What would happen if the CIA was eliminated?

[Roland99]

Portents: The coming end of the CIA
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HE10Aa01.html

WASHINGTON - Monday's nomination by US President George W Bush of air force General Michael Hayden to take over the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the hapless Porter Goss has predictably intensified speculation over what is really going on behind the scenes.

...

But opinion appears deeply divided over which bureaucratic titan will emerge as this round's winner, although few doubt that the unceremonious dismissal of a CIA director who served less than 20 months on the job - particularly by a president who has proved dogged in retaining loyal servants despite strong evidence of their incompetence - is filled with portent.

...

ndeed, the fact that Negroponte actively sought Goss's ouster and is now sending Hayden to the CIA as part of a larger turf war against Rumsfeld and Cambone - particularly with respect to covert operations - is seen as threatening to the policy agenda of neo-conservatives and other hawks who regard the CIA, along with Negroponte's alma mater, the State Department, as hopelessly "liberal" and thus disloyal to Bush.

"If Negroponte forced Goss out and is allowed to pick Goss's successor ... then Goss's departure will prove to have been a weakening moment in an administration increasingly susceptible to moments of weakness," the neo-conservative Weekly Standard warned this weekend.

Hayden has already proved to be a lapdog to this administration's trashing of the Fourth Amendment. Why would he stand in the way of the Vulcans when pressured from above? The CIA started off as a cabal of Yale alumni, where the BFEE has long had associations/control. It's long been treated as the black sheep when failures in foreign policy occur (despite its own attempts to try and do the right thing (like kicking Chalabi to the curb in 1996).

Are we looking at the militarization of our intelligence agencies?

:scared:

[DS1]

1. How Biblical

when they finally get control of just about everything, infighting brings them all down, and the meek inherit the earth ( what's left of it, anyway )

[Roland99]

6. Or will it be a consolidation of the stranglehold?

Remove the dissenters and the leakers.

[lpbk2713]

2. NSA, FBI, DIA and several others would take over.

And a couple of billion bucks from their budget would go back in the treasury (assuming CIA was disbanded in the next administration).

[bdamomma]

3. the NSA wants to disband the CIA or

the NSA wants the CIA to be a part of NSA. John Negroponte, Death Squad King wants it all.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. The NSA is not the driver behind the attempted dismantling of...

...the CIA. The primary driver is Rumsfeld.

Shortly after 911, Rummy wanted to have the CIA report to him so that he could have greater control over what was being reported by the CIA in regards to Iraq. The same thing is taking place in regards to Iran.

[bdamomma]

11. thank you for your clarification on this

but you have rummy in the Defense Dept. and the military generals hate him, and now you have a military guy Hayden running a civilian (CIA) agency, conflict of interests here?

[Roland99]

4. OSP is the big bad boy. And look what Cheney's been doing to the CIA

Strong-arm tactics (which Phase II was supposed to uncover)
Outed Valerie Plame to damage CIA's abilities re: Iran

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. You're dreaming if you think that money would go back into....

...the Treasurey. The money would just be distributed among the intell groups that pick up the additional responsibilities.

[patriothackd]

9. They'll delete responsibilities and change the focus

That's what the whole thing is about, right? You merge together two agencies, supposedly to improve communication and save money on administrative overhead, but then you are free to begin altering the focus.

At the same time you are forced to deal with fewer potentially disloyal people. Whereas this country was designed to have checks and balances and these power balances were embodied in the three governmental branches (plus the media), and through this balance of power agencies were established to execute duties (but even then, with a balance of power; FBI domestic, CIA foreign), by changing the infrastructure you can change the checks and balances and ultimately alter the focus.

All this and you get to replace leaders with lackeys too!

[Roland99]

10. Welcome to DU, patriothackd!

:hi:

[The2ndWheel]

7. Hahahaha

Negroponte against Rumsfeld and Cambone? WTF? They're part of the same blood cult.

This is all about consolidating power. I'm surprised it lasted, or at least the illusion lasted, this long. I'm not sure what anyone expects though, when you start with secret spy agencies as a foundation, what the hell do you think is going to happen?

[long_green]

12. Gore Vidal suggested something like this

Dismantle the CIA and transfer its functions to State and Defense. I'm all in favor of making this dinosaur extinct, I don't care how many of its operatives hate W.

[Roland99]

13. But, in this case, is the cure worse than the disease?

[long_green]

14. the problem with the CIA has been its lack of accountability

it does't have a budget in the regular sense (an invitation for it to associate with criminals and to BE the criminals). To regularize that part of our intelligence may keep it from veering into the illegality that has marked it almost from the start.
I am assuming a return to actual representative government at some point here. In a continuation of the same sort of leadership we have had, yes, the cure could be worse than the disease.

[Roland99]

15. If we *did* return to gov't of, by, and for the people then I would agree.

[tomp]

16. internecine conflict among agents of imperialism?

let them cut each others' throats. sorry, i won't side with the cia against defense (i mean, offense). no amount of spin is going to get me to PREFER goss to hayden.

[Roland99]

17. Give me Tenet back but get rid of Cheney and I think we'd have a start.