It’s a cultural thing: Thoughts on a troubled CIA

Since retiring from the CIA in 1997 after almost twenty years as a case officer (“spy runner,” “asset handler,” or “agent recruiter”), I have followed the Agency’s failures and successes through the media. The Agency has never been as close to termination as it is now. Numerous presidential commissions and Congressional committees are currently engaged in fault-and fact-finding about recent Agency missions. These groups by their nature are concerned either with the details of individual operations or with sweeping reforms in structure and organization.