CIA Director Confirmation Day 6, Part 1

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence heard testimony from analysts in the Central Intelligence Agency during the sixth day of the confirmation hearings of Robert Gates for the position of director of Central Intelligence. Melvin Goodman testified that Robert Gates, who had been deputy director of Central Intelligence during the mid-1980's, imposed his own conservative viewpoint on the agency’s findings by pressuring analysts to create appropriate analyses without evidence to back up the findings. He also testified Mr. Gate’s management style was inappropriate for the systemic procedures of the agency, and suppressed analyses that did not agree with his opinions. Graham Fuller contradicted the testimony of Mr. Goodman, saying that because Mr. Gates and his boss, William Casey, held such conservative views concerning the Soviet Union, the analysts created less critical analyses of the Soviet Union to compensate. He called Mr. Goodman’s testimony “serious distortions,” and supporte close