Death by a thousand cuts. (Robert M. Gates is Pres. Bush's nominee to head the CIA) (American Survey)

Economist (US), The, July, 1991

"What's going on here?" asked an administration official plaintively about the nomination of Robert Gates, now deputy national security adviser, to be head of the CIA. He might well ask: on july 16th the Senate intelligence committee announced that it would not start confirmation hearings on Mr Gates's appointment until mid-September, four months after George Bush picked him for the job. it is now hard to find people willing to bet that Mr Gates will ever be installed at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, as director of central intelligence (DCI).

In an impassioned defence of Mr Gates, Mr Bush berated those who have used rumour and innuendo to blacken his name. Indeed, there is hardly a recent espionage scandal, real or supposed, with which somebody or...

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