Purges and new powers at the CIA.(Insider Report)(Central Intelligence Agency)

"The CIA has assigned dozens of case officers and analysts to work with FBI agents throughout the USA in the most extensive deployment of intelligence officers on domestic soil in the spy agency's history," reported USA Today for November 11. "Officials at both agencies say the deployment, which pairs CIA officers with FBI agents in the bureau's offices to assist with terror-related investigations, also represents the CIA's broadest association with federal law enforcement since the CIA was created after World War II."

This new domestic role for the CIA comes at a time when the agency is being purged of analysts and officers not deemed loyal to the Bush administration and its agenda.

"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," reported Newsday on November 14, citing "knowledgeable sources." "One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division."

Also among those shown the door were John E. McLaughlin, a 32-year veteran of the intelligence division, and Michael Scheuer, a 22-year agency veteran who headed up the Osama bin Laden task force until 1999. Scheuer is also author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror, which contends that the war in Iraq is actually abetting the growth of al-Qaeda and making the U.S. less secure. "There will be no more Imperial Hubris books," commented a CIA official. "The word ...