Our rotten intelligenCIA

As the Wall Street Journal observes in a highly informative editorial today, fired CIA officer Mary McCarthy appears to be but the latest in a long line of "partisan bureaucrats at the CIA and elsewhere in the ‘intelligence community’ who have been trying to undermine the Bush presidency." The Journal reminds us of the tremendous damage those hostile to the President’s policies have done to the Nation’s security, including through:

• Disclosure of the National Security Agency’s terrorist-surveillance program, allowing al-Qaeda and its affiliates to understand how we search for potential terrorists operating inside the United States;
• Allegation of the existence of so-called "secret" CIA prisons in Europe, hindering our ability to gain cooperation from countries that do not wish to have their assistance revealed;
• Publication of a contemptuous attack on the President by a top CIA analyst, undermining public support for the policies necessary to successfully prosecute the war on terror.

Why, then, are many intelligence professionals so willing to sabotage the policies of an administration they are sworn to serve? In a column for Tuesday’s Washington Times, Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. suggests that this is partially the fault of the Administration itself, because it has demonstrated a willingness to reward those who work against it. For example, Thomas Fingar and Kenneth Brill were appointed to top positions at the Directorate of National Intelligence despite having routinely worked against the President in previous capacities. As Gaffney explains:

If government officials in sensitive positions who actively subvert the President’s policies are given promotions by the national intelligence director, should we be surprised that a partisan CIA officer like Mary McCarthy would feel untroubled leaking highly classified – and operationally and politically damaging – information?