WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- With the bill to remake the U.S. intelligence services stalled in Congress, the new director of the CIA has been moving ahead on reform of his agency.
Some 20 senior officials have left the CIA in recent weeks, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Some of t he department CIA employees have reported clashes with aides to new CIA Director Porter Goss.
"They really do believe they have to start all over again," former CIA Middle East operative Robert Baer told the Christian Science Monitor.
"My first reaction is to give Porter Goss a chance, but what's he going to do now?," said Baer. "I think he's going to effectively have to get a caretaker crew in there and start over again."
President Bush has given Goss guidance in the former of a series of executive orders to increase the number of CIA analysts and covert operators by 50 percent, with language training also increased greatly, the newspaper said.
Congressional lawmakers have promised to move during the next week on the intelligence bill, which has been mired in congressional committee bureaucracy.
