Disbanding the CIA

[August1991]

The very idea of dismantling the Central Intelligence Agency, Senator Pat Roberts concedes, is one that he could not have conceived of proposing even a year ago.

But the overhaul now being pressed by him and seven other Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee is very much the product of accumulated frustrations, Mr. Roberts said.

Mr. Roberts, a Kansan long regarded as a dependable defender of the C.I.A and a loyal ally of President Bush, into a vociferous critic of intelligence agencies and an impatient second-guesser of the White House's own overhaul plan.

NYT article (This link may require (free) registration)

I cannot believe that Roberts did this without WHite House knowledge. And I have seen this idea floated elsewhere.

The CIA is a bureaucracy that has lived for about 50 years or so. I think that may turn out to be the useful lifespan of a bureaucracy. At a certain point, the advantages of institutional wisdom are outweighed by institutional lethargy. There are some places I've been where I truly thought that they should just fire everyone, or send them somewhere else, and start from scratch with a whole new crew.

Trudeau sort of did that with CSIS and the RCMP in the 1970s.

[takeanumber]

Might be a good idea.

But it's all the same people though.

It takes awhile to cause a shift of culture in any institution.

[Big Blue Machine]

We need to keep the CIA and FBI and these intelligence orginzations.

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear Big Blue Machine,

"We need to keep the CIA and FBI and these intelligence orginzations."

Intelligence and 'intelligent' are two different things.

I cannot see it ever happening. Since the CIA headquarters was recently re-named "The George Bush Center for Intelligence",tehy are finally admitting just who has influenced US foriegn policy for the last 25 or so years.

The CIA has (through coups, murders and semi-secret support of 3rd world dictators) helped ensure the growth and safety of the economic wealth, and global dominance of the US.

[Big Blue Machine]

So? The US is going to conquer the world one day.