No alien penetration or treachery of double agents has ever done nearly as much damage to the CIA as the infighting consequent upon the arrival of each new director, charged by his White House master with cleaning house and settling accounts with the bad guys installed by the previous White House incumbent.

Bush's new director, former Republican Florida Representative Porter Goss, and his team of enforcers are now rampaging through the corridors of CIA HQ at Langley. Goss was once an undercover CIA officer, so there's probably a personal edge to his mission of revenge, as he strikes back at the dolts who nixed his expense accounts or poured scorn on his heroic endeavors in the field.

But Goss's most pressing task is to exact retribution for the anti-White House stories emanating from the CIA in the months before the election. Goss and his hit team have acted swiftly. In early November the CIA's number 2, John McLaughlin, resigned, followed days later by the top man on the clandestine side and his deputy. And, no surprise, into retirement goes "Anonymous," Michael Scheuer, leader of the CIA unit hunting Osama bin Laden. I'm with Goss on that one. Scheuer probably spent most of each day hunting down his next book advance and kibitzing about royalties from Imperial Hubris with his true "controls" at Brassey's Inc., owned by shadowy Books International.

Subscriber Login

User Name

Password

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.