CIA boss needs to live in two worlds

WASHINGTON – Rep. Porter Goss has said it often since Sept. 11, 2001: “My mission hasn’t changed – just my audience.”

As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he has devoted years to quietly reshaping how U.S. spying deals with terrorism. Now intelligence experts and former spies say Goss faces a tough balancing act if the Senate confirms him as CIA director:

He’s got to be both Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, publicly placating demands of a wider audience that new threats be detected instantly, even as he labors to improve counterterrorism behind the scenes.

President Bush on Tuesday nominated Goss, a Florida Republican, to head the CIA and manage 14 other intelligence agencies. Goss spent a decade as a CIA clandestine services officer before entering politics.

“He’s going to have to work very closely with law enforcement and the military in ways we are just beginning to understand right now,” said Ron Marks, a 16-year CIA veteran who is now a vice president at Digital Sandbox, a Reston, Va., risk management firm. “But he’s also going to have to be a very public figure, which is something different.”

The job’s behind-the-scenes coordination will take years of trying work, particularly in developing a better understanding of al Qaeda, experts agreed.

“This is a long-term mission, and we have only just begun,” said Loch Johnson, a University of Georgia political scientist and author of several books on intelligence. “What we still do not know is where the al Qaeda leaders are, where the cells are in the U.S. and elsewhere and, of course, what their specific plans are.”

Marks said CIA undercover officers “have to get closer to these guys (in al Qaeda) in ways that they’ve never done before. They need to accept the fact that some people are going to lose lives doing this.”

Intelligence experts called new discoveries of al Qaeda’s interest in buildings in New York, Newark, N.J., and Washington extremely helpful but far from conclusive about what the group is planning.

Several former CIA officials said the most startling thing gleaned from that intelligence is al Qaeda’s patience in carrying out its operations. As a result, they said, Goss would have to instill greater patience in the public and in his fellow politicians.

For instance, Bush administration officials were criticized for not initially revealing that much of the terrorist surveillance recently discovered was done prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. Intelligence experts said such criticisms were unfounded, and it would fall to Goss in the future to make that clear.

“What al Qaeda did was build a template for an attack,” said Edward Turzanski, who worked at the CIA during the Reagan administration and now teaches political science at La Salle University. “As a result, they have on the shelf, ready to go, their plans so that if they decide on a target, all they need to do is review the template to see which components need to be revised.”

“The long-term view al Qaeda takes is something that we have to focus on,” agreed Lee Strickland, a 30-year CIA veteran who is now director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Information Policy. “This is not going to be something solved by a presidential election or by Congress in one session. America has a desire for short-term, quick fixes.”

In a less public capacity, Goss would be expected to rebuild the CIA’s human intelligence capability by hiring and training a new generation of spies. Former agency officials said the CIA must also become more aggressive in how those spies are used.

Some experts said the CIA must learn to think more like al Qaeda.

Gregory Treverton, an analyst for the RAND Corp., a national security think tank, said the terrorist organization’s cells have shown adaptability in Iraq.

“In a certain sense, they don’t do strategy like we do,” Treverton said. “It’s really operating first and then seeing what the reaction is. They didn’t come to Iraq to do kidnapping. And then they found, ‘Wow, this works.’ “

Much of the recent intelligence on al Qaeda has come from foreign intelligence agencies, particularly in Britain and Pakistan. Officials said those relationships need to be expanded and strengthened, even as the United States’ own human spying is improved.

“Without our liaison relationships (with other countries), we would literally be flying blind,” said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief.

As House Intelligence chairman since 1997, Goss is credited with greatly expanding the budget for the CIA and other spy agencies – now estimated at $40 billion – as well as teaming up with the Senate intelligence panel to examine the spying lapses that led to Sept. 11.

Goss’ office did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday. But he said in a November 2001 interview that the public and politicians often have an “unrealistic” view about the federal government’s ability to prevent terrorist attacks.

“If anybody is out there thinking the government is going to give you 100 percent protection in your life, forget it,” he said at the time.