Ukrainian American nominee for No. 3 post at CIA withdraws (10/10/04)

Ukrainian American nominee for No. 3 post at CIA withdraws

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - Michael V. Kostiw, named by the new Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter J. Goss on September 30 to be the CIA's executive director, declined the appointment following press reports of allegations about his forced resignation from the CIA in the early 1980s.

Known in the Ukrainian American community for his run for Congress from Florida in the mid-1980s, Mr. Kostiw was one of four Congressional committee Republican staff members picked by Mr. Goss in his first week as CIA director to fill key positions at CIA. A Republican congressman from Florida, Mr. Goss was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when President George W. Bush nominated him to head the CIA. Mr. Kostiw was staff director of his terrorism subcommittee.

As executive director, Mr. Kostiw would have been the third-ranking official at the CIA, responsible for managing the agency on a day-to-day basis, including its budget, security, personnel and global support.

Three days after Mr. Goss's announcement, however, The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported that in 1981 Mr. Kostiw, who had been a CIA case officer for 10 years, was forced to resign after he was caught shoplifting in a local supermarket. In a subsequent report, the Post noted that, according to two former CIA officials, the shoplifting involved a $2.13 package of bacon.

In a statement released by the CIA on October 4, Mr. Kostiw said that, as a result of these press reports and "attendant speculation," he could not accept the executive director appointment.

"Allegations about my past would be a distraction from the critical work the Director of Central Intelligence needs to focus on" at this time, he said. He noted in the statement that he accepted the CIA director's subsequent proposal that he serve as his senior adviser instead.

One of the former CIA sources commented to The Washington Post that the new CIA director "was not well served by his staff" in not blocking the planned Kostiw appointment. They knew, he told The Post report, that there were CIA employees who were aware of Mr. Kostiw's past record and "had their long knives out" for him, especially since one of Mr. Kostiw's duties would be to deal with the agency's disciplinary problems.

There has been evidence of worsening relations between the CIA and the Bush administration, which has complained about leaks of pessimistic CIA intelligence estimates on Iraq. Press reports also noted that CIA personnel were not happy about their new director bringing in partisan staff people to fill key CIA positions.

Born in 1947 to Ukrainian immigrant parents in post-war Germany, Mr. Kostiw grew up in the United States, where he attended St. Basil's Minor Seminary in Stamford, Conn., graduated from St. Bonaventure University, studied accounting and business law at the University of Maryland, completed a foreign policy and security management program at Harvard University, and served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971.

Following his 10 years with the CIA, Mr. Kostiw worked for the Shell Oil Co. In 1986 he made an unsuccessful primary bid for the Florida Republican Party's nomination for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Since then, he has worked for Texaco Inc., most recently as director of its governmental relations in Washington. Over the past few years he has also been the vice-chairman of the board of the International Republican Institute as well as a member of the board of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation.

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