No CIA Left Behind

A1 story in the Times airs the dirty laundry of the CIA, which just released an internal investigation report that concludes "officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks."

The most obvious irony of the article points out that George Tenet--former CIA director who abruptly "retired" July 11 to "spend more time with the family"--received a Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor) by the president last month. Ignoring accountability is one thing, but rewarding failure for political pimping is outright insulting.

But the more subtle irony lies in this paragraph:

"The vast bulk of Mr. Helgerson's report was completed last summer, intelligence officials said, but its completion was delayed while the document was reviewed first by John E. McLaughlin, who became acting intelligence chief after Mr. Tenet's departure, and then Porter J. Goss, who became director of central intelligence in September." [italics mine]

Goss made a career in the CIA before becoming a long-running Republican congressman from Florida,* appointed by Bush (George, not Jeb) in September.

So what was going on September-November that would Goss to delay such a pivotal report?



*your former representative, Pete