved his personal staff into all of the key posistions of government. These are true believers - and I fear that they may do anything to remain in power. We are moving towards autocracy - I fear for the American republic as each day passes.
Liberation Learning: War and Children
November 19th, 2004 at 23:03
Thanks for the comment, Avenger. But I think you’re missing the point of Goss is up to. The CIA has been over the last four years a big problem for Bush/Cheney, as some sort of intelligence backing for the adventures has been needed.
Many professionals in the Agency, being more or less reality-based, objected to relying on tall-tale spinners like “Curveball” for leading the US into Iraq while Osama enjoyed a fine life in Waziristan or wherever the hell he is.
Why should Bush/Cheney bother setting up a separate lie factory in the second term when they can now have full political control of the CIA itself?
While it’s curious how the Agency came to allow Scheuer to publish in the first place, exposure of these sorts of things is so over now.
Scheuer it seems to me, was a voice crying in the wilderness. Read his book, his letters to his superiors published this month in The Atlantic, and this interview in Talking Points Memo.
November 20th, 2004 at 15:59
To Liberation Learning: Thank you very much for the postings here in Deep Blade Journal. I’ve had a look at your site and strongly recommend it. You ask all the right questions. Thank you.