Bush nominates Air Force general to lead CIA

WASHINGTON - President Bush’s nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA chief ignited a confirmation fight Monday over the intelligence veteran’s ties to a controversial eavesdropping program and his ability to be independent from the military establishment.

With Hayden at his side, 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.

“Mike Hayden is supremely qualified for this position,” Bush said in the Oval Office. “He knows the intelligence community from the ground up.”

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. Disclosure of the program late last year sparked an intense civil-liberties debate over whether the president can order the monitoring of international calls and e-mails in the U.S. without court warrants.

Bipartisan concerns
California Rep. Jane Harman, the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, joined colleagues in saying Hayden had become part of the “White House spin machine” though intelligence professionals typically eschew partisan politics.

NBC News has confirmed that the administration is planning to move the deputy CIA director — Vice Admiral Albert Calland III — out of his job to try to quiet critics who say the Hayden appointment looks like a military takeover of CIA. Calland would likely be replaced by a highly respected former head of the clandestine service, which would be very popular within the agency. That said, some in Congress still say the Hayden appointment gives the military too much sway over CIA. The last military CIA director was Adm. Stansfield Turner under Jimmy Carter. Hayden could resign his commission — but some in Congress say that would not be an adequate fix. The downside for Hayden would be that he's only had his fourth star for one year, not long enough to retire with the benefits of that rank if he gave it up immediately. —Andrea Mitchell, senior correspondent

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has said that he would use a Hayden nomination to raise questions about the legality of the eavesdropping program, and he has not ruled out holding up the nomination in the meantime.

It will fall to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to keep order on the panel as it considers Hayden’s confirmation. But even Roberts has acknowledged there is concern about someone from the military heading the CIA. Several Republicans, including House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., have called Hayden’s military background troublesome in this case.

Sources told NBC’s David Gregory that Hayden may retire from the military to assuage concerns.

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 Defense 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 Center.

Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who is chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Hayden has been candid even when his judgments differed from Rumsfeld. Still, she called on Hayden to consider retiring from the Air Force after more than 35 years “to send a signal of independence from the Pentagon.”

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