"Anonymous" leaves the CIA

More fallout in the shakeup at the CIA: author of Imperial Hubris resigns...

A senior CIA counter-terrorism official has defied orders to stop publicly criticizing the U.S. government's response to Al Qaeda, complaining that no one has been held accountable for failures that helped lead to the Sept. 11 attacks and warning that uncorrected management problems continue to put Americans at risk.

Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA and former chief of the unit that tracked Osama bin Laden, acknowledged in an interview that he might be putting his job in jeopardy, particularly by discussing details of a September letter in which he cited 10 examples of agency failures to aggressively pursue Bin Laden or otherwise halt the growth of Al Qaeda.

[...]

In July, Scheuer anonymously wrote a best-selling book, "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror," in which he faulted the way the U.S. was combating terrorism. The CIA soon ordered Scheuer to stop criticizing the agency during public appearances to promote the book.

But he continued working as a senior intelligence service official at the CIA's counter-terrorism center, a measure of the respect he receives at the agency.

One whistle-blower expert said that Scheuer's decision to publicly defy the CIA was unprecedented.

"I've never seen someone at that level come forward in the way that he has. It just doesn't happen," said Kris Kolesnik, executive director of the National Whistleblower Center.

[...]

Scheuer decided over the weekend to speak out, he said, because his concerns were being ignored by his superiors at the CIA and by the Sept. 11 commission.

"I'm proud to work [at the CIA], and they can say what they want about me, but I have no intention of leaving," Scheuer said. "They may force me to leave, they may fire me. But it's the best place to work that I know of. I'm proud to be an intelligence officer, and I want to stay one."

LA Times article

That was November 9.

And this was November 12....

Michael Scheuer, the author and former chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, announced yesterday that he had resigned from the agency so he could speak openly about terrorism and what he sees as the government's failure to understand the threat from al Qaeda.

Scheuer said in an interview with The Washington Post on Monday that he believes the agency silenced him after CIA officials realized he was blaming the CIA, not the administration, for mishandling terrorism. "As long as the book was being used to bash the president, they gave me carte blanche to talk to the media," he said. "But this is a story about the failure of the bureaucracy to support policymakers."

WaPo article

Didn't take long for his "intention" to change. But it looks like he might have kept his job if it's true that Goss is "purging" the CIA of anyone who doesn't support the Brat King.

This whole thing could get very messy before the dust settles.