Monitoring the Ikea threat

One obstacle to reform of the CIA is its culture, which long ago became infected by the values of the Foreign Service, with which it shares quarters at American embassies throughout the world. Like their Foreign Service counterparts, CIA officers came to yearn for cushy assignments in the world's more attractive cities, especially those in Europe, in contrast to the places where their services were most needed.

That this remains true of the agency's culture is illustrated by a recent column from The Washington Post's David Ignatius: "Agency gossip has it that a long line of officers recently bid for a plush station chief's job in Scandinavia, while there were only several applicants each to run the big stations in Baghdad, Kabul and Islamabad."

COPYRIGHT 2007 Washington Monthly Company
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning