[Mb-civic] EDITORIAL A Softy for the CIA LATimes

[Michael Butler]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cia11aug11.story

EDITORIAL

A Softy for the CIA

 August 11, 2004

 Congressional Democrats complain that Rep. Porter J. Goss, whom President
Bush nominated Tuesday to head the CIA, isn't a good choice because he's
been sniping at presidential candidate John F. Kerry. They're wrong. The
chief problem with Goss, a Florida Republican, isn't that he's too partisan.
It's that Goss has been a patsy for the agency he's now supposed to rebuild.

 Goss has glittering credentials. The Yale-graduate-turned-CIA-operative
amassed considerable experience in covert operations during the 1960s. But
the nostalgic haze through which he views the days of the good old boys at
the CIA distorted his work with the agency in Congress. As head of the House
Intelligence Committee, Goss was responsible for congressional oversight of
the CIA before Sept. 11, or, more precisely, the lack of it. He's been a
tenacious defender of the CIA's perks and privileges and shielded it from
any real scrutiny.

 Sure, in the committee's June report on intelligence failures, Goss fired
off a thunderous and unexpected blast against his old buddy, George J.
Tenet, for failing to reform the CIA and tolerating slipshod analyses. But
where was Goss before it became politically convenient to backstab Tenet?
Why wasn't he grilling CIA officials about their Iraq assessments and lack
of spies in the ranks of Al Qaeda?

 Goss' passivity suits Bush perfectly. He won't challenge the president. He
won't fire any senior staff. Most likely, he won't do much of anything.
Goss, who has lobbied furiously for the job, including carrying water for
the administration by attacking Kerry, would be happy simply to get the
post.

 If Bush had more self-confidence, he would have selected someone who would
start reforming the CIA, which would mean on occasion challenging the
president. A number of candidates spring to mind. Former New Jersey Gov.
Thomas H. Kean, a Republican who heads the 9/11 commission, certainly grasps
what needs doing and would move aggressively to improve the CIA's work. So
would Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.),
both with distinguished and long service on Senate foreign affairs and
intelligence matters. Both are independent thinkers ready to argue their
points, traits that have made Lugar persona non grata with the right wing of
his own party.

 Others on the "mentioned" list who should have been ahead of Goss were
Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage and 9/11 commission member and
former Navy Secretary John F. Lehman. Unlike Goss, both have experience
running bureaucracies.

 In nominating his fellow Yalie, Bush declared that Goss knows the agency
"inside and out." Indeed he does. Unfortunately, Goss loves the CIA not
wisely but too well.


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