There is some serious spin going on in the Hayden nomination for CIA director.
House Speaker Hastert, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra and other Republicans have come out against this candidate. Hayden is happy to be endorsed by the Democrat Senator Diana Feinstein.
The repubs argue that a military officer as the head of the civil spy agency would be bad at a time where the Pentagon, which already has 85% of all spying budgets, is trying to grab even more powers in this area.
They may have other reason to do so, like the need to oppose an unpopular president, but that argument has some weight.
The people spinned sofar against this reasoning are Steve Clemons of the Washington Note and Dana Priest at the Washington Post. We will see more tomorrow.
Clemons argues that the knowledge of Hayden of the military side of intelligence would allow him to check it and thereby help Negroponte in a perceived fight against a Rumsfeldian powergrab.
Priest reports on the basic of one "former senior intelligence official" (Tenet?) and one Mackubin T. Owens, professor of national security studies at the Naval War College, and a republican chiller.
Money quotes:
"Hayden seems to be one of those guys who will, without hesitation, stand up to anyone with whom he disagrees," said Mackubin T. Owens, professor of national security studies at the Naval War College. "He’s out of Rumsfeld’s reach."
and
"The concern about Hayden is not really about Hayden, it’s about Rumsfeld and Cheney," said one former senior intelligence officer
This is nonsense. Can anybody point to any real policy differences between Cheney, Rumsfeld and Negroponte, all former parts of the Reagan administration? Why then is Rumsfeld defending this nomination?
Can an active 4-star General oppose the Secretary of Defense without getting fired?
These people all want to eliminate any capability at the CIA and push it all into DoD. "No more Niger leaks when we prep for Iran!"
Priest gets this a bit when she writes:
But the military’s frustration with the CIA — including not having enough terrorist targets identified for attack in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere — is at least in part behind Rumsfeld’s expansion of military intelligence capabilities. Rumsfeld has moved hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of troops into clandestine intelligence collection and analysis.
Translated Rumsfeld: "If you don´t find targets for us, we will make them up ourself."
While Negroponte makes his regular 3 hour lunches, Rumsfeld is busy to build his own Pentagon own spy service. Negroponte isn´t even moving a finger to fight this.
With Hayden in place, for sure a better organizer than Potter Goss, the few sane people left at the CIA would be under direct DoD, i.e. Cheney, control. No need for another stove pipe then if the "real" intelligence is ordered to fit your purpose.