CalgaryBorn said "It's been well documented that the CIA were at odds with the administration from the first day Bush was in office."
It has been well documented that the "odds" in question were the facts getting in the way of the war and propaganda effort being dreamed up by the likes of Cheney and Wolfowitz. The facts clearly did not support any of the claims put forth by the White House, so half-truths were manufactured to present a position of plausible deniability. The list of excuses to go into Iraq are long and all erroneous in their foundation. The CIA analysts that let their training and their conscience guide them were replaced with less competant and more cooperative analysts, and it has cost the United States her soul. The bald faced lies of the Cheney/Wolfowitz cabal have cost America its integrity and the right to the moral high ground, which it once embraced and consider as sacred the constitution. Both of those ideals have been shredded by the members of the George W. Bush administration. The CIA had little to do with this. The descent into the abyss America finds itself was a guided by those charged with protecting her and holding the constitution as the highest of all ideals. The blames falls squarely at the feet of the administration from the past eight years.
"When 9/11 occurred there was also a lot of finger pointing both ways."
Finger pointing at the inaction and ignorance of the intelligence presented to the administration you mean. This is well documented by not only CIA analysts, but also by people who were working inside the administration before and shortly after the attacks.
"Bush has since slowly purged the CIA of what he perceives as hostiles who would put political affiliation above country."
Who would put political affiliation above country? Did you really just type that in defense of George W. Bush? We are talking about an administration who committed an act of treason by exposing Valerie Plame. These same fellows were responsible for firing a whole series of state attorneys based on nothing more than political affiliation. These are the same guys who went out of their way to send an Alabama governor to prison on trumped up politically motivated charges, which so far have proven to be false. Political affiliation is the most important facet to the Bush administration, and their actions prove it time and time again; country comes second.
"Was Carle one of the agents eventually forced to retire by the Bush administration?"
Doesn't seem that way. The guy just retired and is coming out right now. Bush purged lots of qualified and capable analysts to go to war, but it appears Carle was not one of them. It could be he held his tongue until he hit is retirement window and then said to hell with it. Can't blame a guy that is that close to hitting his 80 points.
"Was Carle part of the CIA brain trust who underestimated the rumblings heard before 9/11?"
The only ones that underestimated the rumblings heard prior to 9/11 were those in the Bush administration. All the revisionist history in the world will not wash away the fact that when Clinton left office one of his last acts was to brief the new administration on the existing threat of Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, and that the Bush folks ignored the information. It also will not eliminate the fact that Bush ignored the daily briefings and that Rice refused to meet on the issue as well. The intelligence had been out there for almost four years, and it was mentioned in brief after brief, but ignored by the new executive. The only ones who underestimated those rumblings were the ones who were on the receiving end of the briefs created and given by the intelligence community.
"I can't be sure of the answer to the first question but, the second answer appears to be a "Yes"."
Carle was part of the cabinet? Negative. So the answer on the second question is a resounding "No".
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