To the U.S. intelligence community,

for ignoring the Senate and leaving the CIA with the sole responsibility for directing spies. Given the agency’s miserable track record with human intelligence — the failure to locate Osama bin Laden or to glean reliable information about Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, to name but two — the Senate Select Intelligence Committee wanted the job of coordinating clandestine spy operations to be done by John Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence. Particularly worrisome is the reason for leaving the CIA in charge: “It would be bad for [agency] morale, which is already down.” Apparently, CIA self-actualization is the top priority. How they feel about spying is more important than any actual spying they might do.