MALVO AND THE WAR DEBATE
I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something quite interesting. The shootings begin the very day the debate on the war starts and completely and totally dominate the news until they catch them shortly
after the declaration of war???

If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the debate, a speech by a Senator or where their senator stood", nada.

Almost no one noticed any aspect of the most important senate debate in the last 50 years?

An interesting and odd fact... No one has done a story on what the real impact of the shootings were. It was to virtually eliminate the senate war debate from the media.

The special forces background of the senior member of the pair also seems to get short shrift.

Smells a little fishy to me. At a minimum its a very significant part of the story, i.e. that a common murderer had such an impact on our political process at such a critical time. Why is nobody covering this obvious fact?

Dan Pride

Hastert is upset: Division in the ranks?

Anyone read the Washington Post yesterday? The Post reported that Speaker Hastert met with Vice President Cheney and raked him over the coals for the White House's shifting the blame for the mess in Iraq, to where it did not belong, the CIA and the former head of the CIA.

I agree for once with Mr. Hastert, however, for different reasons. His reasons were politically motivated as were the White House's, given this whole mess that the White House is solely responsible for; and as Colin Powell indicated, they would own it. Of course Mr. Bush has zero intentions, even at this hour, of owning up to his mess and he wants someone else to take the blame for it. As a human being, and as a minister, I do not know how Mr. Bush or his partners in crime, sleep at night.

Since the firing/release of both Tennet and Goss from the CIA, all of the attention has been deflected away from the real problem, i.e., the White House and its bungling of the data that it received from the CIA regarding Iraq and its weapons program. We all know now that the White House cherry-picked the data that it received from the CIA, other governments and other intelligence sources.

In effect, the White House ignored the data that did not suit its corrupt and venal objectives, i.e., regime change and murder. The Bible says that, 'Thou Shall Not Commit Murder'. The Bible says that, Righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is a REPROACH TO ANY PEOPLE!

Americans, we should be more concerned about the behavior of the White House and all of its other sleazy practices, than we should be about Mr. Hayden's confirmation. We should not permit them to succeed in their current political ploy, the objective being to make us loose sight of what is really going on, i.e., the White House Conspiracy to commit murder.

America, given this White House's leadership, entered, unprovoked, into a sovereign nation, in deference to the United Nations (forcing the weapons inspectors out),and the majority of its allies, and murdered, maimed and displaced, perhaps one-hundred thousand or more citizens in the sovereign nation of Iraq. And folks that is a crime for which our nation will receive its comeuppance!

Had any other nation done the same, American citizens would be in an uproar and screaming for revenge. Had any other nation done the same to Israel, the USA would be the first nation to intervene. But not very many American seem to care that they are represented by a group of murderers at the White House. And that really is a shame. On the other hand, America was begun with murder, perhaps we will never realize that it is a violation of supreme law!

I don't care for any of this espionage nonsense, but at the same time let us not forget who the real culprits are here. From all indications, it was never the CIA that was at fault! It was simply a group of corrupt, banal lawless politicians who were, at fault!

I have elected to act as Jeremiah and other prophets did in scriptures, i.e., to cry loud, and simply tell the truth about my own nation and its leaders, rather than point to the purported faults of other nations.

The bumper sticker on the back of my car reads: STOP BUSH THE BARBARIAN, KILLER AND THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD, he currently has his eyes set on Iran, and has begun terrorizing that sovereign nation.

Mr. Hayden and others are only scapegoats used to deflect us away from the real issues and problems that we have in our country, beginning at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington D.C.. Please think about who you vote for next time, and think about the behavior of our nation in just the past 6 years alone. If any other nation in the world carried on as ours has, how would you respond. We don't need just any, Democrat, Independent or Republican to lead this nation, for we need to STOP the nonsense. America needs, in addition to new policies, a new direction and a new and enlightened kind of leadership that works for peace in the world, and one that respects the rule of the Higher Law!

Wake up Americans!

Peace & Grace,

I previously said

"He'll probably get tripped up on employing an illegal alien as a cleaner 20 years ago (others have)! Who knows?

Pete
Posted by: Spooky Pete | May 18, 2006 12:49 PM"

This is, of course just a hypothetical comment indicating how off beam confirmation outcomes have been in the past (eg for a potential Attorney General).

I have no information to suggest Hayden has hired any illegal aliens for domestic staff and am not aiming to set hares running.

Again I find it odd that the US system requires a potential spymaster to win or at least pass a public and press popularity contest.

Effective spy services are secretive and impenetrable - so if you a find spy chief who is affable, talkative and popular you'd have the wrong guy (maybe a Tenet).

If you want a spy chief for anti terrorism I humbly suggest looking more at how the Israeli's handle things.

If Hayden is such a stickler for both our constitutional liberties and our security he would DEMAND a FISA ruling, and he would also DEMAND modifications to FISA if it doesn't meet the needs of current intelligence gathering.

The fact that he did neither, and passed the buck to a Bush sycophant to tell him what to do, speaks volumes abou this veracity and willingness to take orders, no matter how illegal.

