Since I don’t have a lot to do today, I decided to read up on President GW’s nominee for Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).
The selection by George of U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, understudy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, to head the CIA has set off some alarm bells among members of Congress. Some are uncomfortable about his status as an active duty general. On its face it is not a totally convincing argument since several active duty generals and admirals have been CIA director during its 58-year-history. Two retired Navy admirals — Vice admiral William Francis Raborn, Jr. and Adm. Stansfield Turner — are also former DCIs.
But there is certainly more than meets the eye with respect to Hayden’s military status. For instance, there’s this guy named Donald Rumsfeld. You know him, Robert McNamara with hemorrhoids?
What is more worrisome to both Republican and Democratic lawmakers is the fact that the warrantless surveillance program used by the National Security Agency began under Hayden’s watch as NSA director.
It certainly can’t be said that “Bo” Hayden (I call him that — I would doubt anyone else does — for a very cheap chuckle ahead (maybe?)) is not intelligent about intelligence. For you see, Bo knows intelligence. HA! I can do that and no one can stop me. Talk about your raw power. I read Bo’s Air Force biography and found he’s been in the spook stuff his entire Air Force career. That is with exceptions of course. Such as:
July 1975 – August 1979, academic instructor and commandant of cadets, ROTC program, St. Michael’s College, Winooski, Vt.
I bet that was a hoot. And:
July 1984 – July 1986, air attache, U.S. Embassy, Sofia, People’s Republic of Bulgaria
Sounds like he either pissed off some higher up or lost a bet to get that duty.
Just in the past hour or so I read that Hayden might be softening his position a bit on his thinking that warrantless surveillance is the best thing in the War or Terror since Islam-friendly Meals Ready to Eat. Isn’t funny how you’ll say anything or do anything to get what you really want?
There would be one upside to Hayden leading the CIA. That is that he would give hope to history majors everywhere that they too can grow up to torture and wiretap someone. (Hayden got both a bachelor’s and master’s in history at Duquesne University).
So do you want to know my opinion about Gen. Michael “Bo” Hayden leading the CIA? You don’t? Are you sure? I will be happy to give you my opinion if you’ll just ask. Please? Okay, I didn’t want to give my opinion anyway. I think I’ll just close my blog for this post and reflect on why I get so little respect.