Rumsfeld defends Hayden to head CIA

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday he supports the nomination of a military general as the head of the CIA, and said his department is not trying to take more control of intelligence matters.

Photo: Rumsfeld defends Hayden to head CIA

"There's no power play taking place in Washington," Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters, calling talk of bureaucratic turf fights between civilian intelligence agencies and military leaders "theoretical conspiracies" and "all off the mark."

President George W. Bush's selection of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA has raised questions from congressional Republicans and Democrats over his ability to be independent from the military establishment, as well as his ties to a controversial eavesdropping program.

Rumsfeld said there have been military leaders of the spy agency in the past and that would pose no conflict with the Pentagon.

Hayden, who now is deputy director of national intelligence, formerly headed the National Security Agency and is a 37-year Air Force veteran.

Some members of Congress, voicing concern about having a military person in charge of the civilian CIA, have suggested that Hayden resign his commission.

Rumsfeld offered strong praise for Hayden.

"He's an intelligence professional, is what he is," he said. "He did not come up through the operational chain in the Department of Defense and then at the last minute slide over into the intelligence business. He's a person who has had assignment after assignment after assignment in the intelligence business. And, clearly, that is what his career has been. And he's been very good at it. "

Rumsfeld did acknowledge that he and Hayden had taken different positions on at least one issue whether to move the National Security Agency from the Defense Department's control to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's control. Hayden thought it should be moved, and Rumsfeld said he did not. Bush ultimately decided not to move it.

On another matter, Rumsfeld urged Congress to pass an emergency spending bill that contains $65 billion (Ђ51.1 billion) for war-related expenses for the Pentagon. He referred specifically to the House of Representatives having cut from the spending measure about $760 million (Ђ599 million) that the Pentagon says it needs for training Iraqi and Afghan security forces, reports AP.

O.Ch.