Porter Goss: CIA Dir. Bush Nomination.
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| Tue, 08-10-2004 - 2:25pm |
Bush taps Florida's Porter Goss to be CIA director.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/9364240.htm?1c
Porter Goss -- ex-spook, low-key pol and powerful Florida congressman -- was named to his dream job Tuesday: heading the Central Intelligence Agency that he has monitored, prodded, praised and castigated for seven years in the U.S. House.
His nomination by President Bush is a fitting cap to a varied career for the House Intelligence Committee chairman, 65, who became an officer in the agency's clandestine service soon after he graduated from Yale in 1960.
Goss was forced into early retirement by a rare, debilitating blood disorder. He says little about his spy career except that he ''worked hard in a lot of strange places overseas,'' and spent time in South Florida during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
Goss, who grew up in Waterbury, Conn., moved with his wife Mariel and their four kids to recuperate on Sanibel Island, where other ex-CIA agents lived. He cofounded a newspaper, became mayor, protected Sanibel from overdevelopment, and later was appointed to the Lee County Commission by then-Gov. Bob Graham.
When Rep. Connie Mack successfully ran for the Senate in 1988, Goss succeeded him in the House. He gained a reputation as a quiet conservative-to-moderate Republican who quickly became a leader on intelligence issues and the Everglades.
''He doesn't issue press releases, he's not looking for the TV cameras, but he became the go-to guy for anything involving intelligence,'' said Rep. Mark Foley, a Palm Beach Republican whose Capitol Hill townhouse is a few doors down from Goss.
Two years ago, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney leaned hard on Goss to serve one more term in Congress as Intelligence chairman, with the threat of terrorism and war plans for Iraq looming.
Goss' colleagues like to tell the story of how they were leaving a meeting when the vice president button-holed the congressman, who was planning to retire at the end of 2002.
''Not so fast, Goss. My instructions are not to let you leave until you change your mind,'' Cheney told him, according to Foley.
Now Bush and Cheney have prevailed again, naming Goss the new CIA director. And the stakes are higher. Last month the CIA was hit by scathing criticism in the Sept. 11 Commission report and from the Senate Intelligence Committee on its lapses and failures.
Another occasional critic is Goss himself. With his CIA background, Goss is viewed by many on Capitol Hill as close to the agency -- too close for some. For years he has tried to bolster the agency's budget and rejuvenate its mission, and he defended CIA Director George Tenet after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But this summer he oversaw a committee report that blasted the clandestine efforts of the CIA, saying the agency ``continues down a road leading over a proverbial cliff.''
Goss insists he has always been tough on the agency. Eleanor Hill, staff director of the congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks, said Goss ''always backed up the staff'' in its critical findings on the CIA, FBI and other agencies.
''He was tough on the agency when he needed to be tough,'' said Hill, now in private practice. ``His style is not tyrannical or antagonistic, so some may see him as too friendly, but I don't think that's the case.''
It's rare for a leader in Congress to take over an agency he oversaw, but Hill sees that as a plus: ``He knows the history, the track record, the vulnerabilities of the CIA, and that's a real advantage for the director's job.''
This year, Goss has become more partisan and criticized Democrat John Kerry as ''dangerously nave'' for the Bush-Cheney campaign. But he is one of the few GOP House leaders not known for partisanship.
Goss and Sen. Graham, a Florida Democrat, co-chaired the Sept. 11 investigation ''in a way many thought was impossible,'' Hill said. ``It was a major, highly visible inquiry on a hot subject at a tense time -- and they did it in a bipartisan way.''
The notion of making the overseer of the CIA its new director has its detractors. Some Democrats on the Hill complain that Goss has been too protective of the Bush administration on Iraq.
Mel Goodman, a former CIA and State Department analyst, said he is ``leery of people who come from the political environment on the Hill.''
''You become a deal-maker, or a schmoozer like Tenet,'' said Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. He said the CIA would be better off with a professional as director, such as a respected career diplomat.
