Did Newsweek really publish the above silliness or its just some reader comment? CIA was "flawed by design" and was never intended by President Truman to be in the spy business. It has consistently been at war with both the Department of State and the Department of Defense, both of whom regard it as a pest at best, an out-of-control rogue elephant at worst.
Before you start commenting on intelligence, first figure out what it is. I am a former spy, served in the three of the four Directorates at CIA, was the senior civil servant among the team creating the Marine Corps Intelligence Center, and went on to spend 20 years helping 90 governments (50 directly) get in touch with ALL information in 183 languages, not just the 20% we can steal that produces 4% of the President's input at a cost to the taxpayer of $65 to 75 billion a year.
Please, stop publishing nonsense and get serious about covering this topic. You can start with my six books, all free online if Newsweek cannot afford them, and particularly with the Op-Ed and the White Paper at www.oss.net/HILL.
America deserves SERIOUS coverage of the Panetta choice, which I support, as well as that of Admiral Blair, which I support ONLY if his mission is to retire the DNI office and staff, a very bad wrong turn. We spend too much on contractors and technical systems that do not work. We spend too much on clandestine officers under official cover and child analyts. We do not spend enough of open source information, on processing, on counterintelligence, or on mature analysts who have proven themselves to mid-career before every being allowed to play with secrets.
As John Perry Barlow, one of my heors said in Forbes ASAP (where you can also read my piece onf Reinventing Intelligence), if you want to see the last vestiges of the Soviet Emprise, go visit CIA. Panetta has been offered--subject to Senate confirmation, both the worst nightmare for any manager, and the key to creating heaven on earth by reinventing national intelligence to create a Smart Nation.
I know it's hard to explain complex subject in terms and eighth-grader could understand, but Newsweek does not appear to be trying. Please.
Robert Steele
CIA KR-594 (EOD 09/79)
Not Exactly Spies Like Us
History repeats itself, but not without a few wrinkles. We make the comparisons, then pick them apart.
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The Comparison
The debate about whether CIA director–nominee Leon Panetta has the intelligence expertise required for the job is reminiscent of the fuss over another choice whose résumé was light on intel: George H.W. Bush, who was appointed by President Ford in 1975 and served for a year before Ford lost his bid for re-election to Jimmy Carter.
Why It Works
Both are ex-congressmen and party loyalists with loads of government experience—just not in spy games. And both inherit a wounded agency. Bush took over after a Senate investigation uncovered years of illegal activity; Panetta would arrive at an agency still reeling from the botched WMD intel on Iraq and the lingering torture scandal.
Why It Doesn
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At 52, Bush was (rightly) thought to harbor grander political ambitions whereas Panetta, 70, almost certainly does not. As for their résumés, Bush's global experience came firsthand (U.N. ambassador, envoy to China); Panetta's springs from relevant proximity: his front-row seat as President Clinton's chief of staff.
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