Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: CIA e libere elezioni

Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 18, 2004
The Guardian 
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. 
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. 
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. 
"The Central Intelligence Agency is not a policy organisation," the
spokesman said. 
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. 
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." 
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. 
"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." 
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. 
The directorate's chief, Jami Miscik, is rumoured to be the next on
the Goss hitlist. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
He argued the CIA in its present state was "dysfunctional". 
"Give Goss six months and see what he does. It could be a lot worse,
or it could be a lot better," he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1353715,00.html

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