Goss' supporters and Goodman agree on one point -- that the CIA needs reform and strong leadership. If the Senate confirms him, Goss will get the chance to provide it.
Porter Goss: On the issues......
http://www.issues2000.org/FL/Porter_Goss.htm


CIA Shill Porter Goss: HR3179 Expands Patriot II
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=49&contentid=1336
In his column, "The M3 Money Supply Story: A New Twist, Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) and Patriot II Skullduggery," political analyst Al Martin details the sordid history of former CIA operative Porter Goss, who is on the short list to become the director of the CIA.
Goss (R-CIA) is the sponsor of HR-3179, the Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act of 2003, previously known as Patriot II and the expansion of the USA Patriot (sic) Act, which would allow not only secret grand juries, but secret arrest of US citizens.
"And who is Porter Goss?" Martin asks. "Porter Goss, (R-FL) is surprise! a former CIA agent who left the CIA under clouded circumstances. He was a field agent but was actually forced out because of a trail of bodies that got tagged to him, literally, all over the world.
The rise of Porter Goss as a contender for DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) can be likened "to the crime family where the soldier rises from the street to become the capo, which has taken the hits over the years for his superiors in the organization," writes Al Martin, author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider.
Porter Goss: Cheney Cat's Paw.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/mcgovern.php?articleid=2944

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To make the new coordinator more than a figurehead, the commission proposed that the job be endowed with power over the budgets of the various intelligence agencies and the appointment of their leaders. President Bush, in an attempt to get the credit for reform without the substance, announced his support for creating the new position - minus the budget and appointment powers. Congress has hardly begun to tackle the issue, but the president is already in the process of changing the conversation.
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Sidestepping Reform at the C.I.A.
s the Sept. 11 commission made clear, the nation urgently needs to reorganize its intelligence agencies. Nominating a new candidate for the old, unreformed job of director of central intelligence, as President Bush did yesterday, is not the logical or appropriate place to start. Last week, Mr. Bush attempted to transform the powerful new position of national intelligence director, as proposed by the commission, into a neutralized bureaucratic cipher by depriving the office of any real authority. Now he once again seems intent on draining momentum from the idea of systematic intelligence reform.
Even under normal circumstances, it's questionable whether a president should try to install a new C.I.A. chief a few months before an election. Mr. Bush seems to be deliberately inviting a confirmation battle by turning to Representative Porter Goss of Florida, a partisan Republican and a man criticized for his close, protective relationship with that intelligence agency - where he once worked. After the catastrophic intelligence failures and oversight lapses of recent years, the Senate must rigorously examine Mr. Goss's suitability and political independence. But contentious confirmation hearings are likely to distract the Senate's attention from the far more important job of figuring out how to coordinate America's disparate and overlapping intelligence agencies and streamline a largely dysfunctional system of Congressional oversight.
Mr. Goss, who has served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee since 1997, shares some of the responsibility for the oversight breakdown. His embrace of the Sept. 11 report has been little better than lukewarm. While calling the committee back for August hearings, he has taken a go-slow attitude. The most important service he could perform for the country at this time would be to put his experience to work shaping reform legislation. Instead, he has been nominated for a job that will have to be thoroughly redefined.
The nation is now well aware that American intelligence operations are too far-flung and disorganized to respond to the complexities of the post-cold-war world. The Sept. 11 commission concluded that there should be a single official responsible for coordinating the intelligence work that is now spread among the C.I.A., the Defense Department and numerous other agencies.
To make the new coordinator more than a figurehead, the commission proposed that the job be endowed with power over the budgets of the various intelligence agencies and the appointment of their leaders. President Bush, in an attempt to get the credit for reform without the substance, announced his support for creating the new position - minus the budget and appointment powers. Congress has hardly begun to tackle the issue, but the president is already in the process of changing the conversation.
