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Bush Nominates Representative Goss as CIA Chief By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush today nominated Representative Porter Goss (R-Fla.), head of the House intelligence committee, as the next CIA director (see GSN, July 12). “Porter Goss is a leader with strong experience in intelligence and in the fight against terrorism. He knows the CIA inside and out. He’s the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation’s history,” Bush said during a brief press conference in the White House Rose Garden. Appearing with Bush, Goss said that he was “obviously deeply honored and … extremely grateful.” Prior to his election to the House of Representatives in 1988, Goss was a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and served 10 years in the CIA Clandestine Service with postings in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. Goss was named chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 1997. Other names that were publicly suggested as possible choices to head the CIA included Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.). Bush’s selection of Goss as the next head of the CIA comes as the White House and Congress move forward on intelligence reform measures prompted by the Sept. 11 commission. The intelligence reform debate has largely focused on two proposals put forth by the commission to change the structure of the U.S. intelligence community — the creation of a national director of intelligence to oversee the various intelligence agencies, including the CIA; and the creation of a national counterterrorism center (see GSN, Aug. 9). “In over 15 years of service, Porter Goss has built a reputation as a reformer. He’ll be a reformer at the Central Intelligence Agency,” Bush said. “I look forward to his counsel and his judgments as to how best to implement broader intel reform, including the recommendations of the 9/11 commission,” he added. Intelligence experts today praised the choice, noting Goss’s extensive intelligence background, qualifications and what one expert described as a “zeal” for reform. “It’s about damn time” that Bush named a replacement for former CIA Director George Tenet, who resigned in July, said James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation. Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, however, questioned the timing of the move, noting that a possible new administration following the November election could choose to install its own CIA chief. Experts also agreed that Goss’s nomination would be welcomed by the CIA, noting both the congressman’s past with the agency and his record of having provided large funding increases to the CIA while in Congress. If confirmed by the Senate, Goss would replace acting CIA Director John McLaughlin, who has headed the agency since Tenet’s exit. McLaughlin may have been passed over as permanent CIA director, in part, because of his too vocal opposition to the creation of a national intelligence director, according to Aftergood. As deputy director, McLaughlin was not seen as a forceful leader — something he may have sought to change by taking on a “more combative” public persona after being named acting director, Aftergood said. He also said, though, that McLaughlin’s comments last month opposing the national intelligence director may have gotten him “too far ahead” of the White House, which later said that McLaughlin was not speaking for the administration. There have already been signs that Goss’ nomination could come under fire. The Senate intelligence committee would have to hold hearings on the nomination; Senator Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), the committee’s top Democrat, said last month that Goss was too political of a choice for the job. “I … look forward to the confirmation process in the Senate. As a member right now on the Hill, I know the value of that and the importance of that,” Goss said today. In his remarks, Bush said that Goss was “respected on both sides of the aisle” in Congress. Experts were divided over how much of a fight Senate Democrats may put up against Goss’s confirmation. Carafano said that the increased public attention to issues related to terrorism and intelligence reform, combined with the presidential election, could reduce Democratic opposition. “I think they’re going to have a hard time shooting Goss down,” he said. While Rockefeller may decide that the “statesman-like thing” would be to allow Goss’s confirmation to go forward unimpeded, he may also see the nomination as “disrespect by the White House that must be resisted,” Aftergood said.
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