'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Disarray in US policymaking

The war against Fallujah is putting a lot of strain on the US forces inside Iraq. But at the same time, the bullying nature of the ideologically driven political appointees whom Bush and Co. have put in charge of national security decisionmaking has been putting a lot of strain on the seasoned professionals within the relevant government agencies.

Is Washington's national-security decisionmaking apparatus cracking under the strain?

Yesterday the WaPo reported that Robert Blackwill, the administration's previous Chief Minister for Iraq, had phsyically jostled or assaulted a female State Department employee in Kuwait, shortly before his very hasty (and probably related) resignation from his post.

But today we have even more startling news, from the WaPo's Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, namely that the CIA's top "regular cadre" employee, John McLaughlin, resigned yesterday.

He did so, they write,

after a series of confrontations over the past week between senior operations officials and CIA Director Porter J. Goss's new chief of staff that have left the agency in turmoil, according to several current and former CIA officials.

Goss, you'll recall, is the Republican attack dog recently appointed (and confirmed by the US Senate) as Bush's person to head the CIA. McLaughlin was (until yesterday) the Deputy Director of the CIA, but he was its Acting Director for two months, pre-Goss, in the summer.

The WaPo story continues that McLaughlin:

resigned after warning Goss that his top aide, former Capitol Hill staff member Patrick Murray, was treating senior officials disrespectfully and risked widespread resignations, the officials said.

Yesterday, the agency official who oversees foreign operations, Deputy Director of Operations Stephen R. Kappes, tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Murray. Goss and the White House pleaded with Kappes to reconsider and he agreed to delay his decision until Monday, the officials said.

Several other senior clandestine service officers are threatening to leave, current and former agency officials said...

Oh boy. Osama must be rolling around in his cave with laughter.

I for one don't feel more secure after reading this news.

Go read the rest of the article.