White House orders purge of disloyal CIA staffers News
White House orders purge of disloyal CIA staffers

[JURIST] The White House has ordered new CIA director Porter Goss to eliminate officers from the CIA who are believed to have been disloyal to President Bush or to have leaked to the media damaging information about the conduct of operations in the Middle East, according to former CIA officials quoted in press reports Sunday. One of the first out appears to have been deputy director of clandestine services, Stephen R. Kappes, who the Washington Post reported tendered his resignation Saturday. Former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, who anonymously authored a book criticizing the administration's handling of the hunt for bin Laden and the war on terror, announced his resignation Thursday. One former senior CIA official said that the White House views the CIA as a "hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda." Newsday has more.