Seven Questions: Fixing U.S. Intelligence

Foreign Policy ^ | May 16, 2006

[Karl Rand]

As a professional intelligence officer, the last people you want to report to are generals and diplomats. And if General Hayden comes to the CIA, we’ll have Mr. Negroponte [a career diplomat] as head of the community, and a general as the head of the CIA. They are not particularly good at taking bad news to the president, in the experience of most intelligence officers. So General Hayden is not the right choice. I also think that it kind of beggars the imagination in the sense that every one of the commissions that investigated 9/11 or Iraq said that we didn’t have enough HUMINT [human intelligence], and now we’re going to have 16 or 17 intelligence community components—not one of which will have anyone with HUMINT experience at its head.

[robowombat]

Unfortunately this is an interview with Michael Scheur the famous author Anonymous who is virtually convulsed with hatred for the entire War on Terrorism. His favorable remarks about Porter Goss are surely the posthumous kiss of death.

[coldoc]

General Hayden is an "Intelligence Professional" too.. a fact that Mr. Scheur seems to overlook! General Hayden is a proven quantity with his respect to, and protection of National Security. He has demonstrated his loyalty to the Nation and the Commander In Chief across administrations. I am sure he had his frustrations, but he didn't quit his job in a snit when he hit 20 years of active duty and go write a ego-centered book critical of his superiors. He stayed in the business and worked to improve it. In short, he is a REAL PROFESSIONAL!

I don't think Michael Scheur comes up to this level of integrity or professionalism.

[SCHROLL]

the most worrisome comment Hayden made yesterday was the fact most of the CIA analysts have only 1-4 years experience. He said that for every 10 with 1-4 years experience that there was only 1 with 10-14 years experience. No wonder they can't get things right.

[Enchante]

Why am I vastly more confident in the judgment of General Hayden than in the judgment of a snivelling weasel like Scheuer who tried to swing the 2004 election to Kerry with his ridiculous book??? Why does anyone take Scheuer seriously when his record is one of failure and ineptitude?

[Retain Mike]

Objections to General Hayden as CIA director ignore Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to return William Donovan to active service as a major general to form the OSS, predecessor to the CIA. He finished service in WW I as a full colonel, and earned three Purple Hearts, the Distinguished Service Cross (2nd highest award for valor), and the Medal of Honor (highest award for valor) among other awards. Imitating FDR for this appointment signals determination to return an ossified bureaucracy to significance in time of war.



The Senate is acting reprehensibly, if not treasonously, by arranging election year theater around General Hayden’s confirmation and NSA surveillance. Electronic surveillance is a most secret program, and should be known by only a vital few in Congress. Our basic Constitutional liberties are not endangered by interpreting administrative laws, arising from sixty years of extraordinary prosperity and remote hostilities, to protect this nation from calamitous, barbaric, cruelty. We are forfeiting an exceedingly precious and perishable opportunity, but instead choosing to enlighten terrorists about their vulnerabilities, and energize them to enhance communication security. The 2001 legislation “to use all necessary and appropriate force” obviously included the full spectrum of communication intelligence, because it has been a precondition to, and inherent within successful military operations at least since Sun Tzu discussed “foreknowledge” over 2,000 years ago.