So Peter Goss is CIA chief

[Blub2k]

How come he got the job despite this interview and his own opinion of his suitability?

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/goss.php

what you all think?

[Zathras]

It's clutching at straws by Moore to be honest. I'm anti-Goss due to his partisan viewpoint which will be detrimental to the CIA's abilities at securing America, but to state that he shouldn't be in charge due to not being suitable for a technical analyst job is stupid. Must a football club chairman be able to hack it with the players? How about the head of the Olympic movement, must he run a sub-10 second 100m? Must the chairman of Kwikfit be able to rebuild and fit an exhaust or remould tyres?

[Blub2k]

Arguably the best chairman of Quikfit would understand the business at all levels in my opinion, nothing worse than a manager who has no practical experience of what the subordinates do.

[nichomach]

Sorry, Blub, but all he says in that quote is that he would be unsuitable for employment in either a case officer or analyst role with regard to current recruitment considerations; he's not an Arabist. Says nothing about his fitness for the role of Director of Central Intelligence, since the point is that he'd a) be in charge of global intelligence, not just that relating to the Middle East (they have specialists for that) and b) his role would largely be in management and resource allocation. Now unless your view is that he should be fluent in all Oriental and Occidental languages that doesn't stand up as an argument against him, and one of the worst things that can happen in any organization is micro-management of area specialists by senior managers who simply are not and should not be specialists in those areas. On the other hand he HAS served as an officer of both US Army Intelligence and the CIA, so in general terms his understanding of what the specialists working for him require and how they should be managed ought to be good. He also has relevant experience as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Now the argument that he may be overly partisan is a good one, but that video clip is just a cheap shot. By the way, his name's Porter Goss, not Peter Goss.

[Blub2k]

Name corrected, no need to apologise to me Nicho am only posting a link to start a discussion. Ok points taken on board so he has experience as an intelligence analyst. Dunno about it being a cheap shot I mean he is going to be head of the agency yet says he is not suitable for the job, I would have said it is a great bit of opportunism on the part of Moore, no doubt political and smart not necessarily cheap.

[Blub2k]

Was unable to change the heading of the actual thread.

[nichomach]

No, he doesn't say he is not suitable for that job; all he's saying is that he wouldn't be recruited in an intelligence analysis or gathering role or a technical role. Do you expect a hospital manager to be performing appendectomies? No - you expect them to be capable of managing the staff and resources that do. It's the usual Moore thing - take a few words out of context and make an issue out of it. I still think it's cheap and actually not that smart.

[Stolly]

Given Moores stance on Bush in general you have to take anything he says relating to him with a pinch of salt. Whatever the topic Moores job is to put the worst spin on it possible.

Post things from a range of sources, if you want us to have an informed debate.