CIA to send more spies abroad

Faced with criticism over his lack of vision and leadership, the head of the US intelligence agency Porter J Goss has outlined plans for expanding the organisation’s spying and analytical operations overseas.

The Central Intelligence Agency plans to send more spies and analysts abroad, Goss told a meeting of his staff at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia in the Greater Washington area on Friday. In his remarks to mark his first year as CIA chief he put ‘‘a refreshed emphasis on the CIA as a global agency’’ and said a priority would be locating agency personnel not only ‘‘in places that (policy makers) need us to be today, but where they may need us to be tomorrow.’’

The CIA’s role had been sharply diminished by post September 11 reform

‘‘We are not at all in all of the places we should be,’’ Goss said.