Whitehouse denies pushing CIA boss
Whitehouse denies pushing CIA boss
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Saturday, 06, May 2006 07:53
The Whitehouse has denied press reports that George W. Bush had lost faith in the CIA boss who resigned this week.
Porter Goss, head of the CIA, stepped down in a surprise announcement last week after two years in charge of the agency.
The resignation surprised everyone and newspapers in the United States, including the Washington Post, have suggested that Mr Goss was forced out of his job after President Bush lost faith in his abilities.
The CIA has come under fire after intelligence mistakes over the war in Iraq and terrorist attacks of September 11th.
None of the major errors occurred under the management of Mr Goss but it has been suggested that the Whitehouse no longer believes he can prevent further mistakes in the future.
Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, said: "Reports that the president had lost confidence in Porter Goss are categorically untrue.
"Porter Goss played a key role in keeping the focus on winning the war on terror and helped transform the agency to meet the challenging times we're living in and the times ahead."
He was brought in as director of the CIA in August 2004 following sustained criticism of former director George Tenet's flawed intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and the September 11th attacks.
Mr Goss worked for the CIA in a covert capacity for ten years during the 1960s before representing Florida in the US House of Representatives between 1988 and 2004.