Turmoil at the agency

Fascinating! As you know, Bush's new DCI is his right-wing crony Porter Goss (allegedly the fellow depicted in that long-ago "spies' night out" nightclub photograph, seated with such covert op luminaries as Frank Sturgis and Barry Seal.) With Goss in the top spot, many are moving out. From the Washington Post:

John E. McLaughlin, a 32-year CIA veteran who was acting director for two months this summer until Goss took over, resigned after warning Goss that his top aide, former Capitol Hill staff member Patrick Murray, was treating senior officials disrespectfully and risked widespread resignations, the officials said.

Yesterday, the agency official who oversees foreign operations, Deputy Director of Operations Stephen R. Kappes, tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Murray. Goss and the White House pleaded with Kappes to reconsider and he agreed to delay his decision until Monday, the officials said.

Several other senior clandestine service officers are threatening to leave, current and former agency officials said.

Earlier I speculated that John "magician" McLaughlin (the acting DCI after Tenet left) is part of the faction opposed to Bush. Leaks embarrassing to the administration marked his brief tenure.

(Incidentally, the CIA/Bush administration "war," once discussed only by wild men such as yours truly, has now become an acceptable topic of conversation in polite society.)

Older readers may recall the time Stansfield Turner tried to clean house at CIA in the late 1970s. Many a spook was let loose. They did (and may still do) more harm off the reservation than they ever could accomplish while still honestly employed by Uncle Sam. Perhaps something like that history will now repeat itself?

If I were Bush, I would not want an embittered former Deputy Director of Operations scurrying around in the shadows. The DDO runs the covert op/dirty tricks stuff.