WP: Bush Ends Goss's Stormy Tenure By Forcing Him Out as CIA Chief

[kskiska]

Saturday, May 6, 2006; A01

Porter J. Goss was forced to step down yesterday as CIA director, ending a turbulent 18-month tenure marked by an exodus of some of the agency's top talent and growing White House dissatisfaction with his leadership during a time of war.

Seated next to President Bush in the Oval Office, Goss, a Republican congressman from Florida before he took over the CIA, said he was "stepping aside" but gave no reason for the departure. Bush, who did not name a successor, said he had accepted the resignation and thanked Goss for his service.

"Porter's tenure at the CIA was one of transition, where he's helped this agency become integrated into . . . the intelligence community," Bush said. "That was a tough job, and he's led ably." Bush said he had developed a "very close personal relationship" with Goss, who succeeded George J. Tenet at the agency's helm in September 2004.

But senior administration officials said Bush had lost confidence in Goss, 67, almost from the beginning and decided months ago to replace him. In what was described as a difficult meeting in April with Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, Goss was told to prepare to leave by May, according to several officials with knowledge of the conversation.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/05/AR2006050500937.html

[acmavm]

1. All rightey then.

[radfringe]

23. on the news last evening --- ex-CIA: fears that the CIA has been "FEMAed"

ex-CIA: fears that the CIA has been "FEMAed"

FEMAed: screwing up an entity soooo bad it's totally non-functional

[NastyRiffraff]

2. Total BS

If it were true that Bush "lost confidence" in Goss, we would have had a period of transition indeed. The Pentagon, for example, wouldn't have been caught flatfooted about the resignation....that's not how these things work.

I DO agree that Goss was forced out, but not because Bush "lost confidence." This kind of abrupt departure, with no warning to those who have interest in the resignation of a CIA Director, just doesn't happen unless something very bad is coming down.

It could be Hookergate, or it could be something else, or a combination of Hookergate and other factors.

Stay tuned.

[bdamomma]

10. negroponte could have something to do with goss resigning

rather quickly. Bush Crime Family is right.

[Elidor]

18. Agreed

This is a naked attempt to paint Bush as strong and in command. Any fool can see he was caught by surprise. The Post throws in the Wilkes hooker parties as an afterthought. For Goss to resign over whatever went on, it must be pretty bad, indeed. :popcorn:

TOTAL. FUCKING. MELTDOWN.

[Canuckistanian]

20. Agreed.

That it was so unexpected, unanticipated and "effective immediately", something else is at play here.

And I don't think it's because of a few hookers at some parties.

[screembloodymurder]

29. They must think they can control the story

or they wouldn't be spinning.

[bemildred]

3. First he forces him into the CIA, then he forces him out.

Porter must have severe abrasions by now.

[Rose Siding]

4. "It just didn't click" -Ah, it's a *gut* thing.

But administration officials said Goss never forged a strong relationship with Bush. "It just didn't click," one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

As opposed to a you-suck-at-this-job thing-

In the clandestine service alone, Goss lost one director, two deputy directors, and at least a dozen department heads, station chiefs and division directors, many with the key language skills and experience he has said the agency needs. The agency is currently on its third counterterrorism chief since Goss arrived.

[HuffleClaw]

5. its the 'watergate ii' scandal

that is the reason.

[NYC]

7. Watergate & sex in the same sentence. I like it.

Watergate was impeachable; sex was impeachable. Now, we have the two combined.

Is this what I've been waiting for? :)

[kskiska]

6. Just in from Josh Marshall:

We'd seen signs of it. But the WSJ got the goods. Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, #3 man at CIA, hand-picked by Porter Goss, is under federal criminal investigation in the Wilkes-Cunningham bribery and contracts scandal.

[madrchsod]

8. oh bush is in charge now...ok

i`ll believe that when pigs fly

[LeftHander]

9. SPIN!.....WP spinning w/ WH damage conrtol...

It is not even saturday yet.

[rocktivity]

11. All together, now--TORO TURD!

With Hookergate literally breathing down their necks, how can they possibly report this with a straight face? They couldn't there was resignation story because they had no successor lined up, and now they expect us to buy THIS?

:headbang:
rocknation

[onehandle]

12. There is a Deep Throat out there somewhere.

Somewhere, someone with the answers is looking to talk about this.

Godspeed.

[truthpusher]

13. Sources: CIA Director Forced Out ("Goss, ...was disliked intensely")

"Inside CIA headquarters, sources say, they couldn't be happier, reports Axelrod. Goss, ...was disliked intensely."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/05/politics/main1592486.shtml

Sources: CIA Director Forced Out

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS/AP) CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly Friday, and although President Bush says the decision was mutual, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that U.S. officials familiar with the CIA say Goss was forced out.

