Thread: CIA Chief Porter Goss Resigns

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... -headlines

CIA Chief Porter Goss Resigns
From Associated Press

11:16 AM PDT, May 5, 2006

WASHINGTON — CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly today, leaving behind a spy agency still battling to recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America's worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq.

It was the latest move in a second-term shake-up of President Bush's team.

Making the announcement from the Oval Office, Bush called Goss' tenure one of transition.

"He has led ably," Bush said, Goss at his side. "He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives."

Goss said the trust, confidence and latitude that Bush placed in him "is something I could have never imagined."

" I believe the agency is on a very even keel, sailing well," Goss said. "I honestly believe that we have improved dramatically."

The president did not name a successor, but said that person would continue Goss' reforms.

"As a result, this country will be more secure," Bush said. "We've got to win the war on terror, and the Central Intelligence Agency is a vital part of the war. So I thank you for your service."

Goss, a former congressman from Florida, head of the House Intelligence Committee and CIA agent, had been at the helm of the agency only since September 2004.

He came under fire almost immediately, in part because he brought with him several top aides from Congress who were considered highly political for the CIA.

He had particularly poor relations with segments of the agency's powerful clandestine service. In a bleak assessment, California Rep. Jane Harman, the Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, recently said, "The CIA is in a free fall," noting that employees with a combined 300 years of experience have left or been pushed out.

Under Goss and the sweeping intelligence overhaul Congress approved in December 2004, the CIA lost considerable clout among U.S. spy agencies. With the installation of the country's first national intelligence director, John Negroponte, Goss no longer sat atop the 16 intelligence agencies. Negroponte took that role -- and many of the CIA director's responsibilities. That includes Bush's morning intelligence briefings.

Goss also had some public blunders. In March 2005, just before Negroponte took over, Goss told an audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that he was overwhelmed by the many duties of his job, including devoting five hours out of every day to prepare for and deliver the presential briefings.

"The jobs I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal," Goss said. "I'm a little amazed at the workload."

Goss has pressed for aggressive probes about leaked information.

"The damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission," he told Congress in February, adding that a federal grand jury should be impaneled to determine "who is leaking this information."

Just two weeks ago, Goss announced the firing of a top intelligence analyst in connection with a Pulitzer Prize-winning story about a network of CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. Such dismissals are highly unusual.

The realignment of Bush's team amid the president's sagging poll standings started with the resignation of Andrew Card as chief of staff and his replacement by Joshua Bolten, who had been the budget director.

There has been rampant speculation that Treasury Secretary John Snow would be leaving.

Another leaving the sinking ship!

W

Bush says:

"As a result, this country will be more secure," Bush said. "We've got to win the war on terror, and the Central Intelligence Agency is a vital part of the war. So I thank you for your service."

Does he have THE NERVE, THE GALL TO SAY WAR ON TERROR!!!!!


God help this man, he is shameless or the biggest fool I've ever seen.

Bush is up to something many don't want to be a party to.

http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.49372.html


Bush Turns to Gen. Hayden to Lead CIA

Last Updated:
05-08-06 at 7:20AM

President Bush on Monday chose Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to lead the embattled Central Intelligence Agency, re-igniting a debate over the domestic surveillance program that the onetime head of the National Security Agency once ran.

Republican and Democratic critics also questioned the wisdom of putting a military officer in charge of the civilian spy agency.

"Mike Hayden is supremely qualified for this position," Bush said in the Oval Office, with Hayden at his side. Without mentioning Hayden's critics or their objections, the president said: "He knows the intelligence community from the ground up."

If confirmed, Hayden would replace Porter Goss, who resigned under pressure Friday.

He said that Hayden "has been a provider and consumer of intelligence."

To balance the CIA between military and civilian leadership, the White House plans to move aside the agency's No. 2 official, Vice Admiral Albert Calland III, who took over as deputy director less than a year ago, two senior administration officials said. Other personnel changes also are likely, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the changes are not ready to announce.

Talk of Hayden's nomination rekindled debate over the administration's domestic surveillance program, which Hayden used to oversee as the former head of the National Security Agency.

"There's probably no post more important in preserving our security and our values as people than the CIA," Hayden said.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she has found Hayden to be "straightforward and willing to share his candid professional judgments _ even when they differed" from those of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"Nevertheless, to send a signal of independence from the Pentagon, General Hayden may want to consider retiring from the Air Force," she said. "That would put to rest questions about whether an active duty military officer should lead the CIA at this time."

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., had said in advance of the announcement that he would use Hayden's nomination to raise questions about the legality of the domestic surveillance program and did not rule out holding it up until he gets answers. "I'm not going to draw any lines in the sand until I see how the facts evolve," Specter said on Fox.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was concerned that Hayden's nomination would detract from the real issue of intelligence reform.

