Monday, November 15, 2004

More Pro-Goss Sentiment from Smart People

It seems that John McCain also back Goss. He says that "a shake-up is absolutely necessary."

Battered by Hayes and McCain, I now find my position--that this has all the earmarks of political hackwork--supported only by Jane Harman (Jane Harman!) who says that the resignations were caused by Goss's "highly partisan inexperienced staff." Thanks for the help, Congressperson Harman.

Still, I maintain that this smells like the type of petty bureaucratic infighting practiced all over Capitol Hill and in the Bush administration by people like Galley Enemies B.C. and M.G. (You know who you are!)

And I remain unconvinced that a better leader, like Bob Mueller, couldn't have shaken things up without sparking a revolt. Of course, I'm open persuasion if someone wants to argue that the institutional culture of the CIA is markedly different than FBI.

As one of America's most beloved figures once asked, Why not the best?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

To understand the magnitude of Mr. Goss’s challenge, look at “Wild Bill” Donovan’s Office of Strategic Services, or OSS. As you know, the OSS was the original American foreign-intelligence organization, created by Donovan under the imprimatur of FDR, during WW2. It took Donovan mere months to put together one of the most capable spy organizations in the world. Now, compare the extreme functionality of that relatively miniscule organization to the bloated, inept, incompetent, and politically riddled behemoth of a bureaucracy that is today’s CIA. If Porter Goss can return the CIA to even a ‘shadow’ of the former OSS, he has my permission to sack every single person in it and start over; not that I imagine such to be necessary. However, it WILL be necessary to prune a LOT of dead wood. We are at war and intelligence is pivotal to our survival. We can no longer afford the luxury of nurse-maiding this corrupt, political dinosaur.

Yes, I know it isn’t their fault. Yes, I know that Frank Church and Jimmy Carter did everything in their power to destroy the CIA … and, aided by a Democrat controlled Congress, fairly succeeded. Does that alter the fact that today’s CIA can’t find its ass with both hands? No. So, what’s a mother to do? A mother who wants to see the sun rise over the Capitol dome instead of a thermonuclear fireball will pick the cream of the crop, transfer them into a new intelligence organization, then transfer the remainder into an administrative services support organization. Once this is done, the ASSO can be restructured in a manner and according to a schedule that suits the purpose without affecting the intelligence function. See? It may require big cojones, but isn’t that hard.

Well, Mr. Goss, why are you still here? … Time is of the essence.

markvanjb@aol.com