Hayden Nominated

Some Republicans, like Pete Hoekstra, are against him.

Some fret that he is an Air Force general and so, I don't know, this is somehow inappopriate as head of the CIA. On FoxNews Sunday, either Britt or William Kristol expressed the fear that Hayden is too go-along-to-get-along to make the aggressive changes the CIA needs (or at least one of them said that's what the Hayden skeptics feared).

But others think this is the final step in making the CIA subservient to the Pentagon-- a step I don't mind at all.

The pending appointment of General Michael Hayden as director of the Central Intelligence Agency will pave the way for the agency's emasculation and for the Pentagon to assume full authority over paramilitary operations.

A senior intelligence community official yesterday said the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, has indicated "he is willing to give up covert operations to the Pentagon."

...

"Putting a military person into this role is just a bad idea," Mr. Hoekstra said. "I think you will have the CIA folks in D.C. and the CIA folks around the world see this as the last straw. I am not sure you will see resignations. But people who have chosen the CIA as a career, I don't think ever envisioned it being run by a general."

Mr. Hoekstra also said he thought the fact that Mr. Goss was stepping down at this moment - after firing an analyst accused of leaking to the press, Mary McCarthy - sent the wrong signal to those in the CIA who oppose the president's policies.

"Two weeks after Porter takes one of the biggest steps to send a clear signal around the agency on leaks, he loses his job. I don't know how people will read this.

"Some people might say insubordination at the CIA is going to be tolerated. This is the last major decision which I thought was crucial to the agency. There had been a lot of people knifing Porter in the back. He was sent in as an agent of change. Some people over there might believe they won."

Well, yeah.

Who knows. Perhaps it was Goss' resistance to making the CIA the intelligence arm of the Pentagon that caused him to be forced out. He was, after all, a former agent himself, so might have greater respect for the traditions of the CIA than they, quite frankly, deserve.

Obviously, I don't know either way. Apart from one glorious weekend we shared together in the Poconos, a weekend of horseback riding, archery, and nonstop sodomy, I barely know the man.

posted by Ace at 11:10 AM

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