"The debate in the Senate may end up being about the terrorist surveillance program and not about the future of the CIA or the intelligence community, which is exactly where the debate needs to be," Hoekstra said on CBS' "The Early Show."

"This is about whether we still have alignment and agreement between the executive branch and Congress as to where intelligence reform needs to go," he said.

Hoekstra's sentiment was echoed by Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, who said that Hayden's military background would be a "major problem," and several Democrats who made the rounds of the Sunday television talk shows. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Hayden could leave agents with the impression that the CIA has been "just gobbled up by the Defense Department."

Bush noted that Hayden was unanimously approved by the Senate for his current job _ the nation's No. 2 intelligence official.

Bracing for a tough nomination fight, the White House took the unusual step of pre-empting Bush's announcement with a defensive media blitz. "We think the issue is getting the best man for the job and the president has determined that Mike Hayden is the best man for the job," Hadley told The Associated Press. He also appeared on morning news shows before Bush formally announced his nomination of Hayden.

"He'll be reporting to the president of the United States, not Don Rumsfeld," the secretary of defense, Hadley said, adding that other military officers have led the CIA, Hadley said. "So the precedents are clear."

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Hayden would be the fifth CIA chief in uniform. "He has been viewed as a non-comformist and an independent thinker," Bartlett said.

Hadley said that any nominee to lead the CIA would face questions about the controversial domestic surveillance program by the National Security Agency and that Hayden, the former director of the agency, was the best man to answer those questions.

If Hayden were confirmed, military officers would run all the major spy agencies, from the ultra-secret National Security Agency to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Some lawmakers, like Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, suggested that Hayden might think about resigning his military post if he were going to head the CIA. But Hoekstra and Chambliss were among those who said that wouldn't solve the problem.

"Just resigning commission and moving on, putting on a striped suit, a pinstriped suit versus an Air Force uniform, I don't think makes much difference," Chambliss said on ABC's "This Week."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., defended Hayden.

"In all due respect to my colleagues _ and I obviously respect their views _ General Hayden is really more of an intelligence person than he is an Air Force officer," McCain said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "I think that we should also remember that there had been other former military people who have been directors of the CIA."

John Lehman, head of the Sept. 11 investigative commission, told CNN: "Mike Hayden is one of the best military intelligence officers we've ever had."

So much for posse comitatus


The Myth of Posse Comitatus
http://www.homelandsecurity.org/journal ... ilcock.htm


Posse Comitatus Act of 1878
http://www.dojgov.net/posse_comitatus_act.htm

Posse Comitatus Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Ac

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/ ... 0961c.html

CIA boss Goss is cooked
BY RICHARD SISK and JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Saturday, May 6th, 2006

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.

Kyle (Dusty) Foggo, the No. 3 official at the CIA, could soon be indicted in a widening FBI investigation of the parties thrown by defense contractor Brent Wilkes, named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the bribery conviction of former Rep. Randall (Duke) Cunningham, law enforcement sources said.

A CIA spokeswoman said Foggo went to the lavish weekly hospitality-suite parties at the Watergate and Westin Grand hotels but "just for poker."

Intelligence and law enforcement sources said solid evidence had yet to emerge that Goss also went to the parties, but Goss and Foggo share a fondness for poker and expensive cigars, and the FBI investigation was continuing.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA operative and a Bush administration critic, said Goss "had a relationship with Dusty and with Brent Wilkes that's now coming under greater scrutiny."

Johnson vouched for the integrity of Foggo and Goss but said, "Dusty was a big poker player, and it's my understanding that Porter Goss was also there \[at Wilkes' parties\] for poker. It's going to be guilt by association."

"It's all about the Duke Cunningham scandal," a senior law enforcement official told the Daily News in reference to Goss' resignation. Duke, a California Republican, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty in November to taking $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes in exchange for steering government contracts.

Goss' inability to handle the allegations swirling around Foggo prompted John Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence, who oversees all of the nation's spy agencies, to press for the CIA chief's ouster, the senior official said. The official said Goss is not an FBI target but "there is an impending indictment" of Foggo for steering defense contracts to his poker buddies.

One subject of the FBI investigation is a $3 million CIA contract that went to Wilkes to supply bottled water and other goods to CIA operatives in Iraq and Afghanistan, sources said.

In a hastily arranged Oval Office announcement that stunned official Washington, neither President Bush nor Goss offered a substantive reason for why the head of the spy agency was leaving after only a year on the job.

"He has led ably" in an era of CIA transition, Bush said with Goss seated at his side. "He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives."

Goss said the trust Bush placed in him "is something I could never have imagined." "I believe the agency is on a very even keel, sailing well," he said.

