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The CIA quietly announced the "resignation" of its deputy director on Wednesday, accompanied by all the accolades normally reserved for a top government official forced to resign in disgrace. There were many reasons why Stephen R. Kappes needed to resign at age 60, five years before the agency's mandatory retirement age. Even the CIA's Greek chorus at The Washington Post and the New York Times have acknowledged that this mandarin had no clothes. The immediate cause appears to have been the catastrophic operation on Dec. 30 in Khost, Afghanistan, that cost the lives of seven people and maimed several others...

A veteran CIA operations official who clashed with former agency Director Porter J. Goss was formally named the deputy CIA director yesterday, raising concerns among critics who say he will hamper reform at the agency. Stephen R. Kappes, who is well-liked among CIA rank and file but who is viewed as someone supporting the status quo at the embattled agency, began work yesterday in his new role, a CIA statement said.

The American spy who persuaded Libya to renounce its weapons of mass destruction is to return to the Central Intelligence Agency, where he will direct an aggressive drive to recruit informants inside Iran to aid possible negotiations over Teheran's nuclear capability. Stephen Kappes, a former United States Marines officer who resigned from the CIA after a clash with its then director, Porter Goss, has been brought back from self-imposed exile in London by George W Bush. Iran will be top of his agenda. "He's a remarkable guy, a talented leader and among the finest officers of his generation," said Gary...

Stephen Kappes: The Wrong Man at CIA by Kenneth R. TimmermanPosted May 31, 2006Before Gen. Michael Hayden settles in as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Congress needs to ask hard questions of the man he has said he wants to appoint as deputy director of the CIA: former operations chief Stephen R. Kappes. Kappes is a former Marine who elicits strong praise from former operations officers such as Gary Berntsen, who worked under him for two years. Hayden also heaped praise on Kappes. "When I did the Rolodex check around the community about Steve … they’re almost universally positive,"...

"As...CIA Director Porter Goss exits the agency, NEWSWEEK has discovered new details about a purge of top agency operatives shortly after Goss's arrival in 2004. A bitter secret feud over a Clinton-era counterintelligence case was apparently a major motivation behind the loss of those seasoned intelligence veterans, sources say. Gen. Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee to replace Goss as CIA chief, has signaled that when he is confirmed by the Senate, probably later this week, he intends to appoint one of the principal victims of the feud, former CIA operations chief Stephen Kappes, as deputy CIA director—a move that is...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steve Kappes, a recently retired CIA insider, has been offered the No. 2 slot at the spy agency, sources told CNN, to reassure the CIA operations community about Gen. Michael Hayden's appointment as director as well as ease concerns about that nominee's military ties. The decision to tap Kappes is also seen as a move aimed at members of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee who have raised doubts about Hayden. Kappes was a civilian operations officer who reportedly was forced out of the CIA by Porter Goss' associates after Goss became director in 2004. Intelligence analysts and...

One former CIA official told NEWSWEEK that [Porter Goss' aide]Murray leaned on him more than once to declassify information so he could use it to "embarrass the Democrats." Murray was irritated when the agency declined.

[Porter Goss] brought with him from Congress four partisan staff members of the Intelligence Committee who have not adjusted from their old role as political advocates and critics. Instead, they are grabbing authority wherever they can and making decisions that should be left to the existing chain of command. In only a few weeks, they have exhibited an arrogance that may have served them well on Capitol Hill but is inappropriate – and counterproductive – within the agency.

To those who worked with him, Stephen Kappes seemed the perfect choice to lead the covert side of the CIA in the midst of the war on terrorism. Appointed in June, Kappes, a former marine, is a veteran CIA case officer who served in dangerous and difficult postings in Moscow and Pakistan. More recently, he reported directly to President Bush as the CIA's point man in secret high-stakes negotiations with Libya that ended the rogue state's weapons-of-mass-destruction programs.

2 Top Officials Are Reported to Quit C.I.A. By DOUGLAS JEHL ASHINGTON, Nov. 24 - Two more senior officials of the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine service are stepping down, intelligence officials said Wednesday, in the latest sign of upheaval in the agency under its new chief, Porter J. Goss. As the chiefs of the Europe and Far East divisions, the two officials have headed spying operations in some of the most important regions of the world and were among a group known as the barons in the highest level of clandestine service, the Directorate of Operations. The directorate has been...

An old CIA hand, still with the agency, recently told NewsMax to read an article by Stephen Hayes for the Weekly Standard. Story Continues Below This story, our friend said, explains what is going on at the CIA. The agency's new director, Porter Goss, has stirred up a hornets' nest - make that a vipers' nest - at the nation's chief intelligence agency. For starters he has dared to take steps to plug the flood of leaks gushing out of the company's headquarters in Langley, Va. We figured Goss must have been doing something good when the main recipients of...

Posted November 16, 2004 An internal war at the CIA By Faye Bowers | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON - A public war between a president and his intelligence arm is never good news. But with the war against the insurgency in Iraq at a critical juncture, and Osama bin Laden making his ominous presence known, it is perhaps the worst of times for the Bush administration and its spies to be at odds. Still, government officials and outside experts say, the long-simmering tensions between the White House and CIA are erupting into an unseemly period of...

Top Two Officials at CIA Service Quit 28 minutes ago By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The top two officials in the CIA (news - web sites)'s clandestine service have resigned amid turmoil among the leadership at the nation's spy service, according to intelligence officials. The CIA's Deputy Director for Operations Stephen Kappes and his immediate deputy, Michael Sulick, said they are leaving the agency, said the officials who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because the resignations had not yet been announced. Both men were part of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, or clandestine service, which...

The nation's new spy chief's management style is alienating some career intelligence officers, and the tensions threaten to impede rebuilding the nation's spying capabilities, current and former intelligence officials say. Two months after taking over the Central Intelligence Agency, Porter Goss, a former Republican congressman, is perceived as a distant figure who has given wide latitude in running the agency to several aides he brought from Capitol Hill. These aides, led by Goss chief of staff Patrick Murray, have clashed with senior and mid-level managers whose support has long been considered vital for a director to gain control of the...

CIA plans to purge its agency Sources say White House has ordered new chief to eliminate officers who were disloyal to Bush BY KNUT ROYCE WASHINGTON BUREAU November 14, 2004 WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources. "The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior...