Hayden Defends Warrantless Wiretaps

CIA Nominee Insists Domestic Surveillance Program Is Legal

(CBS/AP) 

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Tony Snow expressed the president's full confidence in Hayden. "The guy's got a record of trying to take on big reform tasks and carrying them out," Snow told reporters.

Hayden acknowledged a series of intelligence failures in the run-up to the U.S. decision to invade Iraq and promised to take steps to guard against a repeat of such errors.

"We just took too much for granted. We didn't challenge our basic assumptions," he told the Senate Intelligence Committee at his confirmation hearing.

He said that since launching the surveillance program a month after the terror attacks, targeting decisions have been made by NSA experts on al Qaeda.

Asked by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., whether a NSA analyst could intentionally look at information unrelated to suspected terrorist activity, Hayden said, "I don't know how that could survive."

Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., complained about the CIA's performance on Iraq. While "nobody bats 1,000 in the intelligence world," Roberts cited "a terribly flawed trade craft" in the CIA's intelligence suggesting the presence of weapons of mass destruction there.

At the same time, Roberts complained that the discussion among lawmakers had not been over Hayden's long intelligence-services resume "but rather the debate is focused almost entirely" on controversy over NSA surveillance and eavesdropping programs.

Hayden, as expected, drew the most fire from Democratic members. "I now have a difficult time with your credibility," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

In an opening statement, Hayden said that intelligence-gathering has become "the football in American political discourse" since the terror attacks of Sept. 11.

He said the embattled agency "must be transformed, without slowing the high tempo under which it already operates, to counter today's threats."

"Yes, there have been failures, but there have also been many great successes," Hayden said.

If confirmed, "I would reaffirm the CIA's proud culture of risk-taking," said Hayden, who was selected by President Bush to succeed Porter Goss, who was forced out after serving for 18 months.

Some Republicans on the committee also are very upset that they were kept in the dark so long about the NSA wiretap program and think the balance between the executive branch and Congress has gotten out of whack, Fuss reports. But Hayden is respected for his skills and he is very likely to be confirmed.

Hayden's hearing before the Intelligence Committee was much different than a year ago, when the panel approved him unanimously to be the nation's first principal deputy director of national intelligence.

Mr. Bush chose Hayden as CIA director-nominee after consultation with Hayden's current boss, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. Goss announced his retirement earlier this month after disputes with Hayden and Negroponte about the CIA's direction.