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EDITORIAL: CIA-Nominee Showdown: Gen. Michael Hayden Should Be Questioned About NSA Snooping

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 06:02 CDT

By Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

May 9--If Air Force General Michael Hayden has a rocky road to confirmation as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, he can thank President George W. Bush's passion for secrecy for the bumpy ride.

Congressional critics, some of them Republicans, are already wondering aloud whether a career military man is the right choice to lead the nation's pre-eminent civilian intelligence agency. That's much ado about little: Hayden wouldn't be the first CIA director in uniform. Much more troubling is his role in the warrantless wiretapping of Americans' overseas phone calls and e-mail, an effort authorized by Bush and initiated by Hayden during his tenure as director of the National Security Agency.

Hayden should be grilled insistently about what the NSA has been doing. It's astounding that five years after its inception there has been no real congressional airing of the details and scope of this NSA program, which is quite probably both illegal and unconstitutional. Most members of Congress remain totally in the dark about what the NSA is actually up to.

The CIA has apparently had no role in the NSA's eavesdropping. And it is, after all, the CIA that Hayden has been tapped to lead. But the administration's fetish for secrecy has made Hayden's Senate confirmation hearing a target of opportunity too good to pass up. It is the next, best chance Congress and the nation will have to demand details that Hayden is in a perfect position to provide.

There's also the question of Hayden's experience. He has worked for 20 years in intelligence, and by most accounts he's a solid manager and an impressive intellect. But the bulk of his experience is in electronic snooping via satellites and wiretaps. The CIA's No. 1 job right now is to put spies on the ground and manage their operations in the world's hot spots. That may not be the best fit. The problem could be mitigated by a deputy director who has the experience Hayden lacks, and the White House has signaled it intends to seek out just such a deputy. That's important. The CIA needs a management team able to hit the ground running.

The nation's intelligence agencies have been roiled and dispirited of late, thanks to very public failures - missing the 9/11 plot and getting it wrong on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction - and the subsequent finger-pointing, reorganizations and turf fights.

Hayden could be in for a tough confirmation fight. But that's nothing compared to the battles waiting for the next director of the CIA.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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