Trust, but verify? Sadly, we have verified that Hayden cannot be trusted.

Mr. Arkin,
No one gets promoted and/or medaled in Bush world unless they do what they're told. Now we have a military man, which you share an affinity with, also used to taking orders. Now read these memorable words below, verbatim, directly out of Richard Perles mouth on this Administrations 'vision' for the future of our Intelligence Agencies

And remember all the other successful 'visions' Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have had, of which Hayden played a significant role.
The last thing the already demoralized CIA and an increasingly skeptical world needs is another yes man taking orders from a group of bloated, egotistical, money ladden CEOs' willing to twist the world into a portfolio pleasing mess!
You just picked the least bloated of the lot.


".....Saddam is in the terrorists business. The easiest thing for intelligence organizations to do is unconsciously slip into a world-view that becomes a filter that causes you either not to look, or even when you see, to ignore and fail to register information inconsistent with that world-view. And it has been the view of the intelligence establishment for a long time now that Saddam, who is secular and not a religious fanatic like Osama bin Laden, behaves in a manner different from the terrorists.

So they're not looking. Even when there's evidence; they tend to discount the evidence. I think they're simply wrong about this. And the evidence that we've seen in this film is very powerful, very impressive, and I hope that there is enough open mind left at the State Department and at the CIA so that they will re-assess the attitude they've taken on this issue."
Richard Perle July 2002

knewtheman:
You said: "I understand some citizens are worried. I can look them in the eye and say "You don't know him" and I would explain."

Here's the problem. We don't trust people in this administration. We don't trust people who tell us we should trust people in this administration based on their great "character." The press kept telling us that Bush appealed to people because he seemed like a "straight talker," a "regular guy"--a trustworthy guy. But that trust has been violated horribly: illegal, unnecessary, incompetent, unwinable war--manufacturing new terrorists exponentially; illegal secret torture prisons; illegal domestic spying; "signing statements" arrogating the right to ignore the laws if Bush feels that they interfere with "workings of the executive branch;" illegal retaliation against whistleblowers; illegal interference with elections (see James Tobin's 10 year sentence). Using the provisions of the patriot act to go after "eco-terrorists." Spying on anti-war protesters.

And at every turn they are covering up, obfuscating, burying dissent, and downright LYING over and over to the American People, and to a congress that rolls over and shows its belly. (Not to mention the wholesale corruption and greed of the members of congress.)

So a character endorsement--Shucks, he's just a swell guy (according to anonymous internet man)--isn't gonna do it.

Hayden launched and presided over a widescale criminal activity--and he shouldn't be confirmed crossing guard until an objective, thorough investigation is done, with criminal penalties if warranted. Today Hayden said that at first he believed "the program" was illegal, but Ashcroft gave him a memo (that he admits he didn't read) saying it wasn't, so he went ahead and did it. Is that the kind of rigorous defense of our civil liberties you want from the director of the CIA?

To math-nerd and scared above:

I'm a math geek (M.S., on my way to a PhD), too, but I think that, seriously, even if the false positive rate in catching terrorists would be 0%, the domestic spying programs would still be unconstitutional. Unless the administration provides proof to congress that the laws should be changed, what NSA and Bush's bunch committed were serious crimes and breaches of trust.

I do think that Hayden has (together with Bush and Cheney) the responsibility for illegal domestic spying, but saying that "there is no escaping that Hayden is also one of the key players in 9/11" is stretching it a little, isn't it, Bill?

Hayden seems qualified, even well qualified, and by the standards of this Administration that is extraoridinary.

But it can't be an accident that the guy directly involved in the breaking NSA scandals is put before the senate for a surprise, rushed confirmation just as the NSA is roiled in scandal for programs he supervised.

We know there is more information to come out about the NSA programs and we know the Senators are being forced to vote yea or nea on him (and by extension the NSA) before they have the facts. And, of course, before the next election.

This is how they got the Iraq authoraztion, isn't it?

Confirm Hayden, but don't let that serve as political cover for these programs. If they're legal, let's hear so from a judge. And if they're not, Hayden's being misused.

"Confirm, with reservations."

What typical Washington, D.C. cowardice on William M. Arkin's part. It's akin to those "hold" recommendations from Wall Street stock promoters ... er, analysts.

The fact is that, with respect to political appointments, you either confirm or not. "Reservations" are meaningless, and Mr. Arkin knows it. He's just afraid to said that he's willing to lay down for the Bush administration, as his newspaper has done on so many occasions over the past five years.

And when a stock "analyst" says "hold," what he's really conveying is that only a fool would buy the shares but he's too beholden to the company to come right out and say so.

America used to be a country where people called things by their real names.

Thanks, Bill. I can testify to that great integrity you recognize in General Hayden. I only wish more Americans could have the opportunity to work up close with him as I have. He is second to none in his dedication to both freedom and our liberties. He can take what is being dished out, but I am sure he is constructively thinking more about the tasks at hand--protecting our nation AND securing our liberty. I understand some citizens are worried. I can look them in the eye and say "You don't know him" and I would explain.

