THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511190020
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The CIA needs to be downsized and its mission narrowly defined. The agency has a 40-year history of rogue operations, mission creep and incompetence. The latest revelations ought to be the last straw.
It turns out the agency knowingly distributed intelligence it had reason to believe was tainted. It didn't tell presidents and legislators they might be dealing with disinformation, even when billions of dollars in Pentagon spending was authorized on its basis.
The fallout from playing host to the traitor Aldrich Ames is only the most recent debacle. The CIA laughably misjudged the strength of the Soviets. It got involved in clandestine quackery like Iran-Contra and illegal operations in Central America and elsewhere.
The CIA has repeatedly misread the tea leaves, backed the wrong horse, gotten in bed with tyrants and missed the big story from the Iranian revolution to the end of the Cold War.
The world is a nasty place. Intelligence is needed. But can the CIA supply it? The NSA acquires intelligence by technical means. Our satellite intelligence is unmatched, if overpriced. The FBI's work against domestic threats has had notable successes. The military services have crack units that supply them with tactical intelligence. By contrast, during the Persian Gulf war they were heard to complain that the CIA's product was often useless and regularly late.
Only the CIA has so often failed, frequently because of a pervasive wrongheadedness. Often rather than gather intelligence it has tried to influence events. It has more than once destabilized regimes for short-term gain only to sow the seeds of counter-revolutions by even worse factions and a backlash against the United States.
During the Cold War, the lion's share of its assets were devoted to the Soviets, yet it was often bested. The Ames case is only the latest instance. And it has failed to adapt to the new post-Cold War world.
The CIA has often been most interested in growing its bloated bureaucracy and increasing its budget. When the CIA learned its intelligence might be tainted, did it sound a warning? No. It covered up its doubts and let a succession of presidents act on misinformation because the truth might have given the agency a black eye. It put bureaucratic self-preservation ahead of the public interest.
These are symptoms that point to systemic ills. It's time to shrink the agency back to essentials, chop its budget, remove it from the lead position among intelligence agencies and remove control of overall U.S. intelligence from the hands of the CIA director.
Most of all, someone must watch the watchers. The agency has not successfully policed itself, its inspector general dropped the ball again and again, and congressional oversight has failed. If a plausible plan to prevent a recurrence can't be drafted, it's time to listen to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He's long maintained that the agency is a Cold War dinosaur that deserves extinction. by CNB