Nomination of new CIA director

[helicom6]

What feelings do any of the QP's have about the nomination of Michael Hayden for CIA director. It is interesting to me that the White House has nominated a General from the military when it has come under fire from retired military higher-ups. Do you see this as the Admin trying to regain some faith with the military command? The CIA has had the same type of turn over and Morale issues that the military has seen with the command and personel as a whole.

I know the local/ city police depts. are following the same phenomenon.
Are we just facing a major turn in age groups? The younger generations coming to the front of world issues....

Curious.

Realized that this would be better in General Discussion Area.

Move at will. Thank You.

[CPTAUSRET]

What feelings do any of the QP's have about the nomination of Michael Hayden for CIA director. It is interesting to me that the White House has nominated a General from the military when it has come under fire from retired military higher-ups. Do you see this as the Admin trying to regain some faith with the military command? The CIA has had the same type of turn over and Morale issues that the military has seen with the command and personel as a whole.

I know the local/ city police depts. are following the same phenomenon.
Are we just facing a major turn in age groups? The younger generations coming to the front of world issues....

Curious.


You know, I am tired of all the political second guessing. I didn't know much about Goss, and I don't know much about Gen. Hayden, but hopefully he is the right guy for the job.

I am not concerned that he is military, I just hope that he is up to the job!

Terry

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

This is not the first military flag officer to head the CIA. Stansfield Turner did so and completely gutted the HUMIT aspect. Wild Bill Donovan started it when it went from the OSS to CIA. I do not know anything about the new guy, save the fact that he is an Airforce Officer. Airforce folks look at Intel differently than ground guys and the Navy is normally interested in looking at things that they can hit from afar. Whomever is in charge, it is all going to depend on properly defining the nationial interests of the US and then structuring the organization to ensure that they do their part to contribute to gathering the info and executing the programs to support those interests. Most will never know what those efforts entail and that is a good thing. The bad thing about this whole process is the involvement of the politicians whose agendas are short term re-election oriented and who are not qualified to clean the boots of the men and women who must wade through all the horseshit and human debris to satisfy ill defined requirements impeded by rediculous regulations that make difficult jobs damn near impossible.

[The Reaper]

He headed up the NSA, why can't he run the CIA?

TR

[NousDefionsDoc]

Military DCIs
Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers (January 23-June 10, 1946) Pre-CIA
Lieutenant General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (June 10, 1946-May 1, 1947) Pre-CIA
Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter (May 1, 1947-7 Oct 1950)
General Walter Bedell Smith (7 Oct 1950-9 Feb 1953)
Vice Admiral William F. Raborn, Jr. (28 Apr 65-30 Jun 66)
Admiral Stansfield Turner (9 Mar 77-28 Jan 81) Turner retired from the Navy in Dec 78.

And of course, MG William J. Donovan. Rest In Peace Sir.
"Espionage is not a nice thing, nor are the methods employed exemplary. Neither are demolition bombs nor poison gas... ...We face an enemy who believes one of his chief weapons is that none but he will employ terror. But we will turn terror against him..."

[NousDefionsDoc]

The track record hasn't been all that great in my opinion.

The Colonel already spoke on Turner. Raborn was a LBJ crony.

Hillenkoetter was fired, I believe for not predicting the Chinese jump into Korea.

I don't really understand all the fuss anyway. As The Colonel said, General Hayden is Air Force - hell, he's practically a civilian anyway...;)

[Airbornelawyer]

One thing to keep in mind in assessing this nomination is that GEN Hayden's most important prior job was not Director of NSA, or AIA or juicy-two-cee. It is his current position: Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. To the extent that Ambassador Negroponte appears to be winning the turf war among agencies, this appointment may be seen as in effect reducing the DCI's profile to being just the DNI's deputy.

[NousDefionsDoc]

One thing to keep in mind in assessing this nomination is that GEN Hayden's most important prior job was not Director of NSA, or AIA or juicy-two-cee. It is his current position: Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. To the extent that Ambassador Negroponte appears to be winning the turf war among agencies, this appointment may be seen as in effect reducing the DCI's profile to being just the DNI's deputy.
Agreed, the DCI is not the focus anymore. And Negroponte is making the pecking order clear.

[Warrior-Mentor]

IMHO it will be good to get military leadership in the CIA...will hopefully melt the "imaginary wall" between CIA and DOD intel efforts....just wish it was LTG Boykin getting the nod. Figure the odds of that happening.

[incommin]

I don't see where it makes any difference between a civilian or military leader i this position. He is not the first and he will not be the last. He is the man who is seeing that policies are carried out and fighing for the budget. He is not running agents or operations. He is the man steering the ship....... as long as he can do the job, that is all that should matter. One positive aspect right off the bat is that he will not let politics get in the way and may prevent some of the leaking that has been going on.

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Now I want to put all your minds to rest about General Hayden. From 1975-1978 I was an ROTC Instructor at the University of Vermont. During that time Hayden was the ROTC Professor of Military Science at St Michael's College just up the road. I was asked to give his cadets instruction on Special Forces in particular and the Army in general. He took more notes than the troops-make you feel any better:D

Snipped from Hayden's bio " July 1975 - August 1979, academic instructor and commandant of cadets, ROTC program, St. Michael's College, Winooski, Vt."

Jack Moroney: Nothing like walking on a Catholic College Campus in military uniform to rescue an Airforce ROTC Program in the mid 70s