Miscik's secret CIA memo

In November 2004, Jami Miscik, in charge of the CIA's intelligence unit, caught flak from her boss, new CIA Director Porter Goss, for refusing a request from Dick Cheney's office to declassify a section of a CIA report that would have helped the Administration justify the Iraq war.

Through an aide, Miscik told Goss, "Sometimes saying no to the Vice President is what we get paid for" - and then Miscik sat down and wrote her boss a memo. She doesn't have a copy of that one-page memo; it's classified, so even she can't see what she wrote. But here is what Miscik recalls writing:

"This is just the sort of thing that had gotten us into trouble, time and again. Telling only half the story, the part that the Administration wants to tell, and keeping the rest classified. This is wrong to be playing in a political debate. Eventually, it comes out and it looks bad, real bad, and we lose moral capital."

Goss supported Miscik's decision to keep the information classified. But a few weeks later, just before Christmas, she was told that she was being replaced as deputy director of intelligence. A spokesperson for Goss says today, "There is absolutely no linkage between the two events. This is connecting dots that don't connect."

Back to story.