Would You Like A Coup With That Leak?

CaptainsQuarters blog explores the role that a rogue CIA cabal has had in attempting a coup against the current government ... of the United States.

Excerpts:

The balloon floated by anti-administration rogues in the CIA, and carried by their cohorts in mainstream press, was popped when the end result of all the wailing and gnashing of teeth was that maybe someone lied about something that wasn’t a crime.
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Of course renegade intelligence officers can’t just hold press conferences and air their politically motivated opposition to administration policies, so they leak to willing and able journalists who hold similar political dispositions. See, it is exciting and something to brag about when you talk to a member of the Senior Intelligence Service and can attach your byline to an intelligence-related expose. These comrades with clearances are even willing to provide corroboration to their stories; usually like-minded pals who aren’t on active duty anymore, but who have lucrative consulting gigs from their pals who still run the secret show. No sense in talking to the Gerechts and Baers of the world who might provide a little balance, since they are probably disgruntled (and Republican) anyway.

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Conservatives roll their eyes at the “moonbats” who shout about “no blood for oil” and join the ranks of ANSWER, but there is little difference in belief and outlook between the nut-jobs waving signs and their fellow-travelers in the intelligence business; except of course that intelligence officers can actually help bring about change. The CIA made a name for itself destabilizing regimes, only this time the leader of the regime they are aiming to change isn’t named Allende or Pahlavi.

And don't overlook this comment by Coldwarrior415:

With regards to Vox Taciturn's comments on a politicized CIA....it is quite true, very true, actually, moreso in the past four years or so, that the analytical side out in McLean has moved decidedly left. The DO likewise has seen more and more liberalism in its crew and staffing.

After the end of the Cold War, CIA went through a major identity crisis, one still being grappled with. The old Cold Warriors were pushed out, early retirement, or just jumping over them when it came to assignments and promotions. The "fast trackers" those with little or no Cold War experience moved higher and higher within the DO command structure. There was a blatant move to keep the Cold War dead...and try to validate the need for such an intelligence resource such as the DO in light of Administration efforts during the 90's to depend on more high tech systems and gradually move HUMINT out of the major focus of CIA.

A number of in-house reorganizations took place, and older, more experienced operations officers, especially one's who earned their tradecraft wings as Cold Warriors, were simply overwhelemed by the fresh new, politically correct blood being recruited, trained and assigned within the DO. Many left in the 90's, most not nearly at the former established retirement age...the early retirement buy-out offer was snatched up by hundreds and hundreds of experienced operations officers.

What was left was a new crew, a new crew who really had never taken the boat out into blue water before. The initial disaster in Northern Iraq, when the "station" bailed out and left tons of equipment and files behind for Saddam to browse through is one example. The piss-poor support for Kosovo and Bosnia,when the military essentially decided to cut CIA out of the loop, is another...anyone remember the accidental bombing of the Chinese Emabssy anymore? Simple tradecraft and establishing ground truth and not using old edition maps, would have prevented that little display of intelligence excellence.

Our counter-terrorism effort at CIA, likewise, was trial and error..and a whole lot of funding spent, and promotions made...but a cogent counter-terror program? Not. Was an overwhelming decision, somewhere within CIA, up on the 7th Floor, that if it wasn't obtained covertly it wasn't intelligence. Not a lot of institutional memory of most of our Cold War intelligence being overtly [derived]. (corrected by Coldwarrior)

Funny thing, when you take time to step back and look at it all...the "surprise" of 9-11 shouldn't be a surprise at all. The JV's were running the show after the Varsity was forced from the field.

Rather than face the fact that CIA's decision to send the old Cold Warriors out to pasture may have been something that should have been quickly reversed...CIA, both the analytical side and the operations side, hunkered down, got defensive, and the slightest hint of wanting to repair the losses of the 90's, sent many an operations officer outside the fence. In that vacuum, CIA's new up-and-coming "fast tracker" staffing grew more left, more liberal, to the point where after GWB's first election, the politization of CIA was complete.