But now I must recall the enthusiasm I had for my analysis with actual information.
Moral is an issue as well as accountability.(note two above links)
The agency is loosing it's experienced agents faster than al Qaeda leaders are being rounded up or eliminated. It is my opinion that not holding those responsible for failures accountable, lowers moral more than locating them.
Is it reasonable to expect Goss the former critic of the CIA to become a booster of the CIA? Not investigating how the intelligence was used, further lowers moral. Looking into these problems will probably lead up the chain of command which has actually been lengthened.
Not only is he tinkering with the collection of intelligence
Among his top priorities is getting spies in the field to work more independently and to rely less on complicated relationships with foreign intelligence services. Some veterans have interpreted that push as either a disinterest in working with others or a rejection of a collection method that is highly valued inside the clandestine service. But Goss believes the agency has leaned too heavily, sometimes to its detriment, on faulty information gleaned from others.
but had been insulated from the top by a DNI
In March, President Bush chose as DNI John D. Negroponte, a career foreign service officer and ambassador in Iraq. Negroponte's office is still taking shape, and it is unclear how much control he will exert over the CIA.
But the days of an all-powerful CIA director who reports exclusively to the president are over. Goss no longer has daily access to the Oval Office -- Negroponte is now responsible for briefing the president -- and Goss must coordinate all decisions with Negroponte's office.
The overall problems are the collection as well as the use of intelligence. Accountabiliy in the former must lead to the latter. But adding to the chain at the top will only distance the intelligence as well as accountability from the top. As if the administration was not already at great lengths from accountability or checks and balances. If intelligence is being used in the manner I feel it is, then Congress and especially the Democrats should put a clean out in this brain drain and scoop up the intelligence experience that is being lost. That would be a legitimate use of a "plumbers" unit.
See my earlier suggestion. and further comments around that post.
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