Goss Choice Will Not Take Head CIA Post

[UpInArms]

Kostiw Withdraws Name From Consideration as Executive Director

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6122-2004Oct4.html

Michael V. Kostiw has withdrawn his name for consideration as CIA executive director, the third-ranking position at the agency, after public disclosure that he had resigned from the agency under pressure more than 20 years ago.

"Allegations about my past would be a distraction from the critical work the Director of Central Intelligence needs to focus on," Kostiw said in a statement released by the CIA today. He was taking the step, he added, because "I thought it was in the best interests of the agency and all concerned."

Today, CIA Director Porter Goss named Kostiw as his senior adviser at the agency, abandoning the earlier plan to make him executive director, a position that would have given Kostiw responsibilities for day-to-day operations involving budget and personnel, including disciplinary actions.

The change came after The Washington Post reported Sunday that, in late 1981, Kostiw was caught shoplifting a $2.13 package of bacon from a supermarket in Langley, according to two former CIA officials who were familiar with the incident. At the time, Kostiw had been a CIA case officer for 10 years.

During a subsequent CIA polygraph, Kostiw's responses to questions about the incident and his past tours abroad led agency officials to place him on administrative leave for several weeks, according to four sources familiar with the events. Kostiw has told friends he decided to resign during the leave. Agency officials arranged for the shoplifting misdemeanor charges to be dropped and the police record expunged in return for his resignation and an agreement he would get counseling, one former official said.

...more...

So this guy gets in anyway :shakesheadsadly:

[AIJ Alom]

1. "It would have been criminal to have taken that position."

I know he didn't say it. But oh man, I sure wish he did ! Not too good a start for Mr. Goss. But then one has to look into all the details.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2961-2004Oct2.html

snip
After leaving the agency in 1982, Kostiw was hired by Texaco Inc. for its Latin America/West Africa division. He came to Washington in 1987 and rose to be ChevronTexaco's vice president for international government affairs, managing offices in the United States and abroad.

He also served as vice chairman of the International Republican Institute, a group made up of GOP foreign policy experts that works with the National Endowment for Democracy on political and economic development projects. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is IRI chairman and a supporter of Kostiw for the CIA job, a senior congressional aide said.

snip
CIA personnel also have become concerned about Kostiw and the other three top House Republican staff members that Goss has brought to the agency from the committee he once chaired. The panel's report last summer on the fiscal 2005 intelligence authorization bill, written primarily by the staff, criticized the CIA's human intelligence activities run by the Directorate for Operations, where Kostiw once worked.

[King of New Orleans]

2. Can't believe a big dustup over a pack of bacon

There has to be more to it than that. Though why an employed CIA agent felt or had the need to steal bacon has to be a story unto itself

[fob]

3. Well it was late 1981, that means the "raygun miracle" was starting

to trickle down upon us all.

[sendero]

4. "Allegations about my past would be a distraction"...

.... "allegations"? Are you implying you were not caught shoplifting?

I love the way these jokers spin every damn thing they say. Just say it - "the facts about my past would be a distraction".

Jerk.

[truthisfreedom]

5. hmph. must have not wanted it to show up on the receipt for some reason.

you there! with the pack of bacon down your pants! stop right there, porknapper!