- The new US director of central intelligence, Porter Goss,
told CIA staff this week their job was "to support the Bush administration
and its policies in our work", stirring a new controversy over the
future of the agency.
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- The memorandum, circulated on Monday, was attacked by
critics as an attempt to suppress dissent, particularly over Iraq, and
ensure the agency only produces assessments the White House wants to hear.
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- But a CIA spokesman insisted yesterday that Mr Goss's
note was not a call for partisan support but rather "intelli gence
support" intended to help policy-makers in their decisions.
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- "The Central Intelligence Agency is not a policy
organisation," the spokesman said.
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- The note comes at a raw time for the agency, in the wake
of high-profile resignations and a campaign by Mr Goss to weed out leakers.
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- Michael Scheuer, a former head of the CIA's "Bin
Laden station", who denounced the Iraq war, said: "I've never
experienced this much anxiety and controversy."
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- Mr Sheuer, who resigned last week, added: "Suddenly
political affiliation matters to some degree. The talk is that they're
out to clean out Democrats and liberals.
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- "The administration doesn't seem to be able to come
to grips with the reality that it was a stupid thing to do to invade Iraq...
If it goes too far like this into the political realm our fortunes overseas
are going to be hurt."
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- Mr Goss, a Bush appointee, is seeking to use the CIA's
counterintelligence department to weed out leakers to the press, a controversial
move that has triggered resignations by senior staff who argued it was
an inappropriate use of the agency's mole hunters.
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- Mr Goss and a team of advisers, whom he brought from
the House of Representatives where he was a Republican congressman, have
also targeted CIA analysts, many of whom dissented from the administration's
prewar certainty that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaida
links.
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- The directorate's chief, Jami Miscik, is rumoured to
be the next on the Goss hitlist.
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- According to one intelligence source, the "president's
daily brief", which the CIA delivers each morning, has already been
"watered down" with the removal of controversial analysis about
the counter-insurgency in Iraq or the "global war on terror".
-
- The Goss memorandum, according to an official who had
read it, said: "We support the administration and its policies in
our work and as agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion
opposition to the administration or its policies."
-
- Asked to comment on the note, a CIA spokesman said: "Support
means intelligence support. It does not mean taking a position on policy
either pro or con."
-
- But Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of the CIA's counter-terrorist
centre, said: "It can only be interpreted one way - there will be
no more dissenting opinions."
-
- Mr Goss's order follows more than two years of veiled
conflict between the CIA and the White House, which escalated when it became
clear the administration was determined to go to war in Iraq. Disgruntled
CIA officers fought their corner principally through leaks to the press.
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- When the head of counterintelligence - whose name cannot
be published under US law - refused to pursue the leakers last week, the
No 2 in the directorate of operations, Michael Sulick, was ordered to fire
her, according to well-informed sources.
-
- When he refused, his boss, Stephen Kappes, was ordered
to step in. Mr Kappes refused and after a weekend showdown both he and
Mr Sulick resigned on Monday.
-
- Mr Kappes's departure was widely described as a serious
loss."Kappes was a fine officer and he had done a lot of hard things
in a lot of nasty places in the world. It's a shame to see him go,"
Mr Scheuer said.
-
- He argued there should be a staff shakeout at the CIA
but said the purge was aimed in the wrong direction - targeting dissidents
rather than risk-averse leaders.
-
- The 52-year-old former agent blamed some of the turmoil
at the CIA on the abrupt management style of Mr Goss's new team. "There's
nothing wrong with being a little bit gruff and a bit abrasive but I've
heard these people have been real bastards," he said.
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- But another former agent, Robert Baer, argued that Mr
Goss had no choice but to stop the leaks. "You can't have an intelligence
agency operating in the open, writing books and leaking to the press. They
lost the confidence of the president," he said.
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- He argued the CIA in its present state was "dysfunctional".
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- "Give Goss six months and see what he does. It could
be a lot worse, or it could be a lot better," he said.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1353715,00.html
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