CIA in the news
Okay, for those not keeping current, Porter Goss, director of the CIA resigned last Friday. Yesterday morning, President Bush announced his nominee to replace Goss. The President named a 4-star general by the name of Mike Hayden.And already the fur is a-flyin'.
You see, some are all upset that this means that a military man will be in charge of domestic spying. Ooooo. Scary. Whatever. This is freakin' stupid. The fact is, he has a background in intelligence. And, being a military man, has some notion of discipline - something sadly lacking in the CIA for some time.
Hayden is also reviled on the Hill for his association (and staunch support) of the surveillance program that listened to foreign-based Al Qaeda-suspected phone and email transmissions into the USA. A program which, despite a bunch of blathering politicians, seems to be perfectly legal given Congress' blanket "Do whatever it takes" orders to the President after September 11. But, you know, it is an election year, so we have to invent problems so that we can paint some of the players bad for political gain. This year's villains? The folks who would dare listen to Al Qaeda's conversations with its agent's on the ground here in the US. Fuck me, but this is stupid. I don't know of a single person who doesn't think that this is important work, and a valuable program that was essentially destroyed by some asshole traitorous reporter looking to win an award.
So, naturally they are going to rake Hayden over the coals. He was the one who developed that surveillance program and then had the audacity - AUDACITY - to support it vocally.
I hate politicians.
I don't know the first thing about Mike Hayden. But, if all the Senate wants to attack him on is this program, he seems like the right guy for the job to me.
