The Hindu Business Line : CIA in turmoil

THE Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, famed as well as feared all over the world for its mastery over an incredible variety of techniques of espionage and subversion, its superbly trained, tightly knit and highly disciplined professionals, and its exploits (pejoratively dubbed "dirty tricks" by the media), has been in turmoil ever since the new Director, Mr Peter Goss, took over from his predecessor, Mr George Tenet.

Indeed, it is supposed to be passing through its worst crisis in 20 years, and there is widespread apprehension that the damage to its élan and esprit d'corps might become well-nigh irreparable.

Mr Goss, who is blamed squarely by dispassionate observers, was himself a CIA operative some years ago. At the time of his appointment by the President, Mr George Bush, a couple of months ago, he was the Chairman of the Intelligence Sub-Committee of the US House of Representatives as an elected Congressman belonging to the Republican Party.

He has brought with him a number of his favourite staffers from the Congressional Committee. Mr Goss and his chosen cohorts are fancying themselves to be know-alls and are throwing their weight about reportedly in an insufferable and unseemly manner. To make matters worse, and to the horror of all within and outside the Agency who want to keep it insulated from political pulls and pressures, Mr Goss has issued a trenchant order that it is the bounden duty of everyone in the organisation "to support the Administration and its policies" and to have no truck with the Opposition.

Expectedly, the bull-in-a-china-shop style has led to an exodus of some old veterans, who were holding very important posts or in charge of sensitive clandestine operations and have been unable to bear the trampling on sound traditions built up so assiduously over the years.

The excuse given by Mr Goss is much the same as what is contained in an earlier report of his Committee inquiring into intelligence failures, that "the nimble, flexible, core-mission oriented enterprise" the CIA once was, is becoming just "a fleeting memory" and it is necessary to introduce immediate and far-reaching changes even if it initially encounters resistance. He is not without his supporters who feel that a shake-up was overdue and will do plenty of good.

One has to wait and see.