Why The CIA Needs Hayden

Gen. Hayden is the right choice at the right time to run the CIA that has run amok. It’s obvious that while Porter Goss did a good job in starting the purge of the CIA, he obviously wasn’t the right man for the job. Why do I say this? Well look at the recent books being written by STILL EMPLOYED CIA agents. The one, the only, Dana Priest even buried a factoid about these books in her article a few days ago while writing about Michael Scheuer:

“As long as the book was being used to bash the president, they gave me carte blanche to talk to the media”

This coming from the senior agent in the CIA’s Osama Bin Laden unit.

So a still active high ranking member of the CIA tells the world that the CIA is STILL allowing their employees to work against this President.

Tells you a bit I think.

Not to mention the fact that Joe Wilson was allowed to publish his writings about his confidential findings PLUS the “coming soon” Valerie Plame book:

Former CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose identity was disclosed in a press leak that touched off a federal probe, has signed a book deal worth more than $2.5 million, a publishing industry Web site said on Saturday.

Now this line would have been funny:

Depending on the nature of Plame’s book, it may have to undergo a CIA review before it is published, a CIA spokesman said.

If Tenet or Goss had still be leading the CIA. But now with Hayden possibly running things hopefully their vetting process will get a bit tighter.

Within hours of his nomination the left lead off with their attacks and this one is well, pathetic:

While director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden contracted the services of a top executive at the company at the center of the Cunningham bribery scandal, according to two former employees of the company.

Hayden, President Bush’s pick to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA, contracted with MZM Inc. for the services of Lt. Gen. James C. King, then a senior vice president of the company, the sources say. MZM was owned and operated by Mitchell Wade, who has admitted to bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham with $1.4 million in money and gifts. Wade has also reportedly told investigators he helped arrange for prostitutes to entertain the disgraced lawmaker, and he continues to cooperate with a federal inquiry into the matter.

King has not been implicated in the growing scandal around Wade’s illegal activities. However, federal records show he contributed to some of Wade’s favored lawmakers, including $6000 to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and $4000 to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL).

Before joining MZM in December 2001, King served under Hayden as the NSA’s associate deputy director for operations, and as head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

Confederate Yankee was kind enough to draw us all a map of this convuluted idiocy:

With some great commentary:

King worked under Hayden at the NSA. King left the NSA to work at MZM, and Hayden brought him back to the NSA as a contractor.

MZM was owned and operated by a guy named Mitchell Wade. Wade admitted paying bribes to disgraced Congressman “Duke” Cunningham. There are no allegations whatsoever that King did or was even aware of anything illegal or unethical going on during his employment at MZM, and King’s above-board position as a contractor is the only tenuous connection between Hayden and the criminals Wade and Cunningham.

Don’t you see the obvious conspiracy?

For regular readers they have to know whats coming next…..these people need their schizophrenia medication and they need it bad.

How big of a freakin stretch can they take this?

Anyways, the Democrats have come out against the choice EXCEPT one Diane Feinstein: (via Captain’s Quarters)

Neil Cavuto interviewed Senator Dianne Feinstein about the nomination of General Michael Hayden as the replacement of Porter Goss at the CIA. Far from hostile to the appointment, Feinstein praised Hayden as a “superb choice” for the Director position. She claimed than anyone familiar with the intelligence community would have listed Hayden as one of the three top picks for the position, and that while she would not commit to any vote before a thorough hearing, at the moment she was “inclined” to support Hayden’s nomination.

Ed also has a transcript up of the interview.

Meanwhile Kerry continues on with his idiotic tirades about our Government listening to Al-Qaeda:

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president in 2004 and a possible contender in 2008, told a firefighters’ union Monday that he had “serious reservations” about the nomination of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA. “I’m very troubled by the nomination because he is one of the main supporters representing Donald Rumsfeld who helped to put in place the programs of spying on Americans and has been one of the biggest defenders of it,” Kerry said.

And the USA Today tries to punch holes in Hayden’s resume:

The NSA’s domestic-surveillance program points up another potential concern for Hayden: A lack of experience dealing with spies working in the field.

Hayden’s NSA experience was in running a technical intelligence organization, reliant on satellites to intercept communications and computers to help break enemy codes. For the past year, he has been occupied with bureaucratic tasks in setting up the ODNI.

A native of Pittsburgh and a product of a Catholic high school and Duquesne University’s ROTC program, Hayden held Cold War-oriented assignments in South Korea, Germany and the National Security Council staff before rising to the top ranks of U.S. intelligence. He has not had assignments in the Middle East, where the latest intelligence challenges exist, such as the war in Iraq, tension with Iran and terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

As the deputy in a newly created agency that pulled key people out of the CIA, Hayden is now in line to run the CIA, where filling the ranks with skillful field officers, schooled in the difficult languages of the Middle East, will be a top priority.

But they left out one assignment: (via In From The Cold)

[…]most critics overlook Hayden’s tour at the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria, where he served as a defense attache. One of the primary missions of any attache is–guess what–gathering information, so the idea that Hayden lacks HUMINT skills is ludicrous. Besides, the President nominated General Hayden to run the CIA, not agent networks in the field. Hayden has more than enough experience in HUMINT to and find the right people to run the agency’s field operations, and revitalize that directorate within the agency.

His supposed “lack of experience in the Middle East” is another non-starter. As DIRNSA (Director of NSA) he received daily updates on intelligence in that region, and he’s made more than a few trips to that region. The NSA’s recent success against terrorists are a reflection of a director who understood that threat, and empowered his people to get the job done. He can do the same thing at Langley, despite these gaping “holes” in his resume.

But this is all par for the course from our MSM and the left. Expect more of the same for some time to come but I predict nothing will come out of it. I also predict that Gen. Hayden will shut down most of his critics at the confirmation hearing and will be confirmed.

I’m telling you, this is why I support Bush. He does not back down from a fight to improve his poll numbers.

Other’s Blogging:

Gen. Hayden is the right choice at the right time to run the CIA that has run amok. It?s obvious that while Porter Goss did a good job in starting the purge of the CIA, he obviously wasn?t the right man for the job. Why do I say this? Well look at the recent books being written by STILL EMPLOYED CIA agents. The one, the only, Dana Priest even buried a factoid about these books in her article a few days ago while writing about Michael Scheuer:

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