Does anyone have any information to confirm or deny that operation "firstfruits" is still going?

Mr. Arkin, it is ridiculous that you even bother to endorse the man at all. The reason you give "What we do know is that he is better than the likely alternatives that the Bush administration would come up with if he is not confirmed." is not a reason for endorsement. Try building a business with this hiring philosophy: "Well, as a manager this guy would suck, but he would be better than the other crappy managers we could hire."

You would kill a business pretty quickly with this philosopy, and we're killing our nation's constitutional rights and the rule of law with our constant application of "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Why, for once can't we hold the Bush administration to a higher standard? If Bush won't nominate someone who will protect our constitution now, let him keep nominating until he does.

Math-nerd:

Thanks. It really seems that the "data mining" as presented is actually more of a cover story. If they can sell it that they want access to all phone records for all calls made so they can look for supicious patterns (and that seems absurd to me) then nobody will ask any questions that go to the real motive. Even if for argument's sake you assume that they're telling the truth, that all they want to do is look for patterns, you can be certain that somewhere down the road someone is going to pop up and say "Hey, we can check THAT by re-examining the ophone records" and someone else will say "Hey, right. Do it." Nary a word about warrants, about unreasonable searches, about probable cause. They've already done the unreasonable search when they get the phone records to begin with. They'll just tell each other it's perfectly legal and then go ahead and dig through their voluminous records for almost every telephone call made.

I general, all the data mining schemes you hear coming from Negroponte and the like sound horribly naive, if not downright ignorant. Maybe on "Star Trek" you can say "Computer, tell me which of these emails is an indicator of terrorist activity" but in the real world it doesn't work that way - except for an extraordinarily clueless terrorist. If he's that clueless is he really much of a threat?

Last I checked "Star Trek" is fiction; we all live in the real world. (Except for various ones in the administration who clearly live in a fantasy world.)

Good God, did no one else see the interview in which Hayden showed he does not know the constitution? His actions for Bush show he doesn't care. We've given away the reasons America was special. It happened so fast.

Mike Hayden may or may not be the right choice for Director of Central Intelligence, but concerns about him being an active duty military officer are a red herring. The law permits it and shields him from command influence from the SecDef or any one else in DOD. It's clearly his last job as a military officer and anyone who thinks that general officers are unduly enamored of Secretary Rumsfeld hasn't been paying attention to the news recently.

Hewhoasks:

I didn't want to get into what they obviously are using this data-mining for, but I think you have it right. Even if you took all registered telephone numbers for people you know to be mostly innocuous out, you would still have tens of millions of unknown telephone numbers. The graph theory of who connects to what for nodes on which you have no information other than the numbers they call is ridiculous even for trillions of call records. You have to know more about the numbers, but they claim that they only look at who called who. Ha ha. So either they have more information for the telephone numbers or they are lying about the extent of the records they have. In any case, there is no way that they will get anything useful other than leakers of information that they don't want leaked. It makes me ashamed to be an American that a single political entity has hijacked the whole system under the guise of an ongoing war. The Democrats are lousy but hey, they aren't fascist enough to impose this kind of state-centered thinking.

you're talking about the beginning of something....

information streaming.

who among you has secrets that you don't want known?

a depression, a litigation (that can keep you from getting hired nowdays),

a drunken college night,

a dying parent that is taxing you financially, a spouse with an illness that means you are late on some bills...

losing a job and working as a department store clerk though you're trained in science....

lot of things that you don't want in the information stream....not because they're bad, just because they can be used against you...is it your fault that your dad was an alcoholic?

perhaps not, but a psych evaluation would place you at risk for becoming one too....

encroachment.

and in light of the fact that

the bush administration _manufactured_

the ?terrorist threa?

why are we giving up, reasonable doubt, oversight, and due process....

because we _need to_

or because this ahole is going to foist a new terrorist action on you so you don't get to elect a new president and his people

can prove that it really happened because they hold all of the key pieces that can control the information stream...

cherry pick it....has he done that to date?

yes.

ask the CIA.

FBI

NSA....and who did Peter Brookes work for, the ?unbiased? source of confirmation hired by the post to discuss the Hayden appointment?

rumsfeld.

.

I don't have a clue about.

I do know that we are in an occupation.

not a war.

I also know that bush hire s illegals and the Attorney General of the United States of America

did not take an oath before he testified before Congress about what NSA

was doing, whilst grinning like a drunken COYOTE....

I would have _required_ that he did,

but I'm not looking to persuade up toanyone because they'll be giving me "comity," pork, a bridge to Nowhere, because I _needthemoney_

like cheyney does, he's only got 91 million...wonder where that came from?

oil futures/kickbacks...honest work? at what?

that bodes ill for believability in my opinon...

but I actually have a brain, and I'm not

trying to please the wizard of OZ...

you did...

