Two More Top Officials Resign
After Clashing With Goss's Chief of Staff
The two top officials running the CIA's clandestine service resigned this morning, following a series of clashes with Director Porter J. Goss's chief of staff.
Stephen R. Kappes, the deputy director of operations, and his deputy, Michael Sulick, announced their resignations at a senior staff meeting, according to former CIA officials.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment, but another intelligence official confirmed that the departures had occurred.
Kappes, 53, whose long career included a stint as station chief in Moscow, was President Bush's envoy to Moammar Gaddafi this year. He is credited with helping to convince Gaddafi to renounce weapons of mass destruction and he briefed the president on the meetings.
Sulick, whose career includes overseas assignments in South America, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, headed the agency's counterintelligence center until becoming Kappes's deputy.
Both men are highly regarded by their clandestine service colleagues, said 10 former CIA officials who have worked with them.
A CIA spokesman had no comment on their departure but has described personnel changes as a normal part of a transition between directors.
Goss has said he wanted to make changes in the clandestine service and had criticized it in the past as being "dysfunctional." At the same time, Bush has lauded overseas operators for the work in Afghanistan and in capturing or killing 75 percent of the pre-Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda leadership.
Soon after Goss, a former CIA case officer and chairman of the House intelligence committee, took over as director in September, he installed four former Hill aides known for their gruff management style. Three of them were former mid-level CIA officers whom Republican and Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill said had idiosyncratic views of the agency's problems and never undertook a thorough study of the clandestine service in their roles as congressional overseers.
Kappes's and Sulick's resignations follow a series of confrontations with Goss's new chief of staff, Patrick Murray, the former intelligence committee staff director and a Justice Department official. Sulick complained vigorously to Murray on Nov. 5 about the way he was treating other CIA officials. Murray demanded that Kappes fire Sulick, and Kappes refused.
Also last week, Goss's deputy, John MacLaughlin, retired.
Former CIA director George Tenet appointed Kappes in June to succeeded James Pavitt. Kappes had served as Pavitt's deputy since June 2002. He joined the CIA in 1981 after serving as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1976 to 1981. He has held a variety of operational and managerial assignments at CIA headquarters and overseas, including the Near East, South Asia and Europe.
He also served as chief of the counterintelligence center and associate deputy director for operations for counterintelligence.
- By Dana Priest, The Washington Post
After Clashing With Goss's Chief of Staff
The two top officials running the CIA's clandestine service resigned this morning, following a series of clashes with Director Porter J. Goss's chief of staff.
Stephen R. Kappes, the deputy director of operations, and his deputy, Michael Sulick, announced their resignations at a senior staff meeting, according to former CIA officials.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment, but another intelligence official confirmed that the departures had occurred.
Kappes, 53, whose long career included a stint as station chief in Moscow, was President Bush's envoy to Moammar Gaddafi this year. He is credited with helping to convince Gaddafi to renounce weapons of mass destruction and he briefed the president on the meetings.
Sulick, whose career includes overseas assignments in South America, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, headed the agency's counterintelligence center until becoming Kappes's deputy.
Both men are highly regarded by their clandestine service colleagues, said 10 former CIA officials who have worked with them.
A CIA spokesman had no comment on their departure but has described personnel changes as a normal part of a transition between directors.
Goss has said he wanted to make changes in the clandestine service and had criticized it in the past as being "dysfunctional." At the same time, Bush has lauded overseas operators for the work in Afghanistan and in capturing or killing 75 percent of the pre-Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda leadership.
Soon after Goss, a former CIA case officer and chairman of the House intelligence committee, took over as director in September, he installed four former Hill aides known for their gruff management style. Three of them were former mid-level CIA officers whom Republican and Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill said had idiosyncratic views of the agency's problems and never undertook a thorough study of the clandestine service in their roles as congressional overseers.
Kappes's and Sulick's resignations follow a series of confrontations with Goss's new chief of staff, Patrick Murray, the former intelligence committee staff director and a Justice Department official. Sulick complained vigorously to Murray on Nov. 5 about the way he was treating other CIA officials. Murray demanded that Kappes fire Sulick, and Kappes refused.
Also last week, Goss's deputy, John MacLaughlin, retired.
Former CIA director George Tenet appointed Kappes in June to succeeded James Pavitt. Kappes had served as Pavitt's deputy since June 2002. He joined the CIA in 1981 after serving as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1976 to 1981. He has held a variety of operational and managerial assignments at CIA headquarters and overseas, including the Near East, South Asia and Europe.
He also served as chief of the counterintelligence center and associate deputy director for operations for counterintelligence.
- By Dana Priest, The Washington Post
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