Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey is expected to announce this reorganization -- the biggest at CIA since the early 1980s -- during testimony to Congress on 18 July. This announcement will draw upon the work of a special Directorate of Intelligence task force that was set up for the express purpose of overhauling the Directorate of Intelligence. Curiously, the DI managers said that the Directorate of Operations (where Ames worked) is preparing its own reorganization plan -- one that will be less drastic and will, in any event, not be announced until the fall.
What's Going On?
It is an open secret that the Clinton Administration is extremely displeased with the CIA Directorate of Intelligence. This animosity toward the Agency's analysts stems in part from briefings supplied to Congress last fall by the National Intelligence Officer for Latin America, Brian Latel, which raised serious questions about the mental stability, behavior and policy predilections of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The analysis and judgments -- and leaks to the press about them -- briefed by Mr. Latel greatly sharpened congressional opposition to the Clinton policy aimed at restoring Aristide to power, no matter what. The White House and much of the foreign policy establishment(1) will never forgive CIA for thus complicating its unquestioning embrace of Aristide.
By April 1994, Administration displeasure with CIA had turned into indignation. Faced with a growing number of foreign policy debacles, Clinton officials -- notably several on the staff of the White House and National Security Council -- grew increasingly furious at CIA intelligence assessments which suggested that Administration policy in North Korea, Somalia, Bosnia, China, and Russia was in trouble. Administration officials started to argue that CIA was not providing them with "the proper support." Some officials implied that if CIA had done a better job analyzing the world, Mr. Clinton's foreign policy would not be in trouble.
