CIA Director Porter Goss resigns

updated 10:46 p.m. ET May 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly Friday, leaving behind a spy agency still battling to recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America’s worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq.

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, top deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, is the leading candidate to replace Goss, a senior Bush administration official said late Friday. An announcement could come as early as Monday.

Hayden served as National Security Agency director until becoming the nation's No. 2 intelligence official one year ago.

Since December, Hayden has aggressively defended the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program. He was one of its chief architects.

Others talked about as possible candidates to replace Goss were Bush’s homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend; David Shedd, chief of staff to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte; and Mary Margaret Graham, Negroponte’s deputy for intelligence collection.

Sudden departure
Friday's announcement was the latest in a series of moves by President Bush to shake up his team and reinvigorate his second term.

Neither Bush nor Goss offered a reason for his departure.

Making the announcement from the Oval Office, Bush called Goss’ tenure one of transition.

“He has led ably,” Bush said, Goss at his side. “He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives.”

Goss said the trust, confidence and latitude that Bush placed in him “is something I could have never imagined.”

“I believe the agency is on a very even keel, sailing well,” Goss said. “I honestly believe that we have improved dramatically.”

The president said Goss’ replacement would continue his reforms.

“As a result, this country will be more secure,” Bush said. “We’ve got to win the war on terror, and the Central Intelligence Agency is a vital part of the war. So I thank you for your service.”

Focus on intelligence reform
When Bush nominated Goss in August 2004, in the midst of the president’s re-election campaign, he said he would rely on the advice of the CIA officer-turned-politician on the sensitive issue of intelligence reform.

“He knows the CIA inside and out,” Bush said in a Rose Garden announcement at the time. “He’s the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation’s history.”

Goss, a former congressman from Florida, head of the House Intelligence Committee and CIA agent, had been at the helm of the agency only since September 2004.

He came under fire almost immediately, in part because he brought with him several top aides from Congress who were considered highly political for the CIA.

He had particularly poor relations with segments of the agency’s powerful clandestine service. In a bleak assessment, California Rep. Jane Harman, the Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, recently said, “The CIA is in a free fall,” noting that employees with a combined 300 years of experience have left or been pushed out.

Among those Goss pushed out during his tenure were the deputy director of intelligence, the chief of the clandestine service, two deputy chiefs of the clandestine service, the chief of the directorate of intelligence, the director of the counterterrorism center and the comptroller, according to NBC News.

Under Goss and the sweeping intelligence overhaul Congress approved in December 2004, the CIA lost considerable clout among U.S. spy agencies. With the installation of the country’s first national intelligence director, John Negroponte, Goss no longer sat atop the 16 intelligence agencies. Negroponte took that role — and many of the CIA director’s responsibilities. That includes Bush’s morning intelligence briefings.

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