The official Bush administration spin that emerged later was that Goss lost out in a turf battle with Negroponte, but Goss' tenure was marked by the resignations of several veteran operatives who viewed him as an amateur out of his depth.

White House officials said Bush would announce early next week his choice to succeed Goss. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, Negroponte's top deputy, heads the list of potential replacements, with White House counterterror chief Fran Townsend also on the short list.

Negroponte "apparently had no confidence" in Goss, and Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board was also "very alarmed by problems at the CIA," said a congressional source involved in oversight of U.S. spy agencies.

"Supposedly the \[Cunningham\] scandal was the last straw," the source said. "This administration may be on the verge of a major scandal."

Problems at spy agency


Here are some other scandals in the CIA's recent history:


A human-rights furor erupted in 2005 with revelations that the CIA had set up secret prisons in Eastern European countries to interrogate terror suspects.

CIA Director George Tenet took blame for the since-debunked claim in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq had purchased enriched uranium from Africa — a major part of his case for why the U.S. should go to war. Heavily criticized over questionable intelligence on the Iraq war and terrorism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Tenet resigned in 2004.

Former CIA Director John Deutch's security clearance was suspended in 1999 because he improperly kept classified material on a home computer vulnerable to Internet hackers.

A State Department official revealed in 1994 that the CIA covered up what it knew about the role of a Guatemalan colonel, a paid informer, in the slaying of rebel leader Efrain Bamaca, who was married to an American citizen.

CIA agent Aldrich Ames spied for the KGB for nine years, until his arrest in 1994, giving the Soviets the names of every undercover agent the CIA had in Moscow, leading to the deaths of at least nine agents.

The agency was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal, the Reagan-era scheme to secretly fund Nicaraguan rebels by illegally selling arms to Tehran.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 846D28.DTL

FBI Investigates No. 3 CIA Official
- By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Monday, May 8, 2006


(05-08) 15:27 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --


The FBI is investigating whether the No. 3 official at the CIA improperly intervened in the award of contracts to a businessman who has been implicated in a congressional bribery scandal, a law enforcement official said Monday.

CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo already was under investigation by the agency's inspector general in connection with his relationship to San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes.

The FBI recently opened its own probe of Foggo, a longtime and close friend of Wilkes, the official said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the investigation is under way.

Foggo has decided to retire from the CIA following the resignation last Friday of CIA Director Porter Goss, an intelligence official said Monday, also speaking on condition of anonymity. The official noted that new CIA directors have traditionally chosen their own executive directors, who run the agency's day-to-day operations.

Last week, the CIA released a statement on Foggo's behalf in which he denied any improprieties. "Mr. Foggo maintains that government contracts for which he was responsible were properly awarded and administered," the agency said.

Wilkes has been described in court papers as an unindicted coconspirator in a plot to bribe then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now serving a federal prison term for taking $2.4 million from government contractors.

FBI agents also have been looking into whether Wilkes supplied Cunningham with prostitutes, limousines and hotel suites. Foggo sometimes attended poker parties at the hotel rooms, but he said there was nothing untoward about his presence.

"If he attended occasional card games with friends over the years, Mr. Foggo insists they were that and nothing more," the CIA statement said.

Wilkes' attorney, Michael Lipman, did not immediately respond to messages left Monday by The Associated Press. But he has said that Wilkes denied the allegations of prostitution, which were raised by a second defense contractor who has pleaded guilty in the case.

Meanwhile, lawmakers raised questions Monday about Department of Homeland Security contracts to Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc., the Arlington, Va., company at the center of the prostitution investigation.

Company attorney Michael York said in an interview last week that the company and its president, Christopher Baker, are cooperating with the federal investigation, but he denied any company involvement in improper or illegal activities. York did not immediately return a call for comment on Monday.

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee sent a letter Monday to the department's inspector general questioning whether Shirlington Limousine was qualified to get the two contracts it was awarded by the department, one for $3.8 million in April 2004 and another for as much as $21 million over five years in October 2005.

The committee plans to discuss the contract at a previously scheduled May 18 hearing on contracts, hiring processes and security clearances.

"The information we've obtained raises a number of serious questions, from the contracting process to possible security concerns," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the subcommittee on management, integration and oversight. "The appearance of a lack of background checks on contractors is another troubling personnel issue at DHS that we are examining."

Homeland Security Department spokesman Larry Orluskie said the more recent contract with Shirlington Limousine, which is a $21.2 million pay-on-performance agreement of up to five years, is "performing exactly as expected."

Orluskie said the contract calls for 12 minibuses and 16 drivers to shuttle Homeland Security employees between the department's various offices in the Washington area. It also provides 10 additional drivers to chauffeur department executive staffers in Homeland Security-owned sedans.