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."

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.