Michael Hayden : The Next Head of the CIA?
by Pamela LeaveyTime Magazine has an exclusive: “Air Force General Michael Hayden is likely to be named Porter Goss’s successor. Then the partisan fireworks will really begin.”
President George W. Bush stunned Washington on Friday by accepting the resignation of CIA Director Porter J. Goss, and Republican sources told TIME that the White House plans to name his replacement on Monday: Air Force General Michael V. Hayden, who as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence has been a visible and aggressive defender of the administration’s controversial eavesdropping program. His nomination is sure to reignite the battle over the program on Capitol Hill, where one House Democrat promises “a partisan food fight” during the confirmation process.
Though Hayden, who has a close rapport with Vice President Cheney, has not been formally offered the job, he is the leading candidate and the announcement is planned for Monday at the White House, the sources said. The President frequently extends a formal offer immediately before an announcement, to cut down on leaks and allow for last-minute developments.
It seems that “White House officials had hoped to announce Goss’s departure and Hayden’s nomination at the same time” Time magazine reports “but Goss, who resigned under pressure, balked at that kind of choreography. “He said, ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s go ahead and do it,” a senior administration official said.”
Bush and Goss appeared together along with Negroponte in the Oval Office after lunch Friday in a terse, three-minute ceremony announced with just 50 minutes’ notice. A senior administration official said Negroponte, with the blessing of the White House, began talking with Goss about leaving a couple of weeks ago. “The creation of the DNI has been a transformational and very tumultuous time for the intelligence community and particularly the CIA,” the senior administration official said. “When you ask somebody to do so much transformational change, often it makes sense to let somebody then take the agency forward from there.”
CNN Reports:
President Bush has settled on Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as his choice for CIA director, and an announcement is planned for Monday, senior administration officials told CNN late Friday. Hayden, 61, is the principal deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
Hayden was director of the National Security Agency in 2001 when Bush authorized a controversial program allowing the agency to monitor the communications of people inside the United States who were in contact with suspected terrorists overseas without first obtaining a warrant.
UPDATE: Since Michael Hayden’s hat has been thrown into the ring, let’s take a peek at his views on the Fourth Amendment.
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Thanks Pamela, am off to read these links. Besides Katrina, Iraq and Afghanistan, I just can’t see that there is anything else worth spending time on today.
Of course, I’m sure I’m forgetting several other important (literally) burning issues.
Idea: watch the Colbert vid every night before going to bed…
Is anyone else thinking ahead to the Michael Hayden confirmation hearings? I love these things, it’s like a Kabuki play. All so stylized and ritualistic, designed to convey impressions of serious people doing serious work, not to actually, say, determine whether the nominee is qualified. In my dreams I imagine it going something like this:
Senator Roberts [Chair of Intelligence Committee]: General Hayden, thank you so much for being here today and for all the help you are going to give us as we struggle with our awesome duty to confirm a new head for the Central Intelligence Agency. And thank you for all your many years of devoted service to this country in the Air Force. Every patriotic (i.e., Republican) American acknowledges our great debt to the service you have already given.
General Hayden [Nominee to head CIA]: Thank you very much Mister Chairman. I’m proud and eager to serve this great country.
Senator Roberts: Now, General, I just have a few questions to begin with and, first I’d like to address the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) that you fine folks over there at NSA put together to protect our great country from the terrorist sympathizers who walk among us (and write for the New York Times). Now my first question is …
General Hayden [interrupting]: Yes sir, your first question is to tell you how many evil terrorist plots TSP has uncovered since 9/11 and I have to say that the answer would surprise you, but it’s classified.
Senator Roberts: How did you know what I was going to ask you?
General Hayden: Well sir, I wanted to do my homework before these hearings, so I went over to NSA headquarters and read the e-mail that you and your staff have exchanged over the last few days as you drafted those questions. I’ve got the final copy here in front of me. See, I’ve got initiative.
Senator Roberts: General, are you telling me that the NSA reads internal Congressional e-mail?
General Hayden: We call it the STARS program, Surveilling Terrorists and Resistors in the Senate.
Senator Roberts: I’m a terrorist or a resistor!?
General Hayden: Oh, no, excuse me, Sir! I misspoke. I’m terribly sorry. Your e-mails and phone calls are collected by the SUQUP program, Senators who Understand that Questions Upset the People. The level of surveillance is much lower in SUQUP than STARS. All e-mails and phone calls of Senators in STARS are delivered daily to the Vice President’s Office. For noble, patriotic Senators, like yourself, in SUQUP, we deliver only a weekly summary to the VP Office.
Senator Roberts [stunned]: You intercept and read my e-mail?
General Hayden [also stunned]: You guys didn’t know this? …
General Hayden: … Whoops. …
General Hayden: Hey, let’s not tell Dick Cheney this came up, OK?
Steve Kennedy
No doubt it will be very theatrical!
LOL, good one Steve!
Actually, the 1st 3 or 4 paragraphs are also probably just about verbatim what will be said.