Goss pushes changeat CIA

CIA Director Porter J. Goss is moving ahead with a shake-up at the agency, aimed at changing an outdated and risk-averse spying bureaucracy, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

“In the days and weeks ahead of us,” Mr. Goss said in an internal message to CIA employees, “I will announce a series of changes — some involving procedures, organization, senior personnel, and areas of focus for our action.”

The memo on Monday stated that Mr. Goss was asked by President Bush to address the problems with U.S. intelligence that were revealed by the September 11 attacks and the failures related to estimates of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

One intelligence official close to Mr. Goss said the changes being considered by the new CIA leadership are wide-ranging and include an examination of the structure of the agency.

The goal will be to “emphasize a culture of taking risks,” the official said.

Mr. Goss, in his memo, outlined “rules of the road” for the CIA to follow and warned that agency employees “do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies.”

The comment was meant as an indirect criticism of Mr. Goss’ predecessor, George J. Tenet, who permitted CIA analyst Michael Scheuer to publish a book critical of the Bush administration during an election year under the name “Anonymous.”

Mr. Goss stated that recent intelligence failures have causedthe 14 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community to be “relentlessly scrutinized and criticized.”

“Intelligence-related issues have become the fodder of partisan food fights and turf-power skirmishes,” he said, adding that demands among policy-makers for intelligence have grown sharply.

However, he noted that the agency needs to be “smarter about how we do our work in this climate.”

The new director’s changes at the CIA’s Langley headquarters have sparked opposition and press disclosures aimed at undermining Mr. Goss, a former CIA officer who, until recently, was a Florida Republican congressman and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

The first steps in CIA reform were marked by recent resignations of Deputy Director of Central Intelligence John E. McLaughlin and the two senior officials from the CIA’s espionage branch, the directorate of operations (DO).

“There is more to come,” said one agency official.

Mr. Goss said in his message that the leaders of the intelligence, operations and technical services branches of CIA “are the principal leaders of their disciplines and are fully charged by me to lead their organizations, consistent with my vision and direction.”

Mr. Goss also said the offices of public affairs, legislative affairs and office of general counsel “lead our agency with contacts outside of the agency” and will help keep the CIA “a secret organization.”

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