In the CIA we have an institution that failed--whatever the other factors--to prevent 9/11, and then could not infiltrate Al-Qaeda well enough to locate Bin Laden.  That was a big enough blow.

But then this criminal administration decided that it was going to invade Iraq and ignore Al-Qaeda, come hell or high water, using trumped up rationales.  And then, to add insult to injury, they laid the blame for their own lies on the CIA.

When various members of the CIA rose up or left in protest, Bush chose to houseclean the agency by ridding it of Democrats with the nomination of Porter Goss.  And then, as if morale couldn't get any worse, the chief of the CIA then resigned in the wake of a (possibly gay) prostitute scandal at the Watergate hotel.

And now the last straw: Bush has nominated a military man to head the CIA--at a time when tensions between the Pentagon and the CIA could not be more pronounced.

In typical fashion, the Bush Administration has chosen intimidation over cooperation, in a move that can only be described as the biggest public "Fuck You" from one government organization to another in recent memory.

And if history is any judge, the effect on CIA morale will be terribly destructive.  People with institutional knowledge will quit.  Bright young talent will not join.  And the NSA and Pentagon, which have shown themselves to be not only inept but also criminally indifferent on the issue of Constitutional rights, will take over more and more of the intelligence apparatus.  By Design.

There is no other word for this than TREASON.

Because any fool knows that the phrase "The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves" is a joke--not a guidebook.  And when you're dealing with people who use the phrase as a management motto, you're not dealing with incompetent, bumbling, even malevolent idiots; you're dealing with intentionally vindicative and destructive people doing their utmost to damage and debilitate part of the apparatus that maintains our national security.

It's treason, plain and simple.