Background on Goss, for your edification

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/081104Y.shtml

Editor's Note | Despite bipartisan distaste for the choice, George W. Bush has tapped the Republican Congressman from Florida, Porter Goss, to replace George Tenet as Director of the CIA. Goss is a known ally of the Bush administration, and has loyally carried water for the White House on issues ranging from the September 11 attacks to the Iraq invasion.

We at truthout are deeply concerned by this choice for two reasons. Our first concern centers on the blatantly political nature of this nomination. Karl Rove, Bush's masterful political consigliore, is adept at placing divisive issues at the forefront of election seasons. Goss is a poor choice for CIA Director, for several reasons, yet Democrats raising legitimate concerns about him will almost certainly be labeled obstructionists. The vital question of who will lead the CIA will become enmeshed in election-year nonsense arguments. We are hopeful that opposition to this poor choice will be bipartisan in nature, so as to blunt the inevitable accusations from the Bush camp.

We at truthout are also concerned that so profound an ally of the Bush administration is poised to take the reins of the CIA while the investigation of the Valerie Plame case is still ongoing. Our readers will recall that Plame was a CIA agent allegedly 'outed' by administration officials in order to silence her husband, Bush critic Ambassador Joseph Wilson. The case is progressing - Patrick Fitzgerald is re-questioning witnesses, members of the media are facing jail time as a federal judge is requiring their testimony before the Grand Jury, and Mr. Bush himself has hired a criminal attorney - and we fear a new Director so closely connected with the administration will hinder this important matter.

We ran the story below on July 3rd. Ray McGovern is a veteran analyst for the CIA, and is deeply troubled by the choice of Goss. His concerns are well-founded. – wrp

Cheney Cat's Paw, Porter Goss, as CIA Director?
By Ray McGovern
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Saturday 03 July 2004

There is, thankfully, a remnant of CIA professionals who still put objective analysis above political correctness and career advancement. Just when they thought there were no indignities left for them to suffer, they are shuddering again at press reports that Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) may soon be their new boss.

That possibility conjures up a painful flashback for those of us who served as CIA analysts when Richard Nixon was president. Chalk it up to our naiveté, but we were taken aback when swashbuckling James Schlesinger, who followed Richard Helms as CIA director, announced on arrival, "I am here to see that you guys don't screw Richard Nixon!" To underscore his point, Schlesinger told us he would be reporting directly to White House political adviser Bob Haldeman (Nixon's Karl Rove) and not to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.

No doubt Goss would be more discreet in showing his hand, but his appointment as director would be the ultimate in politicization. He has long shown himself to be under the spell of Vice President Dick Cheney, and would likely report primarily to him and to White House political adviser Karl Rove rather than to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Goss would almost certainly follow lame-duck director George Tenet's practice of reading to the president in the morning and become an integral part of the "White House team." The team-membership phenomenon is particularly disquieting.

If the failure-prone experience of the past few years has told us anything, it is that being a "team member" in good standing is the kiss of death for the CIA director's primary role of "telling it like it is" to the president and his senior advisers. It was a painful moment of truth when former Speaker Newt Gingrich - like Cheney, a frequent visitor to CIA headquarters - told the press that Tenet was "so grateful to the president that he would do anything for him."

...more...

[buycitgo]

1. excellent, as always

they are really worried about Plame, and hope that Goss will help stem the tide of leaks

point is, how can dems possibly hold up his nomination and not, as you say, appear to be obstructionist?

let's hope somebody.....calling Larry Flynt......has some juicies in his background

don't see any other way around this venal turdbuckle getting in

[Karenina]

2. Kick!

:kick:

[buycitgo]

3. re: this quote

''If the failure-prone experience of the past few years has told us anything, it is that being a "team member" in good standing is the kiss of death for the CIA director's primary role of "telling it like it is" to the president and his senior advisers.''

Ray McGovern was on Sunday with Sibel Edmonds, saying almost the exact thing

he said that, after Turner left office, CIA became a cesspool of criminals and good old boys (my words), basically, who either were engaged in unconstitutional activities, politicizing the agnecy, or were feckless twerps, like Woolsey, Deutch, and Tenet, who he called a politician, who just went with the flow, putting the CIA in the sad shape it's in today

here's the interview.......will make you furious
http://www.kpftx.org/archives/kpftsignal/pls.php?mp3fil=683

about ten minutes in

the older one, from Aug 1
http://www.kpftx.org/archives/kpftsignal/pls.php?mp3fil=607

half hour in

[WilliamPitt]

4. .