Insiders at CIA speak on Goss resignation

Larry Johnson writes about what his contacts in the CIA have told him about the Goss resignation.

Speculation in the blogosphere suggested that Porter Goss selected Foggo because of his ties to Wilkes and may be implicated in the sexscapades. I'm told by a friend who used to work at the Agency that Goss, on this charge is clean. In fact, Goss may be a victim, guilty only of selecting some lousy staff.

A former CIA buddy tells me that Porter's main problem, however, is a key staffer who is linked to both Brent Wilkes and the CIA's Executive Director, Dusty Foggo. My friend also said that it is highly likely that the Goss staffer did participate in the hooker extravaganza. Goss, politician that he is, probably recognized that even though he did not participate in the sexual escapades and poker games, his staffer's participation created a huge problem for him that would be difficult to escape.

There also is truth to the rumor that Goss was not happy with presiding over a CIA that had been rendered a co-equal with the Department of Defense intelligence units. Prior to the creation of the National Director of Intelligence, the CIA was the lead intelligence agency. No longer. Ironically, part of the impetus for the creation of the NDI was the perceived "failures" of the CIA with respect to 9-11 and Iraq. Recent revelations by retired CIA officers, such as Paul Pillar and Ty Drumheller, make clear that the CIA basically got it right on Iraq and was ignored by the Bush Administration.

Porter Goss, to his credit, did make a valiant effort to revitalize the human collection side of the Agency. He reopened CIA posts overseas that his predecessor, George Tenet, had closed. On the demerit side of the ledger, however, Goss also politicized the CIA. He brought political operatives into the CIA who made loyalty to the Bush Presidency the primary concern. This helped drive out much needed talent and weakened the CIA's ability to conduct overseas operations while tarnishing the CIA's tradition for offering objective analysis.

Well, fun as the speculation was, looks like sex and hookers will not be Goss' problem. Randy Cunningham and bribery by Mitchell Wade to get classified CIA contracts may be closer to the truth. Josh Marshall presents some background on why, although Randy Cunning ham is now serving the longest sentence a crooked Congressman has ever gotten and one of his bribers, Brent Wilkes has already pleaded guilty to bribing government officials, the Public Integrity Office has not Yet charged Mitchell Wade. A brief summary is that a high CIA official has apparently been protecting him, and so have some political appointees who knew he was dirty but "overlooked" that because of the work he was doing.

Since the previous CIA Contracting Officer who Goss promoted to be the number three official at CIA, Dusty Foggo, (who seems to be the CIA official most stories refer to as being in trouble) has announced that he will resign next week, it looks like we will know soon how much of Goss' departure is Bush's dissatisfaction with his job at CIA and how much is the threat of criminal investigation.

Think Progress offers a primer on the publicly reported connections between Goss and the Cunningham scandal. If nothing else, the CIA has a lot of angry people in it right now, and I suspect that many of them are leaking to get at people they blame for the way the CIA has been used over the last few years as a whipping boy to justify the policy errors of the Bush administration.

The rumors continue to swirl. Unlike most of the Bush administrations Friday afternoon annoucments of bad news, this one is unlikely to disappear over the weekend. It will be a subject on the Sunday talking heads shows, and there will be more news next week to keep it warm. We may actually get some real facts that reduce the ambuguity. That'll be a change.