“Having a strong, professional CIA is crucial in America’s war on terror. The times are serious and it is imperative that we move rapidly to replace Porter Goss as the CIA Director. A long transition is not good for the nation. Morale at the CIA has dropped, and there are serious management and supervision challenges. We need a respected, competent intelligence professional who can command respect and manage this growing agency. Based on what I know so far, General Michael Hayden appears to fit that bill. He has run an intelligence agency twice the size of the CIA. And while he might not have had experience directly supervising human operations, he has been effective.

I believe he is prepared to act quickly to bring in other respected professionals to fill the top positions. The so-called ‘gosslings’ will go. These are the former House staff members that Director Goss brought over to help him run the CIA – a dramatic mistake in my view. It is also imperative that a mid-management infrastructure be put in place to help provide guidance to the larger number of new recruits coming on board.

There is growing concern about the military control of intelligence, so I do believe that it would be good for General Hayden to resign his commission so that a civilian was in charge of the CIA and I believe there will be questions about this issue during the hearing.

General Hayden will also face some serious questions about the warrentless surveillance program now being conducted by the NSA. I am on the Intelligence Subcommittee that is being briefed on the program. In my view, it appears all of this surveillance could be done under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act if we simply make some minor timing adjustments and I look forward to asking General Hayden about it.

The Intelligence Committee hearing on General Hayden’s nomination will be closely watched. And while I will wait until after the hearing to announce how I intend to vote, I believe that he is one of very few people in a very limited universe who could step in at this point of time and do what is necessary to get the CIA’s house in order.”

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