There is no reason the C.I.A.'s current acting director, John McLaughlin, cannot be kept in his job while the new structure is being designed. And no reason the appointment of a permanent successor cannot be delayed, at least until after the next presidential term begins in January.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/opinion/11wed1.html?pagewanted=print&position=
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1155&slug=Bush%20CIA
Wednesday, August 11, 2004 · Last updated 7:21 a.m. PT
CIA nominee Goss faces tough confirmation
By TED BRIDIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's nomination of Rep. Porter Goss as the next CIA director could lead to tense confirmation hearings, with plenty of questions about the president's national security record and goals, just weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
Even as some Democrats praised the nomination of Goss, R-Fla., who gave up his role Tuesday as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, others criticized him as inappropriately partisan for a job that requires relaying objective advice to policy makers.
"You must keep the politics out of intelligence," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "I'm not sure that has been done here."
"The selection of a politician - any politician from either party - is a mistake," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Having independent, objective intelligence going to the president and the Congress is fundamental to America's national security."
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, said he was mystified by complaints that Goss was partisan.
"You can disagree with somebody as to the issues from time to time; I don't think that makes them partisan," said Roberts, R-Kan. "I don't consider him to be partisan. I've known him for 16 years; that's not a word I would use to describe Porter."
Appearing Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show, Roberts said "I think we're all politicians in Congress" and said service in the national legislature shouldn't be a disqualifying factor.
"We're going to have hearings the first week of September. We're going to try to expedite this. I think he will be confirmed," he said. "The Democrats have questions. We'll keep it civil."
Appearing on the same program, Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is a member of the Intelligence Committee, said, "I believe the White House may be playing this with a political angle. If they are, it's unfortunate. We still have a responsibility, despite the elections, to ask the hard questions."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told ABC's "Good Morning America" that Goss "has shown not only the ability but the willingness to point out the failures that existed in our intelligence agencies prior to 9/11."
Meantime, Goss revealed Wednesday that while his nomination is pending, he is stepping down as chairman of the House intelligence panel to avoid any conflicts.
"I do believe it is appropriate to remain a member of the committee," Goss told colleagues Wednesday morning at the outset of a hearing on the report of the Sept. 11 Commission.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, D-N.Y., presided at the hearing, at which Sept. 11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton were testifying. "Let us hope that partisanship won't rear its ugly head during the Senate proceedings," Boehlert said of Goss' pending confirmation hearings.
In making the announcement Tuesday, Bush ignored advisers who had favored allowing acting director John E. McLaughlin to remain on the job until after the November elections.
Bush praised Goss, a former CIA officer, as someone who "knows the CIA inside and out" and said he was "the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation's history."
Goss is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with assets worth between $6 million and $24 million last year. His biggest holdings included $1 million to $5 million worth of shares each in IBM, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and General Electric Co.
Goss, 65, worked as a CIA officer overseeing spies in Central America and Western Europe during the 1960s until a mysterious infection forced his retirement. He rose in local and then national politics after his recovery.
He has never disclosed details of his CIA employment except to reveal that he worked in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Mexico - all tumultuous countries during that decade of the Cold War.
Bush's nomination of Goss could deflect criticism from Democratic candidate John Kerry that the administration wasn't moving quickly enough to make important changes affecting America's intelligence agencies. Among the proposals being worked out is creation of a new national intelligence director - a job Goss could ultimately inherit.
The complexities of such reforms were underscored Tuesday when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested there are legitimate reasons against sharing too much information across U.S. intelligence agencies. Rumsfeld opposes the creation of a new national intelligence chief, partly because the Pentagon currently controls more than 80 percent of the nation's intelligence budget.
During a visit to Oman, Rumsfeld said that if classified intelligence is shared in too many places, it runs a greater risk of being leaked, either to foreign governments or to the American public. (me:
"minus the budget and appointment powers"
Is there a pattern developing here?
"That may be, but one also greatly reduces the risk of what happened prior to 9/11.
Actually, it is very easy. You have your opinions and cling to them. You are RIGHT and are absolutely certain of this. Bush has been running the country this way for four years. As with the FBI, eventually you become ineffective.
>"Bush praised Goss, a former CIA officer, as someone who "knows the CIA inside and out" and said he was "the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation's history.""<
Info. from