Nutbar Conspiracy Theory?

Newsday:

November 14, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.

"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division. [...]

Purges. For political disloyalty.

Yikes.

[later: more here.

... chief of the clandestine service, Stephen R. Kappes, said he would resign rather than carry out [Goss aide Patrick] Murray's demand to fire Kappes's deputy, Michael Sulick, for challenging Murray's authority.

Much less emphasis on political motivation, but firing people for talking back to the boss doesn't sound healthy, either. Goss also seems to have the sort of allergic reaction to the word "bureaucrat" that is distressingly common amongst certain gung-ho politicians on both sides of the pond.]