Under the plan, Vice Adm. Albert M. Calland III would be replaced as deputy director by retired CIA official Stephen R. Kappes, who quit in November 2004 in a dispute with then-Director Porter J. Goss.Let's not forget that Porter Goss launched an ideological purge of the CIA, and it's hard to believe that such a purge wasn't done at the White House's behest. Now Bush is trying to make nice, a year and a half after his petty "I'm always right" hubris has seriously damaged the CIA and our national security.
The move was seen as a direct repudiation of Goss's leadership and as an olive branch to CIA veterans disaffected by his 18-month tenure, during which many other senior officials followed Kappes out the door.
Bush can blame Goss all he wants, but there's only one person responsible for Porter Goss being in charge of the CIA, and his name is George Bush. It's four and a half years after September 11 and we're picking up the pieces of the CIA because George Bush and his appointees destroyed it. This is a disgrace.
