Bush Names Hayden to Head CIA Amid Lawmakers' Unease
By: Administrative Account | Source: Bloomberg
May 8, 2006 9:47AM EST

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush named General Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency today, even as lawmakers from both parties signaled concern about putting a military officer atop a civilian spy agency. ``Mike Hayden is supremely qualified for this position,'' Bush said in announcing the nomination at the White House in Washington. He ``has more than 20 years of experience in the intelligence field'' and is ``the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history.'' Hayden, 61, is currently the No. 2 official in the Office of National Intelligence, a post to which he was named in August. He was director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. The super-secret NSA runs massive electronic surveillance programs of international communications and operates a much- criticized domestic wiretapping program as well. Lawmakers began raising questions yesterday about Hayden, an Air Force lieutenant general. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican, called Hayden ``the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time'' during an appearance on ``Fox News Sunday.'' He said it would be inappropriate for a military officer to run a civilian agency such as the CIA. Specter to Challenge Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he would use the confirmation process of Hayden's nomination to raise questions about the domestic eavesdropping program, which was conducted by the NSA while Hayden was running it. ``If the Senate has a mind to assert its constitutional prerogatives here, then we could use this for leverage to find out,'' Specter said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``People do want to know what's going on to protect civil liberties.'' Under the spying program approved by Bush in 2001, the NSA monitored conversations between U.S. residents and suspected foreign terrorists without seeking a court warrant, as prescribed by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Specter has said the court set up by the act should approve surveillance requests. Senators' Reservations Other senators from both parties expressed reservations about Hayden. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican and Intelligence Committee member, said on ABC's ``This Week'' that he has some concern ``about military personnel running the CIA. It is a civilian agency.'' Another Intelligence Committee member, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, said she that, while Hayden was ``a logical choice,'' she is concerned about the domestic surveillance program and the Defense Department's increasing power over intelligence. ``You can't have the military, I think, control most of the major aspects of intelligence,'' Feinstein said on ``This Week.'' Hayden is currently the No. 2 official in the Office of National Intelligence, a post to which he was named in August. He was director of the super-secret National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. The NSA runs massive electronic surveillance programs of international communications. The NSA operates the disputed domestic wiretapping program as well. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, one of Bush's biggest allies in Congress, said Hayden may gain support by distancing himself from his military career. Resign From Military ``You can solve that pretty quickly'' by resigning from the military ``and also putting in some deputies'' with a civilian background, Roberts, a Kansas Republican, said on CNN's ``Late Edition.'' Chambliss said that wouldn't be enough. ``Resigning his commission and moving on and putting on a pinstriped suit versus an Air Force uniform, I don't think makes much difference,'' he said. A senior administration official yesterday dismissed the concerns, saying that Hayden's nomination will be seen in the larger context of the war against terror, an area in which Bush has been traditionally strong with voters. Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archive, a Washington-based research organization, said the administration could quell criticism by arguing that Hayden won't weaken civilian control over intelligence. Serve Under Negroponte Hayden would serve under Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, who is responsible for all U.S. intelligence agencies and specifically oversees the National Reconnaissance Office and the NSA, both of which have connections to the military. Congress created Negroponte's position last year in response to the failures of U.S. intelligence agencies to gain advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. Hayden is currently Negroponte's deputy. Lawmakers' questions about Hayden probably can be addressed, giving the nomination a ``good chance'' of being confirmed by the Senate, Richelson said. Norman Ornstein, a congressional analyst at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said the negative comments of Republican lawmakers signaled trouble. ``When you get guys like Hoekstra and Chambliss with reservations, it's not a good sign,'' he said. Troubled Agency Hayden would be taking over what lawmakers and intelligence analysts have described as a troubled agency. Outgoing Director Porter Goss, 67, who resigned last week after less than two years on the job, had been given a mandate to shake up the CIA after the Sept. 11 failures and faulty pre-war intelligence on Iraq showed large gaps in its ability to collect and analyze information, they said. The CIA ``has major problems,'' Feinstein said. ``When it comes to the shadowy world of terror, when it comes to a culture about which we know little and have difficulty permeating, I think the agency has a long way to go.'' Several news reports yesterday said the Bush administration would relish a debate over the eavesdropping during Hayden's confirmation hearings to give it a chance to show Bush's commitment to fighting terrorism in contrast to the Democrats. Such a strategy may be complicated by Specter's statement that he would also use the hearings to examine the surveillance program. Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat who has expressed interest in running for president in 2008, called the idea of using Hayden to strengthen the administration's hand on terrorism ``ludicrous.'' ``Senator Specter and I, with his lead, have been trying to figure out what Hayden has actually been doing in those wiretaps, and it may give us an opportunity to figure out what the program actually is,'' Biden said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' Feinstein said she expects Hayden would be forced to confront concerns about many of his past actions. ``It's going be a very interesting hearing, no question about that,'' she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington at jbliss@bloomberg.net Last Updated: May 8, 2006 09:43 EDT