.

without oversight,

any surveillance is bs, it is not for the country it's being done for whoever has a wild hair to do what they think will be cool....

how many have done a project with people that want to _try_ something that means that you'll never get done or the boss is going to fire everyone...

what is wrong with oversight?

the other thing is this:

encroachment is like a child molestor, checking to see if they're dealing with someone that is innocent and can't protect themselves vs dealing with someone that has parents that have taught them about not letting _perpatrators_ touch them in

bad places...

YOU HAVE BEEN TRAINED

IN THE LAST 6 (ssix) years

to be _less_ sensitive to encroachment by perpatrators and predators.........

you have been desensitized to be taken advantage of....

where is the middle class?

being replaced by retail.

can you live on minimum wage?

why do we have minimum wage, why do we have child and labor laws?

because the ELITE _regularly_ gain control of the country and start making it all about them....

you want to get rid of the illegals without spending money?

arrest those that hire, arrest all congress people and people in the EXECUTIVE branch and Judicial branch that hire or consort with those that do...including their families.

take action to protect your country,

before it is sold to friends of this administration

>i.

and you are back in the peasant class...

.

.

this administration doesn't care about the American people....

and doesn't know how to show they do.

why else would they be sending 6,000 National Guard troops to "the border" and congress proposing a fence that will "stop nothing,"

they're responding like grade school children to

media pressure, which means that they don't feel "approved of," they haven't thought through any solutions...

outsourcing,
downsizing/internationalizing/having-company-incontrol-ofyour-economy-that-cares-jack-about-yourpeople,

_illegals_ as a resource for the riche,

changing the United States into a third world country for most of the rest of the people 3rd WORLD.

and who is the country being run for:

the Defense Department and upper class, only

PNAC as a visible plan for the country...

and that's okay....(who says?)

since when is it okay to run the country for the interests of a few ($70 Billion tax break for those making over $200,000),

which doesn't include most of the country,

so you've got the defense department, and big oil, and the elite banking on doing things quickly before you know what happened....

Arkin
You have made the case for NOT confirming Hayden. A General as CIA Director? What are you people thinking? Civilian and Military must be kept separate for the safety of democracy. A civilian agency needs to think civilian. Period. That Bush and his ilk (and you)can't see this is very alarming. Bush should nominatre a civilian acceptable to the Democrats i.e. the majority of the American public, and do it right.

My beef with Hayden has to do with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There is no doubt in my mind that this Warrentless wiretaping program is unconstitutional and illegal under federal law. Anyone who goes into the service swears to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. They also swear to obey the legal orders of the officiers appointed over them. I took that oath three times, and I have no tolerance of any violation of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. I want to see anyone Republican or Democrat in jail for such an offense.
As to 9/11, I do not expect the intelligence community to be perfect, and, as I said yesterday, insurgent organizations not connected to states are harder to detect and eliminate.

Mr. Arkin,

AMERICA NEEDS TO GET OFF OF THE SWING:

For it does not matter whether it's General Hayden, President George Bush 43, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Neo-Conservatives, Theo-Conservatives, Fiscal or Social Conservatives, Liberals or, Government State-Sanctioned Surveillance!

What really matters is that this inchoate nation, just over 200 years, is still in its pre-pubescent period after 200 years of its existence. America and Americans need to grow up. For this youthful and churlish nation with its outdated juvenile policies, and childlike leaders have not garnered the maturity to have or wield the power that it has mismanaged, domestically and on the international stage for the past one years.

What really matters is America's historical and systemic problem, i.e., that of duplicity, subterfuge and greed that is borne out and supported by its laws and misguided policies. That is also America's problem. Spying on Americans in order to help capture the enemy that is without, only delays us from dealing with our true enemy that is within, i.e., our own policies, poor leadership(s), subterfuge and greed.

Every 4 years or so, Americans go out en masse and vote for someone to come in to preside over the mess. Americans hope that by substituting the incumbent bodies with different bodies, things will change and the nation will either move forward to progressive change, or for some backwards to the period when only a small group of Americans were the beneficiaries of power, wealth and influence.

To the latter, that is when America was great, for the former, they are still looking to realize the dream that they believe that they were promised, but have never received!

Folks, those of you who are chomping at the bit to bring in an Independent or Democratic Administration to replace Mr. Bush and his group, I believe that you are going to be sorely disappointed. Sure, a new group will come in and make a few minor changes once they are in office, however, the tail will continue to wag the dog, and in the next 4 to 8 years, when voters head to the polls again, the pendulum will simply swing back in the other direction.

I believe that it is time to get off of the domestic swing, and to eliminate the swing of American and foreign, back and forth, terrorism! By the way, whose turn is it next to engage in a terrorist practice, the USA or the perceived enemies of the USA?

The next administration that will replace Mr. Bush will still only be the tail of the dog, however, America's anachronistic and misguided policies and its jaundiced citizens, totally out of place in the twenty-first century, will be the dog, and they will remain in place.

Can you believe that America still has an embargo against the sovereign Island nation of Cuba, for example? Similar to spoiled little children, America's policy for Cuba and most of the rest of the world is essentially this, if you don't do what we want you to do, we are not going to play with you anymore, in fact we are going to beat you up or tell our friends not to play with you either.

