U.S. spies are target of criticism
WASHINGTON — Intelligence agencies came under sharp attack Sunday from lawmakers, as did Congress, where a bill to put in place recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission has stalled heading into this week’s postelection session.
Rep. Jane Harman, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was an obstacle to a compromise because he does not want to diminish the Pentagon’s overwhelming control over intelligence agencies’ budgets.
Disarray in the government’s intelligence operations is most evident at the CIA less than two months after a new director, former Rep. Porter Goss, was sworn in. Goss, a Florida Republican, was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
“The agency seems in free-fall in Washington, and that is a very, very bad omen in the middle of a war,” Harman said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The agency’s No. 2 official has resigned, the deputy chief of the department in charge of clandestine operations is reported planning to leave this week and other resignations are said to be in the works. News reports cite clashes between the officials and members of Goss’ new administration who worked with him on the committee.
Under the current system, the CIA chief also is the director of central intelligence and has nominal oversight of the nation’s security agencies, but little power to control spending.
Harman said the White House was trying to build consensus during the weekend for a bill that three-quarters of the House and almost all the Senate favor.
The bill would create a more powerful national intelligence director than was included in a House-passed measure, taking away some of the Pentagon’s control of intelligence agencies’ budgets.
“The president is our commander in chief. It is time — past time — for him to tell the secretary of defense to stand down on this issue so that the will of Congress and the 9/11 commission can be implemented,” Harman said.
Sen. John McCain was on a presidential commission that investigated how intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, erred so abysmally with its assurances to President Bush that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
“One thing that has become abundantly clear if it wasn’t already: This is a dysfunctional agency and in some ways a rogue agency,” McCain said on ABC’s “This Week.”
He said the kind of shake-up that has been widely reported as causing dissent within the ranks of the CIA is absolutely necessary.
“Porter Goss is on the right track,” McCain said. “He is being savaged by these people that want the status quo, and the status quo is not satisfactory.”
Added Sen. Lindsey Graham: “Somebody needs to deal with the dynamic that led to us being so wrong” about Iraq. “If you have to hurt some feelings, so be it.”