Hayden Sworn In As New CIA Chief

President Bush gave the embattled Central Intelligence Agency his vote of confidence on Wednesday, saying the spy outfit will succeed at its mission and make Americans safer with new director Michael Hayden at its helm.

After taking the oath for a second time, Hayden spoke briefly to the CIA's officers in his blue Air Force uniform, four stars on each shoulder. This week marks the first time since 1953 that the agency has been headed by an active duty military officer.

"Let's just go to work," he said.

Mr. Bush made the quick trip from the White House to CIA headquarters in suburban Virginia for a ceremonial swearing-in of Hayden. The former head of the National Security Agency who served as the United States' No. 2 intelligence official for the last year was officially sworn in Tuesday and had already had his first day on the job when Mr. Bush arrived.

"He's such a good man we're going to swear him in twice," the president joked.

Hayden was confirmed by the Senate last week, replacing Porter Goss. Hayden told senators he wants the CIA to put more focus on traditional spycraft – and reward risks taken by agents under cover.

While the CIA once was pre-eminent among the U.S. intelligence community's 15 other spy agencies, the 2004 intelligence reform law made it equal to other organizations including the NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency. The CIA must report to national intelligence chief John Negroponte.

But aides report Hayden told agency employees that only the CIA has the "connective tissue" to bring the intelligence community together.

Mr. Bush, seeking to both reassure CIA employees and spur them on to additional changes, said he had tasked Hayden with further developing the agency's old-fashioned spy capabilities and improving its analytical skills.

"America's leaders are going to have the best possible intelligence and Mike Hayden is going to work with you to see that that's the case," the president said. "Mike understands the CIA must transform to confront new dangers and do so without slowing the high tempo at which it already operates."

Mr. Bush appeared warmly welcomed by the several hundred employees gathered in the CIA's main lobby despite his White House's tussles with the CIA and the agency's tradition of remaining distant from politics. He said he is confident a Hayden-led CIA can deliver.

"In Mike Hayden, you have a leader who recognizes your talents, who understands your challenges and will ensure that you remain the finest intelligence agency in the world," Mr. Bush said.

The president was briefed privately on unknown topics for about 45 minutes before the short public event.

The Senate Intelligence Committee recommended Hayden's confirmation, 12-3, with three of the panel's seven Democrats voting against him.

Hayden became the nation's No. 2 intelligence official last year, has emerged as a leading defender of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program.

Hayden has vigorously defended the program to listen to Americans' overseas phone calls without a warrant and decried that people found out about it.

He rejected the view of many in Congress that the program is illegal and insisted procedures are in place to spy only on people with a link to al Qaeda.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush decided that more anti-terrorism surveillance was necessary than the NSA had been doing, said Hayden.

Hayden said he decided to go ahead with the then-covert surveillance program, which has been confirmed by Mr. Bush, believing it to be legal and necessary.

"When I had to make this personal decision in October 2001 ... the math was pretty straightforward. I could not, not do this," Hayden said.