Morning copy 9.23.2005

Breaking news on CNN, a levee has been overtopped in New Orleans.

Porter Goss

Porter Goss' one-year anniversary as DCI is greeted with the following headline in the New York Times: "After a Year Leading C.I.A., Goss Is Struggling, Some Say". Excerpt:

Current and former intelligence officials say considerable turmoil remains within the agency, particularly within the directorate of operations, which is responsible for human spying around the world. The directorate's No. 2 official, Robert Richer, has become the most recent high-ranking official to announce his departure, and he has told officials at the White House and in the C.I.A. that he had lost confidence in Mr. Goss.

Mr. Goss's task was bound to be complicated, partly because the agency was reduced in power and stature by the reorganization of intelligence after its failures on terrorism and Iraq.

This is the headline in the Los Angeles Times: "Goss Cites 'Real Progress' in His Year as CIA Chief". Excerpt:

Despite the tumult, Goss said the CIA had made "real progress in all the areas that have called out for improvement." In particular, he said the agency has deployed more case officers overseas. "We opened new stations and bases, and we've reopened some old ones," he said.

And this quote, presumably about CIA officers posing as businessmen/women:

"Pinstripes work in some places," Goss said, "but not everywhere."

Katrinarita

Iraqis wonder what impact the hurricanes and recovery efforts will have, USA Today.

Christian Science Monitor has a news recap about the lack of Iraq war support after Hurricane Katrina.

Gasoline tanker trucks are assisting motorists stranded without fuel in the Houston area, Houston Chronicle.

Bush is front-and-center with this hurricane, New York Times.

Fascinating news analysis in the Los Angeles Times:

A similar struggle has occurred over how to provide healthcare to storm victims. White House officials are quietly working to derail a proposal by leading Republican and Democratic senators to temporarily expand Medicaid. Instead, the administration is pushing a narrower plan that would not commit the government to covering certain groups of evacuees.

As President Bush tackles the monumental task of easing the social problems wrought by Katrina, he is proving deeply reluctant to use some of the big-government tools at his disposal, apparently out of fear of permanently enlarging programs that he opposes or has sought to cut.

Iraq/Iran

IranMania has Sistani saying the following:

Concerning the western countries trouble making for Iran in its peaceful nuclear energy program, Ayatollah Sistani's envoy said, " the arrogant powers do not want a powerful and free Iran to emerge as a pattern for the whole Islamic world.

Sistani lends his sizeable support to the constitution, Reuters.

Western powers press for U.N. rebuke of Iran, New York Times.

What the Bush administration is hearing from someone outside their optimism bubble, New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said Thursday that he had been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he said could drag the region into war.

"There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together," he said in a meeting with reporters at the Saudi Embassy here. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart." He said he was so concerned that he was carrying this message "to everyone who will listen" in the Bush administration.