What that means is the CIA apparatus can be used for ill or for good, according to who is at the head at the time. Cars are vehicles; they can transport people safely to a destination or, in the wrong and irresponsible hands, those same cars can easily kill indiscriminately. So it is with the CIA or any other government's intelligence agency.
Notice the marked difference in the CIA from the Bush years to now the developing Obama years. The current director basically has ratted out the previous director for his breaking of the established law that somehow Republicans never seem to think applies to them. Director Pinetta supplied the Bush year's documents where they hung themselves on their own reports.
Working for the CIA is complicated at best for any individual as I witnessed it up close and far too personal as a child of a CIA officer. During the Bush years there were those officers who refused Bush and Cheney's orders. What happened to them? It isn't ever pretty when someone in the intelligence community chooses to be of good character, take a stand and carry it through.
So, you say, so what? Quit the place and then go get another job. It isn't that easy for long-term servants of our government, especially with such vindictive administrations like Nixon to Bush and Cheney. You get blackballed for defying them. Blackballed means that every time you apply for a job you get lied about to the prospective employer. These bad guys run ahead of you to every possible avenue you could take and set it up ahead of time long before you arrive looking for a job. You can easily end up professionally trashed, maybe homeless and out of work for years - and that's if you are lucky.
What about whistle-blower laws? You are joking, right? Have you ever heard of a whistle-blower coming out on top for doing the right thing - especially when it comes to the government or a high profiled lobbyist?
What complicates it for most CIA employees or other intelligence communities is when they leave their jobs they have what is called a "blank resume." Rarely does the CIA every admit someone has worked for them. (It gets really nasty with a divorce when a CIA representative stands up in open court and mouths the mantra, "I can neither confirm not deny this person has ever worked for the agency." That translates into no alimony or child support since the judge cannot confirm a spouse's place of employment.)
This added complication of a blank resume when job hunting is a CIA employee could have 30 years on the job as an analyst and yet show absolutely zero work experience, no recommedations, nothing. To the private sector it looks like you have nothing to offer and are a complete work ethic flake. Basically, this is one way the intelligence community holds their employees hostage for a long career. It isn't always about they want to stay there.
So, yeah, when someone in the intelligence community has had a stomach full of a bad administration's garbage they have to start their whole life over again and it's a bumpy road at best. The smartest ones have been developing personal networks of friends and contacts over the years preparing for such an occasion "just in case" they need a place to land and start a new career.
And people wonder why Bush and Cheney had to outsource torture to the ex-military staffed Blackwater group as it turned the stomachs of many a CIA employee.
For all those decent people in our intelligence community who fought the Bush years garbage yet were never allowed to speak publicly this post is for you...
The good news is that every time Obama needs to advance his agenda, like the current one on health care which the Republicans have so foolishly obstructed, he can whip out a new investigation into the Bush years. It's all about political timing, the bully pulpit and the scales of justice.
Take a look at this video as Keith Olbermann enumerates the details of the torture years.
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