Remember when you were a kid, no one liked the kid much who would take his ball and go home if he couldn't let's say, bat first. America is that bully and spoiled child!

Folks, once again, we are in the 21st century. If one were to compare where we are as a nation, still shooting, killing, murdering, spying and taking our ball and going home, to children matriculating through the educational process, one would n easily conclude that America must have gotten, 'left back'. When will America graduate in to puberty and then maturity? For some of our leaders and policymakers, when they use your sons and daughters to kill off or neutralize everyone else who refuses to see things from their jaundiced point of view.

By now we should have graduated into peaceful co-existence and respect for each other as well as people in other nations of the world. Instead we have children providing over and creating policies, that are tantamount to little boys playing war with their little toy soldiers. What is sad, however, are the consequences that Americans and the world continue to experience as a result of this dangerous child's play (that always includes the USA).

We need to elect some true Stateswomen and Statesmen, who will have the realization and courage of convictions to work for change that will bring America into the 21st Century. For the latter will have dividends instead of negative consequences for the country and the world; and among others things, we won't have the desire to spy on every nation in the world including our own American citizens.

Does anyone realize how many spy satellites, and spies that America alone has stationed around the world? How many will there be in 2020? Is this the way that we will truly want our sons and daughters to live?

What I am sayng is that we need to sweep every one out of office, including too many in the Congress and on the Courts and make real change, with new policies and a new direction. For it is not just technology in the Federal Government that needs to be upgraded, everything else needs to be upgraded as well.

Until then, why not Mr. Hayden? For it won't matter who is in the White House, or who is appointed to direct the CIA, NSA or KKK, everything will mostly remain the same. The USA will remain a duplicitous nation that is bent on greed, war, spying and destruction!

Peace & Grace,

contractmonitor

You obviously have a specialised interest in defence contractors that a spymaster (to be) doesn't share.

Hayden is not supposed to be a lawyer but a broad based manager who employs lawyers to answer legal questions on treaties and defense contractors.

He'll probably get tripped up on employing an illegal alien as a cleaner 20 years ago (others have)! Who knows?

Pete

The last paragraph says it all - that if Hayden is not confirmed the Bush Administration will offer up a worse choice.

CONGRESS! DO NOT BE BLACKMAILED!

Hayden is a crazy lunatic who doesn't understand the Constitution, doesn't understand "probable cause", doesn't understand why we shouldn't torture. He's a right wing anti-evolution Christian fruitcake.

I was wondering what people think about the comments Hayden made regarding defense contractors--essentially, he said he "couldn't say" if the Geneva Conventions apply to them. Check out my blog (defensecontractor.blogspot.com) for more information.

Hayden is smarter than half the pompess members of Congress who are only interested in pork barrell projects for their constituents. They don't have a clue in hell what goes on in the intelligence community nor will they ever. The Press for some odd reason thinks it was elected to office. Some are the most treasonist of all.

Such negativity people.

William recognises that the job description of a successful CIA Director IS to be secretive and devious.

A CIA Director no longer requires the well rounded PR integrity expected of a DCI (that position has, in reality, been passed to Rumsfeld).

The guy is supposed to be an industrious backchanneler who expects his people to get out there and spy.

Look at the Russian or Israeli equivalents of the CIA Director. Do they have (or need) a public image. I'd venture they are doing a better job on smaller budgets and almost non-existent PR departments than the current CIA (humint wise that is)?

I, as a foreigner, would feel privileged to be spied on by this man - and I don't say this lightly.

Pete (the Aussie)
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/

This is what you say.....
"User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site."

And this is from the article by ARKIN...

"George Tenet was a never elected to anything, never challenged at anything Senate Intelligence Committee staff member who ass kissed his way to the top, stroking those in power with "slam dunk" echoes of the prevailing groupthink, glad handing the insiders with a combination of flattery and awe.

Tenet, it will turn out, is a miserable historic figure: the quintessential Washington jester, popular because of a buoyant personality and effusive and skilled at sucking up to those in power."

Looks like the old double standard is alive and well..

Hey! Folks can disagree with Bill, he is wrong sometimes, but even he'll tell you that. However, he is NOT a DC stooge or on Bush's payroll. He's a well-connected with the field, poorly dressed, loudmouth who needs a better proofreader. But he has his own mind and a stupendously wonderful way of reminding us that there are lots of powerful people who are still people, and that most of them are pretty lame at their jobs, not evil.

Not the best praise, but it's the kind that seems right for Arkin. Let's hope he keeps giving us all cause to comment.

Math-nerd:

I don't believe you. Even with trillions of phone call records it isn't going to be possible to detect terrorist vs. non-terrorist calling patterns. What you'll be able to do with just the call records is identify some number of "typical" calling patterns and some other number of "atypical" calling patterns. The more call records you analyze the more "atypical" patterns you'll find. The raw data alone will never give you anything that allows you to characterize any of the "atypical" patterns as being an indication of terrorist activity.

On the other hand, if you want to find out who has called reporters at the Washington Post you can consult the database and obtain the information. Then if you're trying to find who at the CIA has been making such calls you simply use a reverse phone directory and go through the list of numbers that have made such calls.

