According to this morning’s Times, new agency boss Porter J. Goss has told C.I.A. employees that their job is to “support the administration and its policies in our work.” Now call me naive, call me stupid, I don’t care, but in my ever so humble opinion the job of every single employee of the C.I.A. and all the other government intelligence agencies is to uncover and analyze information on potential threats to this country (and secondarily allied countries as well) and make sure the end product is clearly understood at the appropriate government level. Then elected and appointed officials can determine what action might be necessary, influenced by policy as such decisions always. Except, perhaps, for the agency directors and their direct reports, no intelligence staffers should take (currently in office) Executive Branch policies into account while handling their daily to-dos. Geez, this is the stuff that makes my blood boil!
Later: Kristof, in a more comprehensive column, adds this on the topic: “[The intelligence community’s] crucial role is not so much to steal secrets abroad but to resist political pressures at home and offer unwelcome analyses. That will be much less likely now that heads are rolling down the corridors of the C.I.A.’s directorate of operations.” Especially interesting are his answers to the question “So what should we expect in a second term?”
BillSaysThis 