Intelligence Reform: 1,701 Days And Still Waiting

I'm not very good at math and only a little better at reading Washington tea leaves. But I do know that it has been 1,701 days since the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. intelligence apparatus appears to be as dysfunctional as it was the day hijacked jetliners were flown into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and -- only because of some heroic passengers and the grace of God -- a field in western Pennsylvania and not the U.S. Capitol.

(By point of reference, 1,365 days transpired between the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and formal surrender of Japan.)

So it's been going on five years since 9/11 and the dithering, backbiting, recriminations and turf warring continue apace, mostly recently with the sudden and unexplained resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss, whom as I predicted was the very type of old boy insider who was bound to make a bad situation worse.

And did, proving yet again that President Bush's predeliction for appointing people to important posts based on loyalty rather than competence is big trouble for all of us.

Then there's Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, whom Goss plucked from obscurity and appointed to run day-by-day operations at the CIA. As Goss's No. 3 man, Foggio also would be expected to quit and yesterday stepped down as the agency's operations director, but it's worth noting a couple of things as he cleans out his desk.

First, Foggio is a hack and is being investigated by both the FBI and the CIA's inspector general for being mobbed up with some pretty unsavory characters, including a high school buddy who grew up to be a defense contractor now linked to the bribery case against former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California.

Second, Foggio has a fondness for playing high-stakes poker at a Watergate Hotel suite run by friends of the contractor where there never is a shortage of booze or hookers.

Just the kind of behavior you'd want a high-ranking intelligence official to engage in.

A LONG OVERDUE SHOWDOWN

Goss was making such a hash of things that both John Negroponte, the recently minted director of national intelligence, and a little known White House advisory panel urged President Bush to pull the plug. (Too bad there wasn't someone to tell him to do the same with Michael Brown and the other homeland security bozos at FEMA before Hurricane Katrina struck.)

Anyhow, the president is back in the hot seat with his nomination of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who is Negroponte's top deputy, to replace Goss. Republicans and Democrats alike are dissing Hayden because:

A military guy would be running a civilian agency.

This particular military guy ran the National Security Agency when Bush secretly approved its clandestine domestic spying program.

Under other circumstances, I too would be concerned. But there have been no fewer than five CIA directors who were military officers and the republic seems to have survived that, while the congressional bellyaching over the NSA program, which I oppose, has not been backed up by action.

Enough is f*cking enough!

If Hayden can do what Goss and George Tenet before him could not, then perhaps a corner will finally be turned and the CIA can regain its rightful place as the premier U.S. intelligence agency and we can begin to feel a little safer.

There is a second reason as well:

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, with Bush's acquiescence, has built a rump CIA into the Pentagon. This is in part because Rumsfeld wants to be able to manipulate his own intelligence and because, as is obvious, the CIA had lost its way and drifted even further from the shore under Gross, whom Rumsfeld easily manhandled.

Hayden's nomination, which I predict will sail through after some harrumphing, will set up a long overdue showdown between Rumsfeld and somebody who really cares about repairing America's crippled intelligence infrastructure, not manipulating it for their own political ends. That, I believe, is John Negroponte.

SHAME ON CONGRESS

But like I said, I'm only slightly better at reading tea leaves.

Other observers think that Rummy and Negroponte have already settled into a live-and-let-live relationship, while the New York Sun goes so far as to say that Negroponte is willing to cede covert operations -- long a big part of the CIA's toolbox -- to the Pentagon.

I am sure of one thing: That's not what Congress envisioned when it ordered a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. intelligence apparatus because of the staggering failures before and after 9/11, just as it never envisioned giving the NSA carte blanche to spy on Americans.

Nevertheless, Congress has done nothing to take back its rightful turf, so before it gets its knickers in a knot over Hayden it should engage in some long overdue self reflection. I would suggestion that Arlen Specter, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, be first in line for navel contemplation.

You see, "Waffling" Arlen has the well practiced habit of crying wolf when someone like Hayden comes along and then rolls over and gets his tummy scratched when he convenes nomination hearings.