WASHINGTON — Distracting battles over bureaucratic turf. Sinking morale in the spy ranks. Another CIA director, his reputation battered, heading for the door with a long list of unfinished tasks.
The ouster of CIA Director Porter J. Goss on Friday underscores the extent to which major pieces of the U.S. intelligence community are still in disarray despite -- or in some cases because of -- well-intentioned efforts to fix them.
More than 4 1/2 years after the nation's spy services failed to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the services continue to be plagued by problems -- including rivalries over resources, trouble sharing information and a reluctance to take risks -- that are proving resistant to change.
But Goss' departure also exposes what some intelligence officials and experts believe is a fundamental flaw in the intended reforms. They point to the decision to create a director of national intelligence -- a position held by John D. Negroponte -- but to give him little direct control over the CIA or other agencies he oversees.
That structure "in my view was a mistake, and I think this is beginning to show why that is so," said Mark Lowenthal, who served as an assistant CIA director under Goss as well as under Goss' predecessor, George J. Tenet.
"Negroponte is divorced from all the agencies he's supposed to manage," Lowenthal said. "He's discovered that the CIA really is central and that he can't do his job effectively if he doesn't feel the CIA is being run well."
Goss was pushed out by Negroponte after clashes between them over Goss' management style, as well as his reluctance to surrender CIA personnel and resources to new organizations set up to combat terrorism and weapons proliferation.
Negroponte is widely expected to consolidate control of the CIA by dispatching his top deputy to run the agency. Congressional sources said Saturday that the White House was poised to nominate Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, No. 2 in Negroponte's office, as CIA director as early as Monday.
The maneuvering reflects recognition that even though the CIA has lost much of its clout, the agency still plays a central role in the war on terrorism. The CIA remains in charge of human intelligence collection around the world, controls covert operations, and produces much of the analysis provided every day to the president and senior policymakers in government.
