CIA official resigns

The head of the CIA's analysis unit will resign next year - becoming the latest top official to step down since Porter Goss became the United States agency's director.

Jami Miscik, deputy director for intelligence, told her staff yesterday of her resignation, a US official said.

The official didn't say whether she resigned voluntarily or was asked to step down.

At least five other top agency officials have resigned since Goss, a former congressman, became CIA director in September. The changes have raised concerns that Goss was purging intelligence professionals and replacing them with political appointees. But Goss' supporters say he is bringing necessary changes to an agency that has been widely criticised for failing to prevent the September 11 attacks and for its faulty intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes in Iraq.