George H. W. Bush Quotes
I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of [CIA] sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.
Bush, George H. W. "Remarks at the Dedication of the George Bush Center for Intelligence." Central Intelligence Agency, 26 Apr. 1999.
Bush had served earlier as the head of the CIA and understood the costs of such better than most. He was put in a difficult position when his son was President and one of the senior White House operatives, for small partisan advantage, leaked the name and identity of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative. Bush the father, remained silent even after the leaker was identified.
Intelligence agents tend to prefer covert activities to the less dramatic, non-exciting, activity of gathering and analyzing intelligence. Most national intelligence services tend to enlarge their portfolio to include covert activities regardless of what the national leaders intended. Because of the secrecy, they can often get away with this.
Agree resigned from the CIA in protest to its political position.
Commenting on a former CIA agent's defection to Russia:
In her younger days Steinham worked with the CIA. Originally the Office of Strategic Service, the precursor to the CIA, was an amalgam of some of the nation’s most educated and dedicated people who tended to be very idealistic in saving the world from fascists like Nazi Germany and Japan. The were extremely nonpolitical and were not involved in the liberal conservative battles that the agency got itself into as the Red Scare and the fear of Communism affected much of the society including the CIA.
When Bob Casey was the CIA Director, he the declassification of all the operational files of the WWII Office of Strategic Service. The huge collection is referred to as Record Book 2.6
If Casey had listened to Sofaer as the State Department did, President Reagan would have been spared the worst Scandal of his Presidency—Iran Contra. Casey had a great antipathy to lawyers. See {637470}.
Casey continuously violated the law and lied to the President and Congress.
George Herbert Walker Bush was an American politician, diplomat and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, Bush also served as the 43rd vice president from 1981 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan, in the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and as Director of Central Intelligence.
