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| Spy Agency Fiasco |
| 2009-08-18 |
| Three former CIA directors have privately told their successor he had his facts wrong when he revealed an illegal assassination program, reports Joseph Finder, and his spies will suffer for it. CIA Director Leon Panetta stunned Washington earlier this summer by disclosing, in an emergency closed-door briefing to Congress, that for the last eight years, the agency he now runs illegally concealed a secret terrorist-assassination program. The reaction was predictably explosive. The House intelligence-oversight committee launched a major investigation. Here was official confirmation, from the very top, that the CIA in the Bush years had been flagrantly and systematically violating the National Security Act of 1947. But according to a half-dozen sources, including several very senior, recently retired CIA officials, clandestine-service officers, and Cabinet-level officials from the Bush administration, the real story is at once more innocent--Panetta was mistaken; no law was broken--and far more troubling: an inexperienced CIA director, unfamiliar with how his vast, complicated agency works, unable to trust senior officials within his own agency, and desperate to keep his hands clean, screwed up. Absolutely in-f*cking-credible. Panetta must go. Now. What good would that do? |
| Posted by:Spot |
| #13 The CIA seem to be doing a pretty good job in Pakistan... Lots of useful missile strikes there lately. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-08-18 22:25 |
| #12 "Spy Agency Fiasco" You'll have to be a lot more specific than that.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-08-18 19:56 |
| #11 They would then scrap CIA, Fixed it for you. During the Cold War the CIA's primary mission was monitoring the Soviet Union and it's satellites. Despite spending billions the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union took them by surprise. The CIA failed to warn us of the fall of the Shah in Iran, nuclear development in Pakistan, lack of WMD's in Iraq, and the 9/11 attacks. All told, a long expensive record of failure. About the only thing that the agency has excelled at is leaking information to the NY Times. I don't expect Obama to do anything to 'fix' the CIA. I doubt that his administration is capable of that. But when a competent administration takes office, the CIA needs to be scrapped and restarted from square one. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-08-18 17:01 |
| #10 Ms. Sebelius, your insurance does not cover things said during pms/ menopausal outburst. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2009-08-18 16:59 |
| #9 Importantly, the CIA's problems have the same origins as the problems that MI6 experienced, from "Honorable Schoolboys". MI6 recruited classmates from Cambridge, the CIA upper management from Yale, and because of their school associations, they ignored trespasses that turned out to be critical. The Cambridge boys brought in several who were spies for the Russians, and the Elis (Yale) brought in individuals who were so personally ambitious, that they saw their jobs as mere stepping stones. This problem is so widespread among Ivy League graduates, that they are sometimes referred to as "corporate cancer", each one acting like a metastasized cancer cell, loyal not to their employer, but to their classmates, and filled with ruthless ambition of self promotion at the expense of whoever hires them. Taking over all the upper level management jobs at CIA, they then won't let anyone else in, and stop dead all efforts at reform or efficiency. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-08-18 16:59 |
| #8 Like Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Director Panetta simply.... "misspoke." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-08-18 13:28 |
| #7 A courageous president and a Congress with insight and fortitude would ask a simple question: "what kind of intelligence agency do we need today?" Just what we really need and don't have. Also, the same question needs to be adapted for our financial disaster: "What kind of regulatory practices do we need today?" Instead, our whatever-he-is President and our Congress with whatever-qualities persist in doing more and more of what we don't need. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-08-18 12:27 |
| #6 Waiting for a MSM outlet to pick this up. Waiting.....waiting...... waiting...... |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2009-08-18 10:48 |
| #5 Panetta is not the problem. Oh, he's a political operative who doesn't know much at all about intel or how one gathers and uses intel, and he doesn't know much about covert operations, and he certainly isn't a man of principle who would stand up for his agency and his people. But he's not the problem, and firing him doesn't solve anything. CIA is broken and broken badly. It had a purpose at one time. It did that job, and part of its success is that we'll never know how it did its job. It has also missed lots of opportunities to advance our interests and has badly missed on important events in the world. Like other government institutions that don't work, it was formed in a different time for a different purpose, and now exists mainly to ensure that it continues to exist. That in turn leads to current stupidities and political chicanery. A courageous president and a Congress with insight and fortitude would ask a simple question: "what kind of intelligence agency do we need today?" They would then scrap CIA, keep the parts that are still useful, and build a new intel agency. That's not going to happen, and that's why firing Panetta doesn't solve anything. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-08-18 10:48 |
| #4 #3 Let's see if he does the honorable thing and falls on his sword. Posted by: Richard of Oregon he's a Democrat. Don't hold your breath |
| Posted by: Frank G on the road 2009-08-18 10:36 |
| #3 Let's see if he does the honorable thing and falls on his sword. |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2009-08-18 10:34 |
| #2 He is an absolute disgrace as are all obama appointees. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-08-18 10:15 |
| #1 Fiasco: a small bottle of Italian wine. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-08-18 10:06 |