J-10
06-23-2004, 08:44 PM
3:37 PM PDT, June 23, 2004
By Bob Drogin and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — The CIA has ignored its core mission of spying, has refused to take corrective action and is heading "over a proverbial cliff" because of years of poor planning and mismanagement, the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee has concluded in the latest congressional broadside aimed at America's premier intelligence agency.
The committee's proposed intelligence authorization bill, which was scheduled for a vote by the full House tonight, paints a devastating picture of the CIA's directorate of operations, the long-fabled division that sends clandestine agents overseas, recruits foreign spies, steals secrets, pays foreign leaders, sponsors coups and conducts countless other covert operations.
Recent investigations into the CIA's failures on Sept. 11 and its prewar reports on Iraq have chiefly blamed agency analysts, the men and women who assess classified information from satellite photos, communications intercepts, stolen documents and other intelligence. The House committee warned that the CIA's problems were deeper and broader.
"All is not well in the world of clandestine human intelligence collection," the committee found. "For too long, the CIA has been ignoring its core mission activities. There is a dysfunctional denial of any need for corrective action."
The CIA "continues down a road leading over a proverbial cliff," the committee said. "The damage to the (human intelligence) mission through its misallocation and redirection of resources, poor prioritization of objectives, micromanagement of field operations, and a continued political aversion to operational risk is, in the committee's judgment, significant and could be long lasting."
The committee's harsh language is notable because the White House has given no indication that President Bush is dissatisfied with the CIA's performance. The criticism also is unusual because the outgoing committee chairman, Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.), is privately campaigning to replace Tenet, who is stepping down on July 11 after seven years as the chief intelligence chief.
James Pavitt, who heads the operations directorate, has also announced that he is quitting.
If the CIA "continues to equate criticism from within and without - especially from its oversight committees - as commentary unworthy even of consideration ... they do so at their peril," the committee added. The operations directorate "will become nothing more than a stilted bureaucracy incapable of even the slightest bit of success."
The committee noted that George J. Tenet, the outgoing director of central intelligence, recently testified that his efforts to rebuild the spy service over the last seven years were incomplete and would require another five years.
"This is tragic," the committee said.
The House critique comes after the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks sharply faulted CIA leaders, including Tenet, for failing to mobilize the broader intelligence community against Al Qaeda, for failing to raise sufficient concern at the White House, and for failing to share information with the FBI and other agencies that might have led to detection of the 2001 terror attacks.
In addition, a still-secret report by the Senate Intelligence Committee presents what officials describe as blistering criticism of the CIA's prewar intelligence on Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. Unclassified portions of the nearly 400-page report are tentatively scheduled for release July 7.
An internal CIA investigation into its own performance, led by Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy director, has not been released. But an intelligence official who has read the report said it was quickly completed and is eight pages long. "And everything is A-OK," the official said.
latimes (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-062304intel_lat,1,7607035.story?coll=la-home-headlines)
By Bob Drogin and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — The CIA has ignored its core mission of spying, has refused to take corrective action and is heading "over a proverbial cliff" because of years of poor planning and mismanagement, the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee has concluded in the latest congressional broadside aimed at America's premier intelligence agency.
The committee's proposed intelligence authorization bill, which was scheduled for a vote by the full House tonight, paints a devastating picture of the CIA's directorate of operations, the long-fabled division that sends clandestine agents overseas, recruits foreign spies, steals secrets, pays foreign leaders, sponsors coups and conducts countless other covert operations.
Recent investigations into the CIA's failures on Sept. 11 and its prewar reports on Iraq have chiefly blamed agency analysts, the men and women who assess classified information from satellite photos, communications intercepts, stolen documents and other intelligence. The House committee warned that the CIA's problems were deeper and broader.
"All is not well in the world of clandestine human intelligence collection," the committee found. "For too long, the CIA has been ignoring its core mission activities. There is a dysfunctional denial of any need for corrective action."
The CIA "continues down a road leading over a proverbial cliff," the committee said. "The damage to the (human intelligence) mission through its misallocation and redirection of resources, poor prioritization of objectives, micromanagement of field operations, and a continued political aversion to operational risk is, in the committee's judgment, significant and could be long lasting."
The committee's harsh language is notable because the White House has given no indication that President Bush is dissatisfied with the CIA's performance. The criticism also is unusual because the outgoing committee chairman, Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.), is privately campaigning to replace Tenet, who is stepping down on July 11 after seven years as the chief intelligence chief.
James Pavitt, who heads the operations directorate, has also announced that he is quitting.
If the CIA "continues to equate criticism from within and without - especially from its oversight committees - as commentary unworthy even of consideration ... they do so at their peril," the committee added. The operations directorate "will become nothing more than a stilted bureaucracy incapable of even the slightest bit of success."
The committee noted that George J. Tenet, the outgoing director of central intelligence, recently testified that his efforts to rebuild the spy service over the last seven years were incomplete and would require another five years.
"This is tragic," the committee said.
The House critique comes after the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks sharply faulted CIA leaders, including Tenet, for failing to mobilize the broader intelligence community against Al Qaeda, for failing to raise sufficient concern at the White House, and for failing to share information with the FBI and other agencies that might have led to detection of the 2001 terror attacks.
In addition, a still-secret report by the Senate Intelligence Committee presents what officials describe as blistering criticism of the CIA's prewar intelligence on Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. Unclassified portions of the nearly 400-page report are tentatively scheduled for release July 7.
An internal CIA investigation into its own performance, led by Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy director, has not been released. But an intelligence official who has read the report said it was quickly completed and is eight pages long. "And everything is A-OK," the official said.
latimes (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-062304intel_lat,1,7607035.story?coll=la-home-headlines)