AT THE C.I.A., MORALE IS PLUMMETING.

Meanwhile, in response to my earlier post, a reader emails: “Although you aren’t the only one to make this point, I would ask you to consider that you’re using an awfully broad brush to tar a lot of patriotic people. Although I agree that there were some politicized folks at the agency who wanted to undermine Bush policy — Plame and the analyst “Anonymous” who published a book, come to mind — the vast majority of folks there were simply working diligently to protect America. This especially true of officers in the field who take lots of risks with little credit or glory. I don’t think there’s any evidence whatsoever that the clandestine service as a whole ever sought to do anything but follow orders. So it’s not really fair to talk about the agency as a whole wanting something when only a few over-politicized hacks were causing trouble.” Fair enough, but nonetheless if an intelligence agency can’t prevent leaks on that scale, well. . . .