CIA Director George Tenet, still on the job but packing up his office, fired off a letter to Rep. Porter Goss to defend The Agency against a laundry list of allegations it hasn't done its job:

Dysfunctional organizations do not perform the way the Directorate of Operations performed in Afghanistan, and in support of the military in Iraq before and after the conflict. Dysfunctional organizations do not take down or eliminate the most dangerous proliferators in the world - like the A.Q. Khan network. Nor do they aid in the disarmament of a country like Libya.

To suggest that the organization that was key to all these victories, not to mention the capture of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and more than two thirds of the Al Qa'ida leadership is on the verge of being incapable of "the slightest bit of success" is frankly absurd.

The damage done by inattention to the clandestine service during the first half of the 1990s cannot be repaired in the blink of an eye. Just as the military cannot hire people off the street to become instant Majors and Lieutenant Colonels, it takes years for CIA to recruit, train and deploy experienced case officers.

Tenet points to an organized, knowing, institutional takedown of the CIA's cloak-and-dagger capabilities as a major point that has to be included in any discussion of intelligence shortfalls.

He adds:

CIA's program is much more carefully thought out and structured than that of other Federal departments that are proceeding apace with their civil service restructuring without Congressional micromanagement and the prospect of facing unnecessary obstacles and legislative burdens.

It will be interesting to see how deep into CIA practices and operations any congressional hearings on Abu Ghraib will go, and whether they will have the same chilling effect on the agency that caused its clandestine ability to hibernate in the 1990s.