Former CIA Leader Points out the Obvious

Former CIA director Porter Goss has an op-ed in today's Washington Post called, "Security Before Politics." Almost every point he makes in the article should be blatantly obvious. It's amazing that he even needs to write such things as,

We can't have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets.

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much of the damage to our capabilities has already been done. It is certainly not trust that is fostered when intelligence officers are told one day "I have your back" only to learn a day later that a knife is being held to it. After the events of this week, morale at the CIA has been shaken to its foundation.

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Our intelligence allies overseas view our inability to maintain secrecy as a reason to question our worthiness as a partner. These allies have been vital in almost every capture of a terrorist.

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The suggestion that we are safer now because information about interrogation techniques is in the public domain conjures up images of unicorns and fairy dust. We have given our enemy invaluable information about the rules by which we operate.

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"Name, rank and serial number" does not apply to non-state actors but is, regrettably, the only question this administration wants us to ask. Instead of taking risks, our intelligence officers will soon resort to wordsmithing cables to headquarters

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Trading security for partisan political popularity will ensure that our secrets are not secret and that our intelligence is destined to fail us.

Along with all these statements that should be so obvious that they didn't need to be mentioned, Goss also points out that CIA interrogation efforts were known and approved on a bipartisan basis.