Hayden Nomination to Lead CIA Backed by Senate Panel
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate Intelligence Committee today approved General Michael Hayden's nomination to head the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The committee backed Hayden, who is now deputy director for national intelligence, by a vote of 12-3, according to Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who chairs the panel. The vote was taken in secret and Roberts refused to name the three senators who opposed the nomination.
Roberts said there is ``an excellent chance'' that the full Senate will confirm the nomination later this week.
Senators on the intelligence panel used most of their daylong hearing on Hayden's nomination last week to criticize the Bush administration's failure to tell them about its warrantless eavesdropping of suspected terrorists.
Hayden, 61, a former director of the National Security Agency, fielded at least as many questions about the surveillance program he set up there as he did about his vision for the CIA. Bush ordered the NSA to monitor conversations between U.S. residents and suspected terrorists overseas after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon told reporters he voted against Hayden because he ``could not resolve what the general said with what was later brought out in the USA Today article.'' Wyden cited a speech Hayden made earlier this year in which he discussed the monitoring of international calls but made no mention of the collection of domestic phone records that the newspaper disclosed.
Four-Star General
If confirmed, Hayden, a four-star Air Force general, would be the third director in two years of a CIA that suffers from low morale as it attempts to redefine itself, lawmakers and former employees have said.
Hayden would succeed Porter Goss, 67, whose 19-month tenure was marked by turmoil and the departures of senior managers.
Congress reduced the CIA's power following its failure to detect and stop the Sept. 11 attacks and its assertion, which turned out to be wrong, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
A year ago, lawmakers established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which assumed the CIA's historic role of managing the other 15 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence network.
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has said the CIA will be the premier agency for obtaining intelligence from people and will be an important for analysis on the information.
Resignations
Goss began the process of rebuilding the CIA's spy network, which was slashed following the Cold War. Yet his efforts to overhaul the agency met resistance and John McLaughlin, a career officer who was deputy director and temporarily led the agency, left soon after Goss arrived in September 2004.
Stephen Kappes, the director of the CIA's clandestine services, and his deputy, Michael Sulick, followed McLaughlin out the door in December 2004. Director for Intelligence Jami Miscik, who was responsible for Bush's daily presidential briefing, announced her resignation the same month.
Negroponte said Kappes, a civilian, is the leading candidate to be No. 2 at the agency under Hayden.
The next CIA director will face competition from the Defense Department, which is building up its own intelligence operation. Hayden has said he would retire from the military if his status as a general makes it difficult to manage the civilian agency.
The committee backed Hayden, who is now deputy director for national intelligence, by a vote of 12-3, according to Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who chairs the panel. The vote was taken in secret and Roberts refused to name the three senators who opposed the nomination.
Roberts said there is ``an excellent chance'' that the full Senate will confirm the nomination later this week.
Senators on the intelligence panel used most of their daylong hearing on Hayden's nomination last week to criticize the Bush administration's failure to tell them about its warrantless eavesdropping of suspected terrorists.
Hayden, 61, a former director of the National Security Agency, fielded at least as many questions about the surveillance program he set up there as he did about his vision for the CIA. Bush ordered the NSA to monitor conversations between U.S. residents and suspected terrorists overseas after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon told reporters he voted against Hayden because he ``could not resolve what the general said with what was later brought out in the USA Today article.'' Wyden cited a speech Hayden made earlier this year in which he discussed the monitoring of international calls but made no mention of the collection of domestic phone records that the newspaper disclosed.
Four-Star General
If confirmed, Hayden, a four-star Air Force general, would be the third director in two years of a CIA that suffers from low morale as it attempts to redefine itself, lawmakers and former employees have said.
Hayden would succeed Porter Goss, 67, whose 19-month tenure was marked by turmoil and the departures of senior managers.
Congress reduced the CIA's power following its failure to detect and stop the Sept. 11 attacks and its assertion, which turned out to be wrong, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
A year ago, lawmakers established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which assumed the CIA's historic role of managing the other 15 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence network.
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has said the CIA will be the premier agency for obtaining intelligence from people and will be an important for analysis on the information.
Resignations
Goss began the process of rebuilding the CIA's spy network, which was slashed following the Cold War. Yet his efforts to overhaul the agency met resistance and John McLaughlin, a career officer who was deputy director and temporarily led the agency, left soon after Goss arrived in September 2004.
Stephen Kappes, the director of the CIA's clandestine services, and his deputy, Michael Sulick, followed McLaughlin out the door in December 2004. Director for Intelligence Jami Miscik, who was responsible for Bush's daily presidential briefing, announced her resignation the same month.
Negroponte said Kappes, a civilian, is the leading candidate to be No. 2 at the agency under Hayden.
The next CIA director will face competition from the Defense Department, which is building up its own intelligence operation. Hayden has said he would retire from the military if his status as a general makes it difficult to manage the civilian agency.
posted by Marko at 5/24/2006 09:37:00 PM
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