The criticism makes Pavitt bristle.
"I think there needs to be a clearer understanding that human intelligence is extraordinarily valuable, but those who expect perfection out of it will always be disappointed," he said. "If we are right 40 to 50 percent of the time, we're batting pretty well."
Creating a national intelligence director as was proposed by congressional committees and the 9/11 commission, will not necessarily fix the problems, he said. "And to suggest that if we don't act" to create such a director that terrorist strikes against the United States are more likely "is simply not right," he said. "There are no easy fixes."
Retired CIA deputy director of operations James L. Pavitt, sitting in his garden, said he will take a job in the private sector.
(Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)
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In Profile
James L. Pavitt
Title: Former deputy director for operations, CIA
Education: Bachelor's degree, University of Missouri.
Age: 58.
Family: Wife; four children.
Career highlights: Joined the CIA in 1973 after stint as Army intelligence officer. Posted in Vienna, East Berlin, Budapest and Malaysia and was chief of station in Luxembourg. In 1992, appointed senior director and special assistant to the president for intelligence programs. Held senior positions in the nonproliferation arena, and became associate deputy director for operations in 1997, and deputy director for operations in 1999.
Pastimes: Art collector, particularly primitive American art.
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Terrorism, said Pavitt, "is not going to be gone a year from now. My children, your children are going to have to worry about this a long time from now. If that's true, we're not going to just make it all better, make the nation safer overnight by making a new bureaucratic structure."
Pavitt, who plans to join the private sector soon, although he declines to say in what capacity, said it will take years to train and season the numbers and kinds of American spies the CIA needs to infiltrate al Qaeda -- or, more likely, to recruit foreign agents who can get inside the terrorist group.
"There seemed to be shock and dismay when [former CIA director George J. Tenet] said it would take five years until the human service is healthy again. Spare me! Stop! It's no surprise to anyone," Pavitt said.
Actually, he contends it will take longer: "I can't produce case officers overnight. It takes seven, eight, nine years" before a clandestine case officer is experienced enough to be successful against these toughest of targets.
Although Congress and the White House have given the CIA healthy increases in funding since Sept. 11, Pavitt said too much of the new money, to stay within deficit ceilings, is given in yearly supplemental funds. Without a sustained financial commitment to pay for larger recruiting and training programs, he said, managers cannot put the necessary infrastructure in place.
"It's a hell of a way to run a railroad, by the way," he said. "We've got money now to deal with the crisis of the moment and the crisis of the moment is Iraq and terrorism. There's some other money, but nowhere near the kind of investment that's necessary."
