C.I.A. Making Rapid Strides for Regrowth
By MARK MAZZETTI
May 17, 2006
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 16 — For all its dysfunction and recent failures, the Central Intelligence Agency that Gen. Michael V. Hayden stands to inherit is far along a path toward rebuilding its network of foreign stations and replenishing ranks that were eviscerated during the years after the cold war.
The rocky 19-month tenure of Porter J. Goss was characterized by turf battles and the bitter departure of many seasoned operatives. Yet it was also a time when a flood of new recruits entered the agency and more than 20 stations and bases abroad were opened or reopened.
By next year, C.I.A. officials say, the agency expects to have tripled the number of trained case officers from the number in 2001. The hope is that a bulked-up spy network will allow the agency at least to begin penetrating closed societies like North Korea and Iran.
Information concerning the sharp increase in case officers and overseas stations, which has not been previously disclosed, was provided in response to questions about the state of the agency's rebuilding effort. Current and former intelligence officials interviewed for this article were granted anonymity to speak about hiring trends and foreign operations, the details of which are classified. They would not discuss precise numbers of case officers or overseas stations, however.
The long-term rebuilding of the agency began under Mr. Goss's predecessor, George J. Tenet, who during the late 1990's persuaded Congress to begin reversing the budget and staff cuts that had set in after the breakup of the Soviet Union, when the agency lost the mission it had been founded to carry out a half-century earlier.
Current and former intelligence officials say it will still be several years before the agency can meet the goals of a presidential directive, announced in late 2004, to increase the number of case officers and intelligence analysts by an additional 50 percent. Some also point out that merely becoming bigger will not necessarily yield better intelligence. In fact, an emphasis on size alone could divert resources from strategic locations where they are most needed — "robbing Peter to pay Paul," in the words of Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"I have some concern about that," Mr. Roberts said. "It's not just about numbers. It's about being more aggressive."
But the rebuilding of the C.I.A.'s overseas spying operations is expected to aid the push by John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, to refocus the agency's efforts on its core missions of fighting terrorism and stealing secrets abroad. General Hayden, nominated by President Bush to succeed Mr. Goss as director of the agency, is currently Mr. Negroponte's principal deputy, and he is regarded as a champion of strengthening the agency's human intelligence.
General Hayden faces questioning on Thursday at a confirmation hearing before the Intelligence Committee.
As for Mr. Goss, he has said little publicly since he was forced to step down on May 5, after what President Bush called a time of transition, a turbulent period in which the C.I.A. lost its status as the premier spy agency. But his associates say Mr. Goss, a former case officer himself, made strengthening of spy networks a particular focus of his tenure.
While the purges and resignations of senior officials under Mr. Goss have shaken the agency's northern Virginia headquarters and contributed to a sharp decline in morale, some veteran intelligence officers say it is not likely that the turmoil there has had a major effect on case officers overseas.
Americans "tend to have a very top-down view of the world and think that directors really make a big difference," said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former member of the C.I.A.'s clandestine service and now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "That certainly isn't true at the agency."
Further, the agency is still enjoying a surge of applicants hoping to join its ranks, a wave that has subsided little since the period immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the number of applicants was 121,000, compared with 136,000 in 2002 and 138,000 in 2003. This year, the agency's statistics show, it has already received 84,000 résumés, an average of 2,000 more a month than last year.
A bigger problem has been getting the new hires to stay. The highest attrition rate, at 5.9 percent, occurs among the newest employees, those with less than five years of service. Some officials say that with the spate of hiring since the Sept. 11 attacks, it has been a struggle to push new recruits through the training pipeline and into field positions, a problem contributing to some disgruntled new hires' quitting the agency. Read More..
May 17, 2006
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 16 — For all its dysfunction and recent failures, the Central Intelligence Agency that Gen. Michael V. Hayden stands to inherit is far along a path toward rebuilding its network of foreign stations and replenishing ranks that were eviscerated during the years after the cold war.
The rocky 19-month tenure of Porter J. Goss was characterized by turf battles and the bitter departure of many seasoned operatives. Yet it was also a time when a flood of new recruits entered the agency and more than 20 stations and bases abroad were opened or reopened.
By next year, C.I.A. officials say, the agency expects to have tripled the number of trained case officers from the number in 2001. The hope is that a bulked-up spy network will allow the agency at least to begin penetrating closed societies like North Korea and Iran.
Information concerning the sharp increase in case officers and overseas stations, which has not been previously disclosed, was provided in response to questions about the state of the agency's rebuilding effort. Current and former intelligence officials interviewed for this article were granted anonymity to speak about hiring trends and foreign operations, the details of which are classified. They would not discuss precise numbers of case officers or overseas stations, however.
The long-term rebuilding of the agency began under Mr. Goss's predecessor, George J. Tenet, who during the late 1990's persuaded Congress to begin reversing the budget and staff cuts that had set in after the breakup of the Soviet Union, when the agency lost the mission it had been founded to carry out a half-century earlier.
Current and former intelligence officials say it will still be several years before the agency can meet the goals of a presidential directive, announced in late 2004, to increase the number of case officers and intelligence analysts by an additional 50 percent. Some also point out that merely becoming bigger will not necessarily yield better intelligence. In fact, an emphasis on size alone could divert resources from strategic locations where they are most needed — "robbing Peter to pay Paul," in the words of Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"I have some concern about that," Mr. Roberts said. "It's not just about numbers. It's about being more aggressive."
But the rebuilding of the C.I.A.'s overseas spying operations is expected to aid the push by John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, to refocus the agency's efforts on its core missions of fighting terrorism and stealing secrets abroad. General Hayden, nominated by President Bush to succeed Mr. Goss as director of the agency, is currently Mr. Negroponte's principal deputy, and he is regarded as a champion of strengthening the agency's human intelligence.
General Hayden faces questioning on Thursday at a confirmation hearing before the Intelligence Committee.
As for Mr. Goss, he has said little publicly since he was forced to step down on May 5, after what President Bush called a time of transition, a turbulent period in which the C.I.A. lost its status as the premier spy agency. But his associates say Mr. Goss, a former case officer himself, made strengthening of spy networks a particular focus of his tenure.
While the purges and resignations of senior officials under Mr. Goss have shaken the agency's northern Virginia headquarters and contributed to a sharp decline in morale, some veteran intelligence officers say it is not likely that the turmoil there has had a major effect on case officers overseas.
Americans "tend to have a very top-down view of the world and think that directors really make a big difference," said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former member of the C.I.A.'s clandestine service and now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "That certainly isn't true at the agency."
Further, the agency is still enjoying a surge of applicants hoping to join its ranks, a wave that has subsided little since the period immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the number of applicants was 121,000, compared with 136,000 in 2002 and 138,000 in 2003. This year, the agency's statistics show, it has already received 84,000 résumés, an average of 2,000 more a month than last year.
A bigger problem has been getting the new hires to stay. The highest attrition rate, at 5.9 percent, occurs among the newest employees, those with less than five years of service. Some officials say that with the spate of hiring since the Sept. 11 attacks, it has been a struggle to push new recruits through the training pipeline and into field positions, a problem contributing to some disgruntled new hires' quitting the agency. Read More..
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 4:24 PM
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