Bush names general to lead CIA

WASHINGTON -- President Bush formally nominated General Michael V. Hayden to be the next director of central intelligence yesterday, as legislators and activists vowed to turn the confirmation into a chance to get more information about the administration's domestic spying program.

The FBI is investigating the third-ranking official in the CIA. A18.

Hayden oversaw the once-secret warrantless surveillance program at the National Security Agency until he became the deputy national intelligence director last year. Bush described the four-star Air Force general as ''supremely qualified" to lead the CIA; he called on the Senate ''to confirm him promptly."

But the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, yesterday stepped up his calls to use Hayden's nomination to force the White House to be more forthcoming with details of the program, which he said may be illegal. He was one of several legislators from both parties who greeted Hayden's nomination with caution, questions, and skepticism.

''There's a lot of concern about the surveillance program, and his nomination will give us an opportunity to go into that," Specter said on Fox News. ''You have a statute . . . which flatly prohibits electronic surveillance in the United States without a court order."

Bush has said that his wartime powers give him the authority to bypass the law requiring court approval of wiretaps.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has held four hearings to examine whether the president is correct, but Specter and others have expressed frustration about the administration's unwillingness to fully explain the rationale for that authority.

At the White House yesterday, the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, said the administration expects ''quite a bit of questioning" about the spying program. ''But I believe General Hayden will be very well-equipped and prepared to answer any questions that may arise," Negroponte said.

Several Democrats said they will press Hayden on the issue as well.

In a speech yesterday at the National Press Club, Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, an intelligence committee member who has proposed censuring the president for violating the warrant law, said he has ''serious concerns" over the fact that Hayden has endorsed and defended the program.

Another intelligence committee member, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said she would probably support Hayden. But Feinstein said she intended to use his hearing to ask ''some serious questions" about whether the spying program could be altered to comply with the warrant law.

Civil libertarians also pounced on the Hayden nomination yesterday.

Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that Congress should not confirm Hayden without a thorough examination of the program that he helped create.

''We hope that the Senate will use this opportunity to break through the administration's stonewalling about the illegal program to spy on Americans without any check," he said. ''Lawmakers and the American people have a right to know how many people have had their private conversations monitored."

Some Republican senators, however, suggested that Hayden's nomination as chief of the CIA should not be held hostage to questions about the domestic surveillance program.

Senator Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, said it was not the general's fault that Bush had set limits on what he can say about how the program works.

''I think those questions have been answered, but that doesn't mean they won't be asked again, now that there's a new venue and a new forum," DeWine said.

Other Republican senators seemed almost eager to turn Hayden's confirmation into a fight over the warrantless eavesdropping program, which is targeted at suspected terrorist communications. They signaled that it could be another opportunity to hammer Democrats on national security.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said: ''If Senate Democrats are looking to the Hayden nomination as an opportunity . . . to argue that we're doing too much to prevent terrorism, that the intelligence agencies are fighting too hard against terrorists around the world, then we look forward to taking that debate to the American people."

The White House yesterday also pushed back against bipartisan concerns that putting Hayden in charge of the CIA might be seen as a military coup against the civilian spy agency, which has been jostling with the Pentagon for dominance in the nation's intelligence community.

On Sunday, for example, the Republican chairman of both the House and Senate intelligence committees -- Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan and Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas -- raised questions about whether a career military man should be put in charge of a civilian agency.

Hoekstra described Hayden as ''the wrong person, the wrong place, at the wrong time" for the job. Bush seemed to key in on Hoekstra's comments yesterday; he argued arguing that Hayden's vast intelligence experience made him ''the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history."

Roberts -- who will oversee Hayden's hearing -- was lukewarm to Hayden yesterday. Roberts said he would consider the nomination ''as expeditiously as possible," but did not immediately schedule hearings.

''While I am not opposed to his nomination, senators -- including myself -- will have important questions which they will want addressed prior to any confirmation vote," Roberts said.

Hayden seemed sensitive to the criticism that the civilian employees of the CIA would see his nomination as a threat, reaching out in his brief remarks with a friendly greeting.

''To the men and women of the Central Intelligence Agency, if I'm confirmed, I would be honored to join you and work with so many good friends," Hayden said. ''Your achievements are frequently under-appreciated and hidden from the public eye, but you know what you do to protect the republic."

Negroponte also stressed that the CIA would continue to be the lead agency for intelligence analysis, saying he hoped to increase the number of spies and analysts at the agency by 50 percent.

Negroponte did not discuss, however, whether the CIA could also expect to retain control of paramilitary covert action -- a central piece of its bureaucratic turf which is coveted by the Pentagon.

Raising a related concern, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said yesterday that Hayden's long career in uniform might have stunted his ability to provide the president with independent advice. ''Good soldiers are trained to follow their orders, and General Hayden is a good soldier," Durbin said.

But Senator Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, said that Hayden has shown he was willing to speak up when he and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfelds views differed.

Still, Collins added her voice to those of senators who have suggested that Hayden should retire from the Air Force ''to send a signal of independence from the Pentagon."

Negroponte said Hayden had no intention of resigning from the military.