Goss, Porter J.

▪ 2005

      On Aug. 10, 2004, Porter Goss, an eight-term Florida Republican congressman and House Intelligence Committee chairman, was tapped to replace George Tenet as director of central intelligence. The top CIA post had become a lightning rod for criticism, and Tenet was perceived as a liability for the administration of Pres. George W. Bush. In June Tenet abruptly announced that he was retiring, and Bush moved to plug the power vacuum. Goss's appointment came at a critical juncture for the CIA, which was under fire for having failed to crack the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plot and was taking the blame for the overselling of the likelihood that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, the main rationale for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. More generally the agency was facing pressure to revamp its intelligence-gathering capabilities and improve interagency cooperation in the face of likely terrorist threats. Bush billed Goss as a “force for positive change,” and his friends praised him as a seasoned, pragmatic lawmaker. Many Democrats, however, criticized the appointment as having most to do with Florida's being a swing state in the upcoming elections and complaining of Goss's partisanship and cozy relationship with the Bush administration. Critics also noted that the 9/11 Commission Report in June 2004 had reproved not only U.S. intelligence agencies but also congressional oversight of them.

      Porter Johnston Goss was born on Nov. 26, 1938, in Waterbury, Conn. He was educated at the Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Conn., and Yale University, where he earned a B.A. in classics and Greek in 1960. Goss trained as a military intelligence officer before joining the CIA in 1962. Owing to his being fluent in Spanish, his first posting was to Miami, Fla., at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “I had some very interesting moments in the Florida Straits,” he divulged recently, but he was otherwise reticent about his intelligence activities. It was known that he undertook clandestine assignments in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Europe. His field career was cut short, however, when he was stricken with a debilitating bacteriological infection in 1970. He subsequently moved to Sanibel Island, off Florida's Gulf coast, with his wife and four children to recuperate, and in 1972 he quit the CIA.

      Goss cofounded a local newspaper and became Sanibel's first mayor in 1974. His opposition to commercial development on the island persuaded the then governor (Democrat Bob Graham, who was later Goss's opposite number on the Senate Intelligence Committee) to appoint him to the Lee County Board of Commissioners in 1983. This post was the springboard for his successful 1988 congressional run. In the House, besides overseeing intelligence matters, Goss served on the Rules Committee and the Select Committee for Homeland Security.

      Arriving at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., Goss pledged to give field agents greater license to gather intelligence aggressively. His tenure got off to a rocky start, however, when it emerged that his pick for CIA third in command had previously been forced to quit the agency for shoplifting. Several high-ranking CIA officials also resigned during a shake-up of the organization by Goss.

Stephen J. Phillips

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