Washington: Air Force General Michael Hayden has been chosen to head the Central Intelligence Agency, national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Monday.
The nomination of Hayden, who would replace Porter Goss as CIA chief, is the subject of concern by lawmakers from both parties because of his military status.
But Hadley said he didn't think Hayden should resign his commission and that previous CIA chiefs have been military officers.
"The president actually thinks it's a strength," Hadley said. "He understands the military aspect of the intelligence business, but as I say, he's also had broad experience and can be an integrator and an agent of reform.
"The key question is who's the right person for the job."
US Rep. Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said, "This appointment signals that we are not that concerned about having an independent intelligence community independent of the Department of Defense."
Hoekstra said civilian government policy makers "need to get [intelligence] in an unvarnished way through a civilian, not through a military, lens."
Hadley said, "Anyone who knows Mike Hayden knows that he is a patriot and a professional and is an independent thinker. He has not been shy about expressing his views."
Goss abruptly resigned the CIA post Friday after losing what intelligence sources described as a power struggle with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
Hayden, 61, is the principal deputy to Negroponte.
The new CIA director must be confirmed by the Senate, which may bring Hayden's tenure as National Security Agency director in 2001 under scrutiny after President Bush authorized a controversial anti-terrorism spy program.
Without court warrants, the NSA monitored the communications of people inside the US who were in contact with suspected terrorists outside the country.
Critics - many of whom are members of the Senate - charge the surveillance program is a violation of law and an assault on civil liberties.
Hayden has defended it, insisting that it is a necessary tool to thwart terrorists and that the process of obtaining warrants is too slow and cumbersome to deal with "a lethal enemy."
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Goss is the latest member of the Bush administration to announce he is stepping down, following chief of staff Andrew Card, press secretary Scott McClellan and Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Also, powerful policy adviser Karl Rove's portfolio changed to focus strictly on political strategy as midterm elections approach and Bush's approval ratings drop to unprecedented lows.
US officials said Goss' resignation is expected to be followed in coming days by the departure of all or most of the aides he brought with him to the agency - including the number three official he appointed, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo.
Foggo, who oversees day-to-day CIA operations, is under investigation by the FBI and the CIA's inspector general over ties to a defense contractor linked to the bribery case against former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty in November to accepting $2.4 million in bribes.
There was no indication that the investigations played a role in Goss' decision to step down.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that while Hayden was well-respected, the CIA "is a civilian agency; it operates differently."
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee told "CNN's Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer" that Hayden could head off the issue by resigning from active military duty.
"That'd be his call," said Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican. "But if somebody is concerned about that, he could certainly do it. He's had diplomatic experience. He's had civilian experience in the past."
But Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, downplayed Hayden's military background and also pointed out that some CIA directors have been former members of the military.
"General Hayden is really more of an intelligence person than he is an Air Force officer," McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "As you know, his career has been spent in that area, and his background - of course, he comes from the National Security Agency."
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