Porter Johnston Goss (/ɡɒs/; born November 26, 1938) is an American politician who served as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2004 to 2006.

Goss resigned as Director of the CIA on May 5, 2006, in a sit-down press conference with President George W. Bush from the Oval Office.

The full details are not known due to the classified nature of the CIA, but Goss says he has worked in Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Mexico.

Goss was involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, telling The Washington Post in 2002 that he had done some "small-boat handling" and had "some very interesting moments in the Florida Straits".

Towards the end of his career as a CIA officer, Goss was transferred to Europe, where, in 1970, he collapsed in his London hotel room because of a blood infection in his heart and kidneys.

In 1988 Goss ran for Congress in what was then the 13th congressional district of Florida, which was located on the Gulf Coast and stretched from Sarasota to Naples.

He served in Congress for 16 years until his appointment by President George W. Bush to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

In mid-2004, Goss took a very strong position, during what had already been announced as his last congressional term, urging specific reforms and corrections in the way the CIA carried out its activities, lest it become "just another government bureaucracy".

[17][18] Ahmad's network had ties to Osama bin Laden and directly funded, supported, and trained the Taliban.

As reported by Agence France Presse on August 28, 2001, Zaeef assured the US delegation that the Taliban would never allow bin Laden to use Afghanistan to launch attacks on the US or any other country.

The Post also reported that Goss refused to blame an "intelligence failure" for September 11, preferring to praise the agency's "fine work".

A year later, he declined to open committee hearings into the Plame affair, saying: "Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation.

When asked whether he ever brought up his concerns with the administration, Goss claimed he had met three times with President Clinton to discuss "certain problems".

As Newsweek[22] and CNN[23] reported, in June 2004, while Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in the face of withering attacks by the Democrats against the Bush administration in a very tightly contested presidential and congressional election year, Goss defended the intelligence community and the Administration in decidedly partisan terms.

During floor debate, fending off efforts by the Democrats in the House to cut the intelligence budget, Goss argued that Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.

), the Democratic presidential nominee, did not appreciate the critical need for robust and sustained support for the CIA and the Intelligence Community.

[24][25] The appointment was challenged by some prominent Democrats, including former Vice President Al Gore and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV).

Another Democratic member of the committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR), expressed concerns that given Goss's history within and ties to the CIA, he would be too disinclined to push for institutional change.

In an interview carried out by Michael Moore's production company on March 3, 2004, Goss described himself as "probably not qualified" for a job within the CIA, because the language skills the Agency now seeks are not languages he speaks and because the people applying today for positions within the CIA's four directorates have such keen technical and analytic skills, which he did not have when he applied to the Agency in the early 1960s (see below).

Goss and others noted in numerous reports and writings their opposition to risk aversion "which is the last thing you want in an intelligence agency".

His choice for the position of Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Kyle Foggo, was enveloped in an extensive procurement scandal within days of Goss's resignation.

[29]Goss was replaced by Negroponte's Principal Deputy Director for National Intelligence, four-star Air Force General Michael Hayden.

Although bizarre reasons for Goss's resignation have been floated on the Internet, sources say Negroponte simply suggested his time was up."

[36] In October 2022, Goss joined the Council for Responsible Social Media project launched by Issue One to address the negative mental, civic, and public health impacts of social media in the United States co-chaired by former House Democratic Caucus Leader Dick Gephardt and former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.