Intelligence Shake Up

Intelligence Shake Up

May 8, 2006

On Friday, Porter Goss unexpectedly resigned as head of the CIA, leaving behind an "utterly irresponsible" 18-month tenure at the agency and unanswered questions about his hurried departure. Today the White House nominated deputy director of national intelligence Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden as Goss's successor. There are many concerns surrounding the appointment of Hayden to lead the CIA. In fact, many Republicans and Democrats in Congress have stated that Hayden is the wrong person to lead the CIA and it sends exactly the wrong message to the intelligence community.

• There are serious questions about how independent Hayden will be. An important quality needed in a CIA director is independence — the ability to stand up to the President and his advisors if need be. If Hayden is confirmed, "military officers would run all the major spy agencies, from the ultra-secret National Security Agency to the Defense Intelligence Agency." Even if Hayden retires from the military, he is unlikely to be trusted as the committed independent advocate that the CIA needs. Many Republicans are not convinced that Hayden is the right person for the job — Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said, "Now, just resigning commission and moving on, putting on a striped suit, a pinstriped suit versus an air force uniform, I don't think makes much difference."
  
  
• The CIA needs to address the past intelligence failures. The resignation of Porter Goss provided the administration with a chance to make a fresh start at the beleaguered agency. Progress can’t be made until the issues surrounding the failed intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq are resolved. Hayden’s close ties to Vice President Cheney, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and the Department of Defense make it unlikely that any real investigation into intelligence failures is going to occur.
  
  
• The White House continues to politicize national security. In January, Karl Rove promised to make the midterm elections focus on wiretapping. And today, the White House also admitted as much — that by selecting Gen. Hayden to replace Porter Goss, the administration is essentially hoping to pick a fight with Congress over the warrentless domestic spying program that Hayden ran while director of the NSA. Hayden is one of the administration's "most forceful" defenders of NSA program.