Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet, who will soon be leaving the agency, has strongly disputed the description of his agency as 'dysfunctional'.
"Over the years, the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence community have enjoyed a cooperative and productive relationship with its Congressional oversight committees. I was very much surprised, therefore, by the tone and content of some of the report language associated with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's FY 2005 Authorization Bill," Tenet said in a letter to the Congressional oversight committee, which he made available to the media.
"The committee is within its rights to suggest different priorities, but I find it hard to accept that any serious observer would believe, as the committee apparently does, that there is an unhealthy emphasis on counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation efforts or that we are placing too much emphasis on supporting the nation's Iraq effort at the CIA. I am deeply disappointed at the way the report has chosen to question the leadership and capabilities of the Clandestine Service.
"Dysfunctional organisations do not perform the way the Directorate of Operations performed in Afghanistan, and in support of the military in Iraq before and after the conflict.
"Dysfunctional organisations do not take down or eliminate the most dangerous proliferators in the world - like the A Q Khan network. Nor do they aid in the disarmament of a country like Libya," Tenet said in the letter.
"To suggest that the organisation that was key to all these victories, not to mention the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and more than two thirds of the Al Qaeda leadership is on the verge of being incapable of 'the slightest bit of success' is frankly absurd," the letter said.
Tenet alleged that some of the Committee's critics of the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence are ill-informed.
"The Deputy Director for Intelligence has made extraordinary strides in improving her Directorate's global analytic reach. The suggestion that analysts are risk averse is simply wrong.
"Our work must be based on rigorous, well-reasoned, and appropriately caveated analysis. Above all, we must take care not to create a chilling environment in which analysts are hesitant to make tough calls.
"Finally, I object to your report's language on the agency's Compensation Reform plans. Leading government and private sector experts such as the Office of Personnel Management and the Business Executives for National Security have singled out the Agency's plans for particular praise," he said.
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