Controversy over general tipped as CIA boss
US President George Bush’s nomination of General Michael Hayden as CIA chief has ignited a confirmation fight over the intelligence veteran’s ties to the controversial eavesdropping programme and his ability to be independent from the military establishment.
With Hayden at his side yesterday, Bush urged senators to promptly approve the former National Security Agency head, who one year ago was confirmed unanimously to be the nation’s first deputy director of national intelligence.
CIA Director Porter Goss announced his resignation last week after tussling with Hayden and his boss, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, about the agency’s autonomy and direction.
Even before Hayden’s nomination became official, Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers had begun questioning whether he was the right choice to head the spy agency.
Hayden is credited with designing the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program. The disclosure of the programme late last year sparked an intense civil liberties debate over whether the president can order the monitoring of international calls and emails in the US without court warrants.
Hayden, 61, would be the seventh military officer to head the CIA since 1946. But his nomination comes at a time when lawmakers are particularly concerned about the influence of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
With Hayden’s installation, active-duty or retired military officers would run all the major spy agencies as well as the intelligence hub, the National Counterterrorism Centre.
Hayden’s associates expect him to try to smooth feelings within the troubled CIA, which has experienced an exodus of veterans in the past 18 months and has struggled since it lost its top spot among all other spy agencies with recent intelligence changes.
Hayden is a Pittsburgh Steelers football fan known for using sports metaphors, and takes pride in his blue-collar roots.
He drove a taxi on the side in college at Duquesne University, where he received his commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. He became a four-star general last year.
In 1999, Hayden was sent to supervise eavesdroppers and codebreakers at the NSA. He stayed to become its longest serving director and worked to keep the agency on pace with technological changes in communications.
