got geoint?

Since President Elect Obama has not officially announced his appointees to key intelligence posts, many are coming out of the woodworks (on this first Monday after a long break) to espouse their input, views and commentary.

Here’s a quick rundown of some note worthy stories and opinions:

In a post called “It’s Gonna Take More Than The Perfect DNI Appointment To Fix Our Broken Spy Culture,” Frank Naif of the Huffington Post pointed out the following “entrenched pathologies of intelligence culture”:

- Throwing Spies Under the Bus: One chronic problem is senior intelligence leaders who can’t or won’t stand behind their troops.

- Refusal to fire spies who screw up and/or do bad things: Art Brown, a former CIA operations officer, said it better than I ever could in a New York Times opinion piece last month: no one in intelligence ever gets fired for not doing their job.

- They keep letting rotten spies back in the building: It’s not just that the intelligence community can’t fire its own dud employees — they won’t keep out known troublemakers.

- Contracting out the spies is neither managed nor measured: It’s not that intelligence contracting is managed poorly or not accurately measured. It’s not managed or measured — at all.

Here’s another piece by The Washington Independent on General Mike Hayden and whether he should stay in his current position at the CIA. In addition, here’s a the entire commentary by the anonymous former CIA source covered in the Washington Independent piece.

Perhaps Obama should move quicker to make these decisions, then all of the punditry and arm-chair quaterbacking can focus on what is, not “what should be”?

We welcome your thoughts and commentary!

Tags: CIA, CIA Director, General Hayden, Intelligence Community, Intelligence Reform