10 July 2004

LANGLEY, Va. (AP) – Former President Bush, helping the CIA celebrate its 50th birthday Wednesday, called agency critics “nuts,” derided the CIA’s “universally negative press” and labeled congressional staffers who investigate agency misdeeds “crusading young zealots.”

The podium-thumping speech brought repeated ovations from a crowd of about 4,000 CIA retirees – including all the living former directors of central intelligence. Bush focused on his time as the CIA chief in 1976 and 1977, in the wake of highly critical examinations of U.S. intelligence by the press and congressional investigating committees. Continue reading →