Bush backs Goss for CIA chief position

US PRESIDENT George W Bush yesterday nominated Republican Porter Goss of Florida to head the CIA, saying the former undercover operative “knows the CIA inside and out” and can bolster its spy network.

“He is well prepared for this mission,” Bush said of Mr Goss, the House intelligence committee chairman, who was an army intelligence operative before joining the CIA in the 1960s.

“He’s the right man to lead and support the agency at this critical moment in our nation’s history.”

Goss, whose nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, had been mentioned in speculation about a successor to departed CIA director George Tenet, who left amid criticism of the agency’s handling of pre-war intelligence on Iraq