Washington – The Republican chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence panels raised serious concerns about Gen. Michael Hayden on the eve of his expected nomination today as CIA director, with Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., calling him “the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Other Republicans and Democrats, appearing on Sunday talk shows, praised Hayden’s credentials but said they also were troub led by President Bush’s decision to place a military officer at the helm of a civilian intelligence agency.
Aides expect Bush to name Hayden today as his choice to succeed Porter Goss, who was forced to step down last week.
Hayden, a former director of the National Security Agency and now deputy director of national intelligence, has been a defender of Bush’s eavesdropping program since its disclosure in December.
The challenges to his expected nomination come at a time when Bush is politically at his weakest and members of his party are distancing themselves from the White House in the hopes of retaining their grip on Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. White House officials did not respond to the criticisms Sunday, but strategists said privately they were confident they could address Republican concerns and have Hayden confirmed.
They also said they would not shy away from a fight with Democrats over what Bush has termed a “terrorist” surveillance program, if that becomes the focus of Hayden’s hearings. With the country essentially divided on the effort, which has allowed the NSA to scan the calls and e-mail of more than 5,000 Americans, the president has more support on that issue than most others.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has fought to obtain more information about the program, which he has said he fears is operating outside the law. Although Hayden is considered to be one of the most popular intelligence briefers on the Hill, Specter has said he has been frustrated by the amount of information Hayden has been willing to share with the committee. As a result, Specter said confirmation hearings should center on the legality of the program Hayden designed and ran in secret in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“There is no doubt there’s an enormous threat from terrorism, but the president does not have a blank check,” Specter said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Now, with Gen. Hayden up for confirmation, this will give us an opportunity” to learn more about the program, he said.
In a 1999 New Yorker magazine article, two years before the attacks that led to the establishment of the domestic spying program, Hayden was asked whether the agency could target Americans.
“I’m a kid from Pittsburgh with two sons and a daughter who are closet libertarians,” he said. “I am not interested in doing anything that threatens the American people and threatens the future of this agency. I can’t emphasize enough to you how careful we are. We have to be so careful – to make sure that America is never distrustful of the power and security we can provide.”
Hayden left the NSA last year to become the first deputy director for national intelligence.
But the changes have weakened the CIA while empowering the defense secretary, and critics of a Hayden nomination cited that as one reason a military officer should not be put in charge of the agency.
Hayden, a four-star Air Force general who is not considered to be close to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, could retire to alleviate concerns about his Pentagon ties.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. – who heads the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which will conduct Hayden’s confirmation hearings – said that could be helpful for his nomination, but Hoekstra disagreed.
“It makes absolutely no difference to me whether he is a general or a retired general,” he said in an interview Sunday. “Either way, it sends the exact wrong signal to CIA officers in the field at a critical time.”