It's not data mining to find terrorists, its a means of implementing totalitarian spying.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

I wish Mr. Arkin had added a little more history.

Mr. Tenet was not Bill Clinton's choice, which was Anthony Lake, but Tenet was the man that the Republican controlled Senate said they would confirm.

"Swatting at flies might have been a pretty decent program if the Republican had let the Clinton administration actually do a decent job of it.

Instead their howling when Qaeda camps were bombed over all the poor dead terrorists stopped the program.

Then after 9/11 they claimed the camps were just dirt, but the Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the Unites States said that the camps were turning out more terrorists than the CIA and FBI were turning out agents.

BTW, math-nerd. I agree that data-mining is not likely to teach the Bushies much about terrorist networks. But I bet they have the number of everyone who ever called Cindy Sheehan, and everyone who ever called someone who called her.

This administration has been called worse than Nixon's. They spy on peace groups and store the information.

The fact that they are collecting calling records without a specific warrant is of great concern.

For what, in the end, turns out to be a rather tepid (not to mention weak) endorsement, the headline "CONFIRM HAYDEN" sure puts on a confident, authoritative tone... clearly, all wrong for the piece.

Here's a suggestion for a new, more accurate headline:

"PROMOTE RUMSFELD"

Professionals. Without quotation marks.

The need for professionals to be in charge of the CIA can be easily seen by looking at the CIA/DIA white paper that was issued while Tenet was in charge - the white paper that purported to be an analysis of the trailers found in Iraq. That "analysis" concluded the trailers were for biological WMD culture. The white paper is a pastiche of lies and deceptions, both of which were necessary for the white paper to reach that false conclusion. The white paper is blatantly unprofessional.

Then look at the annex to the Duelfer report that discusses those same trailers. That annex is based on fact, is done intelligently (it contains a flow diagram, something glaringly missing in the white paper), and reaches the proper conclusion: the trailers were for making hydrogen. That's what the facts show. Professionals look at the facts, base judgments on the facts.

The white paper very clearly was the work of non-professionals and was wrong. It's a black eye for the CIA and its professionals, a black eye the professionals don't deserve. The annex is the work of professionals and is correct. It contains what should have been reported in the white paper.

The white paper clearly resulted from a political desire to produce something that appeared to corroborate the administration's claims about WMD in Iraq. Non-profesionals had no problem in using the CIA as the channel through which to convey the lie. While the lie provided useful political cover for the administration it is likely that the judgment of history will be that the administration did not deserve such cover and should not have had it, that the cover allowed the administration to remain in power and ruin many more things.

Having professionals in charge of the CIA does matter. If the CIA is to be reduced to nothing more than the agency that promulgates administration lies and administration delusions it will utterly fail to perform its real (and vital) mission.

It is now extremely clear that there is no evidence of any kind anywhere that supports the administation fable about mobile WMD laboratories in Iraq. That is what the facts show, that is what was reported in the still-suppressed report from that reached Washington just days before the white paper was issued as was recently reported in the Post.) The professionals deduced the truth. The truth was marked "secret" and suppressed. An intelligence service cannot function if it is not run professionally. All the way, from top to bottom. "Professional" isn't a meaningless term, is not a self-applied mark of prestige.

To math-nerd, above: Please keep speaking out. I am not a math professional, but I am a computer professional, and I know that data-mining can be implemented and used by people who know nothing about math nor about its limitations. Members of the public hear words buzz words like "data mining" and "complex web of connections" and they believe that computers can do anything. But data mining is only really useful on a set of data that you fully understand.

What the NSA is doing is demanding vast sets of data from different companies who probably have totally different ways of organizing it that even the companies themselves don't fully understand. Then they are chucking into the pot internet data they don't understand (Remember them subpoenaing google and yahoo's search data, anyone?) Then they are pressing a magic button and Presto! you are an al qaeda associate. And it isn't a team of psychologists and statisticians and computer professionals determing that, it's an NSA field officer who can tell that because you flew on the same flight as somebody who somebody called, and you ate at the same restaurant as somebody else nefarious, plus you've read news off al jazeera, you must be a terrorist.

It sounds like Hayden has been totally snowed by the "awesome" technology the same way I've seen managers snowed at the companies I've worked for--thinking it can provide answers that it can't.

Hayden is the man who violated the line between using the tools of the NSA against other countries and using it against Americans. Now you want to put him in charge of the CIA, another agency with alleged safeguards preventing them from working against Americans? Are you crazy? Have you not heard of the rogue operations, slimy tactics, history of torture and assassination of the CIA? Do you really want the CIA sowing discord in American cities against American citizens? The best predictor of future behavior is past behaviour. Hayden, if he gets confirmed, will take that confirmation as a mandate to do the same thing at the CIA as he did at the NSA. And when it gets leaked to the press, William Arkin and the congress will be shocked--"Shocked, I tell you."

