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2 more cia officials quit amid infighting { November 16 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0411160282nov16,1,7884981.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hedhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0411160282nov16,1,7884981.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
2 more CIA officials quit amid infighting
By Greg Miller
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published November 16, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The resignations of two more senior CIA officials Monday fueled debate in the intelligence community over whether the agency is tumbling into turmoil under new director Porter Goss or is taking painful but necessary steps toward fixing serious problems.
In the latest in a series of high-profile departures, the top two officials in the CIA's clandestine service quit after clashing with one of Goss' senior aides.
Stephen Kappes, the deputy director for operations, and Michael Sulick, the No. 2 man in Kappes' office, each had served in the agency for 23 years. But both are leaving just weeks into Goss' tenure amid signs of increasing acrimony between the agency's old guard and what critics describe as an often abrasive new regime at the CIA.
The departures alarmed agency veterans who say morale is plummeting under Goss' stewardship and that the agency is increasingly in disarray at a time when it is struggling to stay abreast of terrorist threats and the insurgency in Iraq.
Talent drain concern
Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed concern that the drain of talent could spin out of control.
"Goss must take immediate steps to stabilize the situation at the CIA," Rockefeller said in a written statement. "There is no doubt that changes needed to take place at the CIA. However, the departure of highly respected and competent individuals at such a crucial time is a grave concern."
Goss did not address the turmoil at the agency in a written statement late Monday, saying only that Kappes and Sulick had "honorably served their nation and this agency with distinction for many years."
Goss also indicated that a new head of the directorate of operations had been selected, with a U.S. intelligence official saying the current head of the CIA's counterterrorism center was chosen. The agency asked that the official's name not be published because he remains undercover.
Even some critics of Goss said they were dismayed by the agency's reaction to the arrival of its first new director in more than seven years; Goss replaced George Tenet. They accused senior CIA officials of seeking to undermine efforts to reform an agency guilty of extensive intelligence failures involving the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq.
Recent years have been a litany of "how screwed up the CIA is, and somebody goes in to change things and suddenly it's the end of the world," said a longtime Goss associate.
Kappes and other senior officers "completely cold-shouldered Porter Goss when he came in," said the former government official, who asked not to be identified.
The agency's deputy director, John McLaughlin, on Friday announced his plans to retire, and its former executive director, A.B. Krongard, was forced out soon after Goss arrived.
Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit who wrote a book critical of the agency's terrorism response, quit last week. His departure apparently was unrelated to the new regime.
Before arriving at the CIA in September, Goss was critical of the clandestine service, calling it "dysfunctional" and vowing to overhaul it by thinning management to bolster the number of operatives working overseas.
Changes planned
A former congressional aide familiar with Goss' plans said the CIA director would like to reverse a current ratio in which roughly one-third of those who work in the clandestine service are overseas, while two-thirds are stationed at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Va.
Goss, a former congressman from Florida, worked undercover as a CIA spy in the 1960s. He has indicated that he intends to give station chiefs overseas greater autonomy and seeks to encourage greater risk-taking in operations.
But many current and former officials said Goss' agenda is in danger of being derailed by growing animosity toward congressional aides he brought with him to the agency and placed in high-level positions.
Intelligence officials noted that Kappes and Sulick did not resign in protest over changes but because of confrontations with Goss' chief of staff, Patrick Murray, whom many accuse of having a brusque manner.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
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