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| Lawmakers: CIA needs | |
| 2006-05-07 | |
| WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Lawmakers from both parties expressed concern Sunday that President Bush reportedly will nominate a longtime military officer to head the CIA. Geez, can't have a military man in time of phueching WAR! According to senior administration officials, Bush will announce Monday that he has chosen Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as the next director of the civilian spy agency. If confirmed, he would replace Porter Goss, who abruptly resigned the CIA post Friday after losing what intelligence sources described as a power struggle with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. "Bottom line: I do believe he's the wrong person, the wrong place at the wrong time," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told "Fox News Sunday." Hoekstra said he was asked by the White House for his input on suggested replacements for Goss and offered his opinion on Hayden. Who would have have then Hoekstra, Cindy McKinney? "I don't think anything I've said is new to the White House," the Michigan Republican said. If Hayden took the helm at the CIA, Hoekstra said he believes the perception would be that Hayden was under the sway of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. You damn sure don't know Hayden very well. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, a member of the Intelligence Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that while Hayden was well-respected, the CIA "is a civilian agency; it operates differently." The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee told "CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Hayden could head off the issue by resigning from active military duty. "That'd be his call," said Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican. "But if somebody is concerned about that, he could certainly do it. He's had diplomatic experience. He's had civilian experience in the past." But Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, downplayed Hayden's military background and also pointed out that some CIA directors have been former military. "Gen. Hayden is really more of an intelligence person than he is an Air Force officer," McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "As you know, his career has been spent in that area, and his background -- of course, he comes from the [National Security Agency]." Former CIA director John McLaughlin, a CNN analyst, said it would be important for Hayden to have a civilian deputy "who is steeped in the culture of the business, and very familiar with what CIA does day-to-day." Hayden, 61, is the principal deputy to Negroponte. If Hayden is nominated, he would have to gain approval of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and then the full Senate. Hayden's tenure as NSA director potentially could lead to a contentious Senate hearing. He led the NSA when Bush authorized a controversial anti-terrorism spy program shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Without court warrants, the NSA monitored the communications of people inside the United States who were in contact with suspected terrorists outside the country. Critics -- many of whom are members of the Senate -- charge the surveillance program is a violation of law and an assault on civil liberties. Hayden has defended the program, insisting that it is a necessary tool to thwart terrorists and that the process of obtaining warrants is too slow and cumbersome to deal with "a lethal enemy." House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California said the questions surrounding the wiretapping program will "make it difficult for him to be the head of the CIA."
"Porter Goss was the wrong guy and had a politically inexperienced staff with him. Mike Hayden is capable, but it's up to the Senate to ask him tough questions." Wild Bill Donovan didn't to such a bad job and he was just an old colonel as I recall. | |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 If the CIA insists on a civilian mindset and culture, then limit their mission to political and economic intelligence. By insisting on Marcus of Queensbury rules, CIA personnel are overmatched by those who will slit their children's throats. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-05-07 21:16 |
| #4 Word, Anonymoose. Make it so, please. |
| Posted by: Thush Elmunter8877 2006-05-07 21:15 |
| #3 The CIA needs someone as smart as Condi and as assertive as Norman Schwartzkopf. Organizational efficiency usually jumps when it adopts a more military-style table of organization. In fact, if the CIA leadership was filled with hand-picked military combat generals, it would finally get the enema it so desperately needs. Granted, there would be a lot of Yale graduates looking for their rear ends after. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-05-07 21:08 |
| #2 I can appreciate their 'fear'. Given the Pew Poll last month showed Congress has a 10% positive rating and the military 47%. However, the way to eliminate that fear is to provide a better service or product. That's the problem. For Congress, its business as usual. Notice what happened to oversized organizations which just wanted to maintain business as usual? |
| Posted by: Thruth Gluger5702 2006-05-07 20:04 |
| #1 LOL. There certainly is a great deal of "concern" being shown for the CIA's "culture" and the fact that Hayden wears a uniform. Seems to me that the "culture" is precisely what's broken. It needs to be dumped, rebuilt from scratch and anyone unable to adapt fired. It also seems to me that Hayden is an intel professional with a far more successful track record than any of the whiners - his external appearance is certainly irrelevant. The "concern" stinks of the usual partisan BS. Count noses and, if at all possible, shove him down Congress' throat. Make Negroponte earn his keep button-holing the various committee members who aren't leak-sucking morons (and I believe this is behind some / much of the bogus "concern") and bringing them on board. |
| Posted by: Sneresh Snoluque4293 2006-05-07 17:48 |