Military and the CIA

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

By John Scott, Fox News

May 8, 2006

Transcript

John: President Bush has nominated General Michael Hayden to be the new director of the CIA but some lawmakers are all ready to fight it. They’re reason, they don’t want a person with a military background controlling the civilian spy agency. Joining us now is the president for the Center of National Policy and a former 9/11 Commissioner, Tim Roemer.

Tim Roemer: Good Morning John.

John: Good Morning. There is no prohibition against having a military guy at the CIA right?

Tim Roemer: No, no prohibition. In fact John, as you know, Admiral Stansfield Turner ran the CIA as a former military person under President Carter.

John: Well some would, I guess have you believe- well maybe I’m stretching it too far, but I mean there aren’t any better patriots in this country than the people who wear the uniform. Why would it be so bad to have a guy- you know a general, a military general running CIA?

Tim Roemer: Well, I personally don’t think that’s a disqualifier John. I think, first of all–

John: Well some on Capitol Hill do. I mean you heard–

Tim Roemer: Well some on Capitol Hill do, but I think some of the criticism is coming on process John. It’s coming from Republicans. Maybe the administration should have first of all, checked with the Intelligence Chairman in the House Oversight Committee, and the Senate Intelligence Chairman. That’s where much of this criticism is coming from. Hokestra, Chairman Hokestra has said that he is not for this person; wrong place, wrong time, wrong person. And the Chairman of the Republican Committee on Intelligence has said that he doesn’t have his vote yet. Look, I think, John, the critical questions institutionally are, the CIA right now, its intelligence disrespected, it’s demoralized with turnover and it’s distracted with political leadership changes. We need somebody to go in there and be able to effectively rebuild our human intelligence capabilities, meaning running spies and recruiting spies for the future. That should be the criteria for General Hayden, not whether he wears a uniform or not.

John: In some respects you may have had a hand in what all has transpired today because it was the 9/11 Commission, after all that recommended the appointment of Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte. Now General Hayden has been his number two guy in that position. If he moves over to Central Intelligence does he become too much of a – I mean is he too closely allied with Ambassador Negroponte to do that job?

Tim Roemer: Very good question John, and I think that there are two parts to the answer. First of all, I think his closeness to the president and his working relationship with Ambassador Negroponte are pluses here. That’s one of the things the 9/11 Commission wanted. But one of the concerns is, the Director of National Intelligence Office is getting so big and bureaucratic, growing so quickly beyond what the 9/11 Commission suggested. We’re looking at organizations like the Department of Homeland Security and DNI becoming too layered with people and bureaucrats and pre-9/11 thinking, rather than the creativity and the agility that we need in post-9/11 world. So the administration really needs to be very careful about the institutions it’s creating to fight a very nimble and agile enemy like al-Qaeda. I think they’re going in the wrong direction.

John: Well something is working isn’t it, if we haven’t been—if we haven’t seen another 9/11-style attack in this country?

Tim Roemer: I think we have been fortunate John, in some areas and we have succeeded to some degree in initially taking out the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, although that is even starting to erode. You go see this movie about United 93 and the bravery and the courage of the people that brought flight down in Shanksville Pennsylvania, I think we’ll all be very powerfully reminded that this could happen again tomorrow and we need to be better prepared. We are not adequately prepared yet today. We have not made this country safe enough. The FBI is not coming forward with reforms for modern day technology to communicate more effectively. The Department of Homeland Security is too big, our borders are still porous. We have a long way to go.

John: Porter Goss was sent over to the CIA, in part to shake things up. He did that and apparently, not everybody was too happy with the results.

Tim Roemer: Well I think part of this is process John. Sometimes it’s getting changes and reforms and new personnel, which were needed at the CIA, but it also depends upon how you conduct yourself, and what staff you bring with you over to the CIA and how they comport themselves and how they are greeted or not greeted, and how they make these changes. I think you talk to people out at Langley today, and some of the wrong people were let go. Some of the – it was done in a poor fashion in terms of building morale. And we’re still too far away from rebuilding the human intelligence capabilities in the CIA, which we vitally need to try to better understand what al-Qaeda is now morphing into and what they’re capable of doing in the future whether it be in Bali, or Madrid or London. Even if they haven’t attacked us here yet, the number of terrorist attacks around the world are increasing.

John: Former congressman and member of the 9/11 Commission, Tim Roemer. Thanks

Tim Roemer: Thank you John.

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