House Cleaning at CIA?

by Larry C. Johnson (bio below)

The jury is still out on whether Porter Goss is cleaning up the CIA or politicizing it. US News offers an excellent article on some of the current problems (see Seeking Spies) at CIA. Despite the happy talk that the place is getting better, there is an exodus of mid-level personnel underway. Basically, folks join the CIA thinking they will become Jack Ryan or Mitch Rapp. Within a few short years they realize they are Dilbert.

I don’t know if the CIA can be fixed, but recent news suggests Goss is serious about clearing out risk averse bureaucrats who were acting more like sedate bankers than dashing case officers. I am referring to the removal announced this week of Robert Grenier as the Chief of the Counter Terrorism Center. Some outside the Agency see this as part of a political vendetta. Folks I’ve communicated with who are knowledgeable and have had dealt with him say this is good news.

Before becoming the Chief of CTC, Robert Grenier (aka Bob) had been the CIA Chief in Islamabad during and after 9-11 . When the CIA started fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan in October of 2001, Grenier was one of the foot draggers. I’m told he took the Pakistani position on everything and was at constant odds with the Chiefs of the Counter Terrorism Center (Cofer Black and Hank Crumpton) on key issues of the war. US military personnel who worked with Grenier during his time in Pakistan remarked that he was always a dapper dresser and worked banker’s hours. They joked that he was well rested during the war. His men, however, were in the office around the clock. Case officers I know and respect viewed him as personally ambitions and not a stand up guy. He would not take a spear in the chest for anyone. With the benefit of history we can now see that Coffer and Hank were vindicated when the Taliban collapsed.

Unfortunately, the Robert Grenier type of case officer is the kind of person who has prospered at CIA. … continued below …
These are the men and women in the Directorate of Operations who were hired to be spies but preferred to stay in the suburbs of Northern Virginia rather than go overseas. Once overseas they chose to hunker down and put their time in. They are adept at playing political games in the halls of the CIA Headquarters. And, until recently, they were the ones getting promoted. The former DDO, Jim Pavitt is another example of this type. Many friends tell me he was a nice guy but had no business leading the DO. Pavitt, I’m told by guys who know, failed to successfully complete his first tour overseas as a Chief of Station, but was eventually elevated to the job of Top Spy because of his political skills on Capitol Hill. Case officers who were true field operatives were horrified by Pavitt’s lack of leadership during his tenure.

So, is Porter Goss purging “stay at home hacks” or retiring the hard charging field operative we need? He has done some of both since taking over. During Porter’s first months on the job he brought with him some Hill staffers who had also been CIA officers. These folks, known derisively as “Gosslings”, set out on their own personal vendetta against EUR (Europe) case officers. Their first casualties were Stephen Kappes and Michael Sulick (Kappes and Sulick were DDO and ADDO respectively). My friends tell me that Kappes and Sulick were a breath of fresh air because they were true operators and preferred being in the field rather than hanging around the CIA cafeteria. Rather than intervene to keep these guys on board, Goss kept hands off and did nothing when they resigned. This initial hands off attitude left him with a reputation, perhaps undeserved, that he was playing politics with CIA personnel.

Does Grenier’s departure signal that Goss now is serious about trying to reform the CIA? Maybe. The CIA, unlike the U.S. military or the State Department Foreign Service, does not have an “up-or-out” career service. The U.S. Army, for example, would nornally only promote about 70% of Captains to the rank of Major. Those not promoted had to resign. (As noted in a previous blog, the Army is slipping on this quality control because they are desperate for bodies). The CIA, however, only required you to survive your first three year probation period. Once you passed that milestone you had a job for life (as long as you didn’t sell yourself to the Russians or the Chinese). Not surprisingly the upper ranks of CIA managers, particularly over the past decade, have tended to be filled with folks who were great at getting along with their bosses but were not necessarily good field operatives. Unlike the Army, where the weeding out process still leaves you with officers as diverse as Barry McCaffrey and Tommy Franks, the CIA upper ranks became more homogenous and rewarded those who were most like their superiors.

Two things are certain–we need good human intelligence and good field operators can not be trained over night. The current turmoil at CIA will put this nation at risk if we do not get serious about training, supporting, and retaining a new generation of case officers who are willing and comfortable in working overseas for extended periods. Solving this mess must be a priority for Goss. Grenier’s dismissal may be a sign that he is getting a hand on the massive task. Now, if George Bush and Dick Cheney would finally admit that outing CIA case officers like Valerie Plame is a bad thing, we would truly be on the road to a new and better CIA.

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Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world. Further bio details.