The sources tell Axelrod that the White House was unhappy with the lingering tensions between Goss and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. Goss was miffed at being passed over for the top intelligence job when it was created last year. He no longer briefed the president each morning; Negroponte did.

Inside CIA headquarters, sources say, they couldn't be happier, reports Axelrod. Goss, a former CIA operative brought in 18 months ago to reform the agency, was disliked intensely. The former congressman was also supposed to smooth over relations between the White House and the CIA, strained in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

(snip)

But CBS News consultant Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst, told said that Goss’ abrupt departure will do more harm than good at an agency already hampered by rapid turnover.

“Goss at least was a sign of stability and now that's gone,” said Scheuer. “The American intelligence community is in a terrible state of disarray at the moment, much weaker than it was on 9-11.”

Goss’ resignation, says Scheuer, “is just another problem that American security as a whole did not need.”

(snip)

link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/05/politics/main1592486.shtml

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. Goss' placement as CIA chief was what we did not need.

[Poppyseedman]

35. I would agree, DUer's are reading this all wrong.

Whatever scandal Goss or his subordinates are involved with is only the cover up reason Goss is gone. Negropointe was looking for a reason to get Goss out.

Goss is gone is because he wasn't cleaning out the CIA fast enough of supposed "political operatives" that keep the administration under pressure.

If Gen. Hayden is his replacement, it a direct affront to this administration critics. He runs the NSA program.

bush is upping the ante in DC.

[CoffeeCat]

15. I really don't get this at all...

Goss was brought in to sweep up the place of people who didn't want to kiss Junior's ass.

Goss was in line with all of that. He was turning the place upside down--getting rid of good men, who were liberal--or who the administration thought might be potential leakers. It was never Goss's intention to be liked. Quite the contrary. He was the man who was going to shake things up and make things easier for Junior.

He did all of that for Junior, I assume.

If he left, it was because of something related to the pResident or some scandal. The old, "He left a disgruntled employee" sounds very manufactured and trite.

So...what really happened?

[Sydnie]

16. Could it have anything to do with the lie detector tests that everyone

was just put through? Could there have been more to the "firing" of the scapegoat that they claimed was the leaker of the rendition prison story? Mary McCarthy ... wasn't that her name?

[Us vs Them]

17. He's been on record in a variety of sources as saying he was no longer

welcome in the CIA. This was abviously before his sudden 2004 appointment as a party insider to 'sweep things up' as you said. He's also on record as saying he couldn't handle the workload once he was in the job again. I say again because he once worked for the CIA before (long ago) and infact listed his language barrier (Spanish for him w/ Cuba tactics in the '60s vs. Arabic and Chinese for the modern agency) as a reason why he couldn't see himself working for the CIA.

He may have been forced out due to general incompetence, or was blackmailed out.

[The Roux Comes First]

22. I second your assessment: and puzzlement.

Goss seemed to be brought in largely because he was a trusted sycophant, willing to roll heads in the interests of cleaning the agency of folks who could conceivably share truths about the administration's incompetence (never mind criminality) regarding 9/11 and the "handling" of intelligence related to "making a decision about the Iraq war" with their constituency. That constituency would be "We the people." That cheery little spook agency is so publicity-phobic anyway that it is hard to judge how that threshing of honest agents serving us was going, but I certainly got the sense that "good" staff (i.e. spooks with a conscience, a concept I float with some trepidation) were fleeing and in general Goss was far from sympatico with the folks doing the serious work.

Maybe it is as simple as the less-than-chimp having been urged to make a more meaningful change than the Hindenburg stuff we saw recently and Goss having realized that his sordid task was nowhere near as rewarding as being a lobbyist.

[ReadTomPaine]

21. All this bad blood with CIA and even Admin officials, yet Goss sailed thru

confirmations with barely a Democratic word said against him.

Now that General Michael Hayden has been named as Goss's likely replacement, we'll see if we get yet another round of spineless ass kissing or if we start to see the GOP agenda shut down like it should have been right from the start.

[AndyTiedye]

37. Hayden Will Skate. Any Who Oppose Will Hear Their Phone Calls on the News

This is the guy who ran the NSA.



He's got EVERYTHING on EVERYBODY!

