Abolish the CIA?

That's the premise behind an op-ed by Jack Kelly. What would replace the CIA? We've been told that the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 would be solved by a reshuffling of intelligence agencies and bureaucratic reallignments that answer to a single person. I was wary of creating yet more bureaucracies to solve problems, since that creates all new problems of its own.

The CIA has done a poor job predicting certain world events, but do we really know its successes? We only know when it fails. Are the failures sufficient to call for a housecleaning. One should undertake a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether it is not only feasible, but worthwhile.

I think cleaning out the CIA would be a great idea, but who would come in to take those positions? That is an answer that relates directly on whether getting rid of the CIA would accomplish anything at all. Kelly cites Powerline blogger John Hinderaker, who notes that the CIA has done its best work in trying to undermine the Bush Administration, not to mention embarrassing the US in using poor spycraft in obtaining intel and protecting US assets/operations overseas. That's one big factor that is in favor of abolishing the CIA.

Mark in Mexico notes that former US Senator Moynihan once called for the CIA to be abolished and that its current woes should be sufficient to call for its abolishment.

When even a notorously liberal United Nations hack like Mohammed ElBaradei agrees with an Israeli intelligence finding that Iran will be nuclear armed in only a few months when our multi-billion dollar agency said 10 years, well, get rid of it. The CIA is a bureaucratized shell of its former self, and its former self probably ceased to exist some 40 years ago. As pointed out by Reuel Marc Gerecht for a long time now and by John Hinderaker more recently, the CIA has become a rogue agency involved in a dirty war against its own boss, the President of The United States. By, as has been alleged by Gerecht, Hinderaker and others, creating illegal programs which would be damaging to the interests of the American people if knowledge of those programs became public and then purposely leaking the existence of those programs, the CIA has become an enemy of The United States and its people.

Again, those are good reasons to have significant reform, but how would a new agency be established? Many of the same people who are now involved at the Agency would end up in the new agency. Astute Blogger also comment on the Kelly article, and wonders who or what is behind the anti-Administration motivations. Good question. And one needs to wonder whether there are sufficient counter-intelligence operations to ferret out moles and spies within the CIA who may be operating on behalf of foreign governments or even terrorist groups.

UPDATE:
Submitted to Stop the ACLU, Robinik.net, TMH's Bacon Bits, Stuck on Stupid, Point Five, Right Wing Nation, MacStansbury, Big Dog's Weblog, Mudville Gazette, bRight and Early and [updated regularly]