Fergie's Tech Blog

Terror Watch: New Details on CIA Personnel Purge

Mark Hosenball writes in Newsweek:

As controversial CIA Director Porter Goss exits the agency, NEWSWEEK has discovered new details about a purge of top agency operatives shortly after Goss's arrival in 2004. A bitter secret feud over a Clinton-era counterintelligence case was apparently a major motivation behind the loss of those seasoned intelligence veterans, sources say.

Gen. Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee to replace Goss as CIA chief, has signaled that when he is confirmed by the Senate, probably later this week, he intends to appoint one of the principal victims of the feud, former CIA operations chief Stephen Kappes, as deputy CIA director—a move that is regarded inside the intelligence world as a final insult to Goss and his inner circle.

The secret feud revolves around how CIA management, led by former director George Tenet, handled a 1999 counterintelligence problem that arose as a result of the Clinton administration's bombing of Belgrade to oust Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Though the counterintelligence investigation ended years ago, egos and reputations were so deeply bruised that participants on both sides of the dispute (who spoke to NEWSWEEK anonymously because the matter is still considered sensitive) still fume when discussing the case.

The CIA declined to comment on the matter.

posted by Fergie @ 5/24/2006 05:47:00 PM