[Skink]

19. Get this man a book deal.

[npincus]

24. WaPo: Goss Forced out as CIA Director; Gen. Hayden is Likely Successor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/05/AR2006050500937.html

So Goss was forced to step down and his likely succesor will be Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency and now deputy to Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte.

No assertion or speculation about Goss patticipation in lusty poker games with hookers at The Watergate Hotel (a.k.a.: "Forni-gate"). Note the infamous Watergate is referred to as a "Washington Hotel".


But administration officials said Goss never forged a strong relationship with Bush. "It just didn't click," one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Goss's reserved personality and inability to master details of intelligence activities dampened the atmosphere of the president's morning intelligence briefing, which had been a central feature of the close relationship between Bush and Tenet. In one of his early interviews, Goss complained that he was spending hours preparing for the Oval Office sessions.

<snip>

In Goss's first days in office, his appointment of Michael Kostiw as executive director ended after it became public that Kostiw had been forced to leave the CIA under a cloud 20 years earlier. The subsequent search at the agency to find who leaked the information about Kostiw's past led the top two officers in the agency's clandestine service to resign in protest.

Kostiw's replacement, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, is the subject of a review by the CIA's inspector general. The agency is examining whether Foggo arranged for any contracts to be granted to companies associated with Brent R. Wilkes, a contractor and longtime friend of Foggo's who had connections to Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).

Cunningham left Congress and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for corruption. Foggo has said he has done nothing improper, and the agency has said the review is standard practice in such situations, not an indication of any wrongdoing. After Goss's announcement yesterday, Foggo told colleagues that he will resign next week. Last week, the agency confirmed that Foggo attended private poker games with Wilkes at a Washington hotel.

[BlueManDude]

25. Sounds like Negroponte will be the real DCIA n/t

[Disturbed]

26. Negroponte wanted his own guy at the helm at the Company.

Busholini is not the decider that he claims that he is.

Goss got fired. The reasons will be ferreted out next week.

[screembloodymurder]

30. Is anyone else struck by the similarities between Rove, Negroponte, and

Hayden. They look like brothers. It's as if evil has been personified.

[BlueManDude]

34. but Hayden will face the same trouble with the rank & file that Goss had

The first speculation yesterday was that Bush might go with a "bi-partisan" type of pick (maybe even a Dem) who could work both sides the the street (neo-cons and career people). Unsurprisingly he's chosen to side whole-heartedly with the neo-cons.

[Poppyseedman]

36. Negroponte will be the real DCIA.........Too late

He is already the head of Director of National Intelligence DNIC which the CIA reports to

[leftchick]

27. so this is really all about the chimp?

what a shock....

<snip>

Negroponte replaced Goss in presiding over the president's daily intelligence briefing, and he worked to bring CIA personnel and some of its analytical functions into his growing operations. Those steps quickly put him at odds with his friend. Privately, Goss's associates said the two men clashed with increasing frequency in recent months, and they blamed Negroponte for hurting Goss's reputation with the president.

But administration officials said Goss never forged a strong relationship with Bush. "It just didn't click," one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Goss's reserved personality and inability to master details of intelligence activities dampened the atmosphere of the president's morning intelligence briefing, which had been a central feature of the close relationship between Bush and Tenet. In one of his early interviews, Goss complained that he was spending hours preparing for the Oval Office sessions.

[symbolman]

33. Plus Goss forgot the crayons and

highlighters three days in a row once.. Bush likes all the pretty colors and to have Goss show up with all that blank paper and nothing to color it with was just too much..

"Does Presidential Briefing have one or Two 'T's in it?" said Bush one morning upon deciding to make his very OWN CIA Intel report..

Luckily Rove carries spare crayons he steals from kids at the IHOP each morning, just in case.

Besides, they'll be needed for the Presidential Library when Bush opens it, nearly finished, only Three of the books haven't been colored in yet.. :)

[CANDO]

28. This is about Iran.

Perhaps Goss refused to stove-pipe for the Iranian operation, so they'll get someone who will???

[screembloodymurder]

31. You may be right.

This administration came in with a plan and they appear intent on carrying out that plan. They view this as an all or nothing, last chance, to secure America's future. They appear ready to act on Iran with or without the approval of Congress or the people. They have us on the brink of fiscal disaster, they have lost the consent of the governed, and they are armed and dangerous. We must stand up against them. God help us.

[Demeter]

32. Bushbots and Cheney Lackeys Don't Refuse Assignments

If they aren't doing some heinous project already for the BFEE, they'll invent one!

[Imagevision]

38. It must be bad when they work on Saturday to anounce Goss Replacement

watch monday, Goss we'll be hooked up with hookergate or worse!