Bush Names CIA Pick Over Objections
    By John O'Neil
    The New York Times

    Monday 08 May 2006

    Washington - President Bush announced today that he was nominating Gen. Michael V. Hayden to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, despite concerns raised over the weekend by Republicans as well as Democrats about the wisdom of installing a military officer at the civilian spy agency.

    Speaking from the Oval Office, Mr. Bush said that General Hayden would bring "vast experience" to his new post. "He knows our intelligence community from the ground up," he said.

    General Hayden would replace Porter J. Goss, who was forced to resign Friday after repeatedly clashing with John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, over the C.I.A.'s loss of status as the nation's premier spy agency.

    Mr. Bush did not mention the criticisms raised by members of Congress since General Hayden's name emerged as a likely candidate in the wake of Mr. Goss's sudden resignation, which included questions about his role in a controversial wiretapping program as well as his military status. The president did note that General Hayden had been unanimously confirmed by the Senate last year in his current post as Mr. Negroponte's deputy, adding, "I call on the Senate to confirm him promptly."

    In his remarks, General Hayden appeared to refer obliquely to the wiretapping controversy as well as to the question of whether his nomination was the result of a turf battle in which the C.I.A. was bested by Mr. Negroponte.

    "There is no more important position in preserving our security and our values" than the director of the C.I.A., he said, and he praised Mr. Goss and his predecessor, George Tenet, saying both had been his mentors.

    "To the men and women of the C.I.A., if I'm confirmed I will be honored to join you and work with so many good friends," General Hayden said. "This is simply too important not to get absolutely right."

    But in a possible preview of the difficulties that could await General Hayden on Capitol Hill, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee today strongly criticized the choice and suggested that the White House was undoing an agreement with Congress on how the intelligence community should be restructured.

    The chairman, Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, was one of several other Republicans, including some with close ties to the White House, who spoke out on Sunday and said that President Bush should find someone else to run the embattled agency.

    Mr. Hoekstra said today that it was wrong to choose a military official to lead the C.I.A., especially as crucial questions like the state of Iran's nuclear program loomed. "We need to be able to get the unvarnished intelligence and we need to be able to get it from a civilian," whose independence would be unquestioned, he said.

    He said the likely result of the nomination would be "three or four months" of controversy in the Senate confirmation process focused on things like the domestic wiretapping program that General Hayden oversaw when he was head of the National Security Agency. "We have to strengthen the C.I.A.," Mr. Hoekstra said. "This is exactly the wrong thing to be talking about at this critical moment."

    He also said that the choice seemed to go against an agreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the White House that was the basis of legislation that created a new intelligence structure dominated by the post held by Mr. Negroponte. "Eighteen months later I think the White House is renegotiating the parameters of that agreement," he said.

    The national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley said in a televised interview early this morning that Mr. Bush considered General Hayden's military background "to be a plus."

    "Anyone who knows Mike Hayden knows that he's a patriot and an independent thinker," he said. "He's a man of broad experience. He has a perspective that's been shaped by assignments both in the military and outside of the military."

    Dan Bartlett, a member of the White House counsel's office, said General Hayden would be the fifth C.I.A. chief in uniform. "He has been viewed as a noncomformist and an independent thinker," Mr. Bartlett said, according to The A.P.

    Mr. Bush today gave Mr. Goss a more lavish thanks than he had during the terse announcement on Friday in which Mr. Goss had said he was "stepping aside." The president also played down the notion that the move was denigrating the employees of the C.I.A. Speaking of the agency's officials, he said "I appreciate their dedicated service, and so does Mike Hayden."

    The president did not refer to the program of warrantless wiretapping overseen by General Hayden, and the only intelligence issue he cited was the threat posed by "the terrorists who struck us on Sept. 11, and who want to strike us again."

    He also mentioned the need "to enforce the secrecy and accountability that are critical to the security of the American people." Mr. Goss had made a crackdown on leaks one of his top priorities.

    None of the Republican or Democratic lawmakers who appeared on television on Sunday or who were interviewed separately said directly that they would vote against General Hayden's nomination. But Mr. Hoekstra's remarks, coupled with similar sentiments expressed by leading Senate Republicans, including Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggest that the general might not have an easy ride toward confirmation.

    Members of that committee, which will conduct the confirmation hearings, are likely to ask sharp questions, particularly about Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's drive to expand intelligence operations at the Pentagon. By doing that, they could express the concerns of intelligence officials who are constrained by their jobs from speaking out.

    The nomination of General Hayden will also almost certainly revive the controversy surrounding the domestic eavesdropping program at the National Security Agency, which he once oversaw.

    Critics of the program, including Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, may try to use the nomination to force the White House to provide more information about it.

    Some top Republicans, like Senator John McCain of Arizona, praised the choice of General Hayden on Sunday. But others, including two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, echoed Mr. Hoekstra.

    Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican and White House ally, said that even if General Hayden were to resign his military commission, he would still face problems being accepted at the spy agency.

    "Just resigning commission and moving on, putting on a pinstriped suit versus an Air Force uniform, I don't think makes much difference," Mr. Chambliss said on "This Week" on ABC.

    Senator Roberts, of Kansas, praised General Hayden's background but acknowledged that there is "real concern" about a military officer leading the agency.

    "I'm not in a position to say that I am for General Hayden and will vote for him," Mr. Roberts said on "Late Edition" on CNN.

    One senior administration official, who was granted anonymity because the nomination had not been announced, said it had yet to be determined whether General Hayden would retire from the Air Force.

    At the same time, the official echoed Mr. Chambliss's view that the decision was unlikely to affect how General Hayden, now a deputy to Mr. Negroponte, would be received at the agency.

    If General Hayden does not retire and earns confirmation, military officers would be in charge of all of the major spy agencies, including the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

    The choice of General Hayden to lead the C.I.A. means that another military officer, Vice Adm. Albert M. Calland III, now the agency's deputy director, would probably step down, current and former intelligence officials said.

    The officials said Admiral Calland's successor was likely to be a veteran of the Directorate of Operations, the agency's clandestine service. General Hayden's background is in satellite intelligence, not human spying, and the officials said it would make sense to install a former clandestine officer as his deputy.

    Election-year politics will undoubtedly play a part in the confirmation process. With President Bush's low approval ratings, Republicans may try to distance themselves from the White House and demonstrate their independence by subjecting General Hayden to tougher questioning than past nominees.

    Democrats, for their part, will try to use the hearings, which have not been scheduled and will be held in open and closed sessions, to emphasize what they regard as failed intelligence policies.

    One Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, vowed in an interview that General Hayden would not "get a pass" on the eavesdropping issue. He said he intended to use the hearings to try to force the release of a report by the C.I.A. inspector general on the agency's performance before the Sept. 11 attacks.

    The senior Bush administration official said the White House welcomed a public discussion about the N.S.A. program during General Hayden's confirmation hearings.

    "We are very comfortable having a debate on that issue," the official said. "We feel that there is no more qualified person to defend this program."

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    Reporting from Washington for this article was contributed by Mark Mazzetti, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David E. Sanger.

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