CIA's real problem

To find the problems in the intelligence gathering ability of the CIA, one need look no further than the vision and imagination of those in charge. The agency's decline began with the Kennedy administration, was accelerated under Carter, and was ultimately laid to rest under Clinton.

CPR was performed under the guidance and connections of Bill Casey, but the organization was already so terminally ill, it barely survived through Bush the elder. Congressional stupidity allowed the "Company" to wander around, trying to find itself, and in the end it was hiring practices that doomed the mission.

To borrow from vernacular, the people who work there are are so unhip, it's amazing they know what to do with a paycheck. I have seen and heard Mahle, and she actually said she believed some of the "brightest and best" were passed over and even let go in the latest purge. Where have we heard that phrase ere now? The "brightest and best" have not served us well.

Take a look at the recruitment-for-hire practices. Who gets hired but the products of a liberal arts education from American universities and colleges? These are the first tier types. Second tier are ex-military. Talk about trackable records.

In this arena, war dogs are better than academicians, but it is possible that because of high minded hiring parameters, the real champions lurk in more well rounded venues.

The hubris has been misidentified. It lurks not in the job mindset, it hides in the attitude of fairness and in a respect for book learning...education. The old boy network was so busy becoming an old everybody network, as long as everybody was educated in college or military, that the real job became secondary. Political correctness and an overripe reverence for upper level learning made the agency vulnerable.

The agency needs people smart in computers, literature, policy, but it could sure use some hard scrabble people reminiscent of Wild Bill's crew at OSS. Make no mistake, the terrorists are fairly sophisticated, but they are no match for the hip street fighters of the United States...if they're found, hired, and heard.

One good bad boy who belongs to us is worth twenty well intentioned school boys.

Maybe Porter Goss will figure this out, but it is doubtful. He is too well liked in Washington circles to kick this can down the road. Job requirement number one is a big imagination. After that, it's complete overhaul of field agent staff.

Time grows short, he'd better get a move on.