Spymaster Disaster

To put it mildly.

Spymaster Disaster:

"In judging George W. Bush's choice to fill the vacancy created at the CIA by the sudden (and unexplained) resignation of its director, Porter Goss, let's start with a basic assumption: In the post-9/11 world, the United States does need solid and smart intelligence. The CIA has a long history of terrible abuses, embarrassing excesses and inexcusable screw-ups--including failure to detect the 9/11 plot, despite having a bead on at least two of the hijackers, and failure to assess Iraq's WMD capabilities accurately. But it would be a mistake to dwell only on the CIA's record and forget to insist that taxpayers--for the $40 billion or so spent each year on the intelligence agencies--should receive something of value for their money: a CIA that can deliver reliable intelligence without creating more problems than it solves. That description does not fit the agency of late. Under George Tenet it blew the most important intelligence question after September 11--Iraq's WMDs--and it has been collapsing internally in recent years, with experienced officers and new recruits leaving in droves in response to Goss's partisan broom. Some analysts feel it has become tougher for them to do an honest job. "