I find it interesting that the writer does not mention the news conference where Hayden insisted that the 4th Amendment said something different that it really does. Someone who has been conducting surveillance in the United States who has no idea what the 4th Amendment says, yet vociferously defends his incorrect reading of it as head of CIA?

The previous posters are also correct that Hayden staying in military service even as head of the CIA does mean that Rumsfeld is in charge of the CIA. And we know how good a job he's doing as SecDef, don't we? Why should we think that he'll do any better when possessing an undue influence over the CIA?

Conservatives constantly harp on the unreasonable Bush haters they see everywhere. They do not once mention the ideological opposite which is the Cult of Bush, which consists of former conservatives who have abandoned every principle they claim to hold in order to operate on a "principle" of blind loyalty to Bush. I see no reason to think that Hayden might not be a member of the cult.

Sadly, it seems that Bill has it just about right. And, I say that as an individual with 5 years of active and 10 years of reserve component service as a military police and military intelligence officer, once stationed at the Alternate National Military Command Center working with the Army Security Agency and the White House Communications Team near Fort Ritchie MD, and also at the US Army Intelligence Center and School, at Fort Huachuca AZ.

I don't know which is worse: the utter lack of leadership demonstrated by both George Tenet and Porter Goss, of the skilled but clearly questionable actions of Michael Hayden. The effective demotion of the DCI--once as the director, the acknowledged center of all intelligence activities, domestic and foreign--and the creation of the position now occupied by John Negroponte, has only served to neuter the CIA, and add an additional layer of bureacracy--not efficiency--to an already seriously damaged process. While there need not be an environment of mistrust between the Agency and the White House, there ought to be one of independence, distance and even skepticism.

This administration has tilted very dangerously to a position wherein the traditional balance of power between the branches has all but completely disappeared, where the independence of the intelligence process has been very seriously compromised, and where the DOD has assumed a far more significant and unhealthy role in the process of gathering, analyzing, disseminating and taking actions based upon intelligence.

We live in far more dangerous times than I remember in the early 1970s under Nixon. (I was on active duty and stationed at the ANMCC when he resigned.) Never in my lifetime has there been such a damaging combination of control of governmental functions and an utter lack of leadership, driven by a narrow and dangerous ideology. One need only look at the DOD under Donald Rumsfeld to realize how it will take decades to recover from his failed attempts to remake the US Army in his own pitifully inept view.

Although this government will ultimate begin to place Journalists in Concentration camps if it's power continues unabated, oddly i feel like the administration may spare William M Arkin because his conservative and dated perspective on humanity.

The Reich's of our Human history has always been with us, but thankfully for everyone alive right now, for the past 300 years, society has cast off the chains of thought control, through intimidation of free thought. At least in the developed nations.

This is post doesn't even begin to take into account what has happened when our government decided business interests like slavery, in the past. A variation of this human exploitation continues with our current causes for our immigration problems, which weakens our security of terrorists wishing to enter our country to do harm to it's citizens.
Dastardly this government chooses the unconstitutionally manner of collecting Intel, instead of the difficult job of actually spying face to face with your enemies. They are willing to pour eventual trillions into our war machine, but not to invest in the man power, and education dollar required to train the tens of thousands of spies to fully comprehend a independent global terrorist organization. This government is certainly the the first, and not that last that will chose preservation of power over the rights of man.

God Bless this country

Let's face the reality that it appears to most of us that Bush promotes from within to strengthen his own defenses, not those of this country. Harriet Miers should have told us something, and that was that he is bracing for his war against the coming investigations that will make Watergate look like Travelgate. As much as I agree with every point that Mr Arkin makes here with respect to the personal integrity and qualifications of General Hayden, there is that annoying buzz in the back of my head that says there is no one in Bush's network who does not play a role in his greater plan which is protecting the Republican party and ultimately his own skin.

The ship is slowly, slowly, turning around, but until this country finally gets over this 'never forget 9/11' mentality that allowed us to believe the lies we have been told which got us into this war and continue to believe the fallacy that only the Bush administration has prevented any other attacks (Who stopped Richard Ried - the NSA, or the people on the plane - AGAIN), our country is in serious trouble.

I simply don't believe that NSA will only be used for national defense and not political tactics, and this puts a wolf at the top of a herd of wolves guarding the henhouse.

I have lost the willingness to believe anything this president or anyone he appoints will say, and I fear for our country.

Thank you for letting me speak my mind. At least we can still do that.

To even characterize this waste of pixels "an argument" is to be too kind to the writer.

So now the excuse will be "I was just following orders".

Will General Hayden be subject to Military Justice while heading the CIA or Civilian Justice?

What will be General Hayden's "Chain of Command". This is an important Military Concept. Currently his chain should be through the Joint Chiefs to Rummy to the pres. Will this change in taking the CIA job?

Why as a citizen should I feel any comfort in General Hayden being the Manager who can rationalize the CIA into a world class organization? The Bush Administration's track record on filling important posts with great people has been poor to say the least.

Why should I trust the Senate to truely vet the requirements of the job and the qualifications of the canidate?

Pardon me while I pull the pillow over my head and pray for a miracle.

Ben Franklin said it best:

Those who choose safety over liberty deserve neither.

In what is nothing short of gross hypocrisy (gee, since when was that new in Washington?) they are defending America's freedoms by violating them.

This is a joke, right? A parody of the parroting of administration messages in the media... oh, now, it's just another example of the same uncritical brainwashing.
"Hayden appears on Capitol Hill today to explain the questions, loose ends and seeming contradictions about the administration's domestic surveillance programs." He's going to explain the questions, eh? The "seeming" contradictions? Did you read this before you published it? Come on, it's embarrassing!

Hayden's an "egghead", is he? It's amazing how these stock phrases get around, hey? Is "egghead" the new PR catchphrase to describe all the fat bespectacled generals who look like wusses, or just Hayden?

"Though he wears a uniform, suggesting subservience to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld..." Again, what are you, drunk? "Suggesting" is a bit of an understatement, n'est pas? That's excactlly what the unform means... chain of command, anyone? Hellooo?

How many affirmations without supporting evidence will you shamelessly make in this piece? Is your guessworks supposed to count for something special?

"These same "professionals" speak of the intelligence "profession" and the ways of doing things and integrity and the rules of intelligence and the apolitical nature of their work and the unfortunate politicization in the past five years. But they also have their own agenda: keep control of the agency in the hands of the professionals."

Hmmm, so, these professionals value honesty an integrity, disavow politicisation, and feel their job is best handled by professionals. These are bad things, in your eyes?

"Hayden has the confidence of the President and others in the administration; that's for sure."

Of course he does... he's shown his complete loyalty to the president, and his willingness to blatantly contravene law.

"First is the Congresses' own failure to resolve both the legality and the propriety of the program of warrantless surveillance revealed by The New York Times in December."

Oh my god,do you seriously not get it? No, of course you do, but you're still clearly a pawn in this game. It is precisely the ILLEgality an IMPropriety of the program that is at issue.

"The administration has failed to manage Congress and failed to explain to Congress the wisdom and legality of its various programs to fight the war on terror."

Again, this failure is a result of the logical imposibility of the task. How does one explain "the wisdom and legality" of something that is clearly unwise and unlawful? One simply cannot. Period.

"The Bush administration constantly says that this is a different war with different rules, and on this most people agree." Do you have any evidence to back up this claim? Of course not! And what does that mean anyway? What does that sentence even say? Of course it's a different war, every war is a different war... and as for different rules, yes, we can all see that old rules, like the Geneva onventions and the US constitution have been thrown out, re-written. Hurray!

"Hayden is unequivocal in defending the program as legal..."

Is this some shock, some surprise? Hayden is defending, not just the program, but himself and his actions, since the program wasn't legal. What's he gonna do, say I knew it was illegal but I DID IT ANYWAY? COME ON! Wake up!

Then you end the piece by saying it's a reluctant endorsement, the lesser of imagined evils, of even WORSE decisions made by the Bush League for a new CIA chief. Oh my god, obviously, nobody can possibly take you seriously, and I'd have to guess this includes yourself.

Here's a better idea: impeach your criminal president, replace his administration with one which is CREDIBLE, and let THEM choose the new CIA head.

So simple, so brilliant... it just might work, if you Yanks could stop bloody sleepwalking.

It seems most of the writers for the Washington Post are either on the governemnt payroll or are actively engaged in supporting the neo-nazis in the White House. Arkin is no exception. The Post has been reduced to being just another mouthpiece for the regime.

"The administration has ... failed to explain to Congress the wisdom and legality of its various programs to fight the war on terror."

Could that possibly be because those policies are unwise and illegal?

So you like Hayden? You do seem to have prediliction for SIGINT geeks...not hold over from FS Berlin is it?

General Hayden does not understand or ignores the Constitution and gropes for information like it is honey from a bee hive. he has demonstrated his lack of understanding of the Constitution by conducting secret warrantless searches domestically in violation of Amendment 4 of the Constitutiton. The scope of his violations has been attested to in the press, first by the warrantless international-calls monitoring, and second by the warrantless domestic telephone records collection by the NSA. We don't need such an ignorant or immoral man in charge of the CIA. We need a respectable and skilled director who cares about security, not the unbridled collection of information. He's gone fishing. I hope he gets stung.

Is there no more integrity in Washington?

Mr Arkin doesn't know what a "shoo in' is?? (he calls him a "shoe-in")

I like the emphasis you put on `SUCCESS' for the NSA data-collection program. As a mathematician working on data-mining problems, I am just amazed at the hubris of people who think that they can actually figure out anything from a few million telephone records. It would take trillions (or more) records to be able to do anything substantive. I guess knowing very little math (or anything else) is a great boon for `managers' (and politicians and journalists).

Are you KIDDING me!? The preceding two Directors were a disaster, and Hayden is "better than the likely alternatives that the Bush administration would come up with were he not confirmed"? This despite the fact that he has "been a part of this administration" (and intimately involved in the host of Admin. intelligence DEBACLES) "from day one"? THIS is your argument for confirmation?