« Previous | Main | Next »

CIA Insiders Not Surprised at Goss Resignation

May 05, 2006 3:48 PM

Insiders at the CIA and other western intelligence agencies had been expecting the resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss for months.

Several of Goss' deputies had reportedly been looking for new positions in the last few weeks.

ABC News' Chris Isham reports the White House had sought to push Goss out late last summer, but the plans were delayed because of the administration's failure in handling Hurricane Katrina.

From the day he arrived at CIA headquarters 18 months ago, he met enormous resistance from the agency's top officials, many of whom resigned, virtually en masse.

White House officials continued to hear reports of poor morale at CIA, and concerns were raised last year about Goss's overseas travel with his wife to Europe.

Goss had been heard to complain about the long, arduous hours and the fact that he was the first CIA Director in the agency's history to not have a direct link to the White House. After he took the job, the newly created Director of National Intelligence was inserted above him in the chain of command. 

A final straw may have been the FBI corruption investigation involving his number three man, Kyle Dusty Foggo.  Foggo is a long time friend of a defense contractor, Brent Wilkes, now under investigation for paying bribes to members of Congress. 

Foggo admitted this year he had attended poker parties arranged by Wilkes in Washington, D.C., but he denied ever seeing prostitutes at the parties.

For the last few days, the CIA has gone to great lengths to distance Goss from Foggo. A CIA spokesperson said Goss had never attended any of the poker parties.

A CIA spokesperson said Goss' resignation had "absolutely, totally and completely no connection" to the FBI investigation.

May 5, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (13)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Another member of the crew abandoning a sinking ship.

Posted by: sandy | May 5, 2006 4:07:04 PM

Nothing can bring a career to an end like being involved in corruption and bribery, just ask Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, and other Republicans too numerous to mention...

Posted by: Big Time Patriot | May 5, 2006 6:10:39 PM


It's not a sinking ship...it's a soaring hydrogen filled dirigible!

Posted by: john | May 5, 2006 6:52:10 PM

"A CIA spokesperson said Goss' resignation had 'absolutely, totally and completely no connection" to the FBI investigation.'"

If a "CIA spokesperson" told me what time it is, I'd be checkin' my watch…

Posted by: Thomas | May 5, 2006 7:12:58 PM

i saw goss in an abc gma exclusive interview a couple years ago...the guy is looney tunes...dr strangelove without the german accent

Posted by: rich cress | May 5, 2006 8:25:44 PM

I guess it depends on how you define poker parties.

Posted by: Dick | May 5, 2006 8:34:04 PM

Another Republican involved in scandal. Traitors, every one.

Posted by: todd | May 5, 2006 8:50:52 PM

Brian thanks for the greta insight. You are a greatly respected journalist and the public knows it.

Posted by: Ed | May 5, 2006 9:20:28 PM

Politicians have absolutely no business being involved in the Intelligence Activities of this country. All the problems we have experienced have been the results of politicians trying to use the intelligence capability of this country to pursue their own agendas. We need an apolitical Intelligence Community.

Posted by: Robert L Kennedy | May 5, 2006 9:33:32 PM

I'm glad Goss clarified that he was not connected to the Republican congressman taking $2-million in bribes from defense contractors, or to poker-prostitute parties at the Watergate. One thing you can count on, when an official from this administration denies a charge, you can take it to the bank.

Posted by: Jose W. Bush | May 6, 2006 1:14:37 PM

Keep digging all the way to Saudi, China and anywhere else it goes. Thank you for keeping the public informed as circuitous as it may get.

Posted by: vholder | May 6, 2006 1:35:10 PM

This is just ANOTHER DISGUST and SHAME in our current goverment!! AMERICA is DYING FAST....killed by corruption, lies, and letting ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS take OUR country OVER!!!!

Posted by: Disgusted American | May 8, 2006 2:28:25 PM

Does it REALLY matter what political party is 'in power?' I say that it does not! BOTH republicans and democrats show equal signs of being socio-psychopathic egomaniacs! For whatever 'sick' reasons disguised as Good Samaritan civil servants, politicians demonstrate their hunger for personal and political power. So it precludes a much needed (and desirable) "Ghandi type personality" not only from ever reaching political office, but from ever being able to HELP this slowly downward spiraling debilitated nation from it's anointed destiny with that of one of a sinking ship. So the cry of "Every man for himself", regardless of political affiliation, is what will naturally occur. And remember, even Ghandi was assassinated; so that the cycle of ignorance that makes politics “so exciting” had been preserved. Can anybody but the most educated remember who replaced Ghandi? (Nehru) And what the hell did he do?
Asked another way… Do you REALLY think a democratically controlled administration will fare any better in dealing with the other nation’s envy and hatred for us? Or dealing with a domestic agenda that includes liberals and conservatives hating this country equally for showing the slightest leanings of their political opposite viewpoint? No way! We have but one person with any kind of vision, any clarity of the future that the past has cleared the way for… I will leave it up to fate to uncover the person of whom I speak… (But I have little hope for his ascendancy).
The voters are responsible too, for in their own ignorance - vote with the ‘tide’. Voters are short term satisfactory teet suckers, demanding that our affluent society's sons and daughters don't sacrifice for this, their nation’s long term continued success. A nation that allows them on their upward climb to crawl over the bodies of the less fortunate, now they easily turn their noses at... Let someone else ‘do it’. That’s just the way we are…
But at the same time, we're not the most ignorant people on the planet. But we're not far behind the front-running arabs, the close second running french, the russians, or the african nation enmass. The north koreans are rewarded a ‘pass’ by me because, though in power, I truly believe that they are retarded. (Small caps intended on all).
But we definitely deserve the politicians we get.
One more thing: Only the devastatingly destructive cataclysmic event that WILL occur in the USA, (I predict NY or Wash) will focus and guide us on succinct actions that will align this planet’s nations for the next 100 years.

Posted by: Ed G | May 8, 2006 2:29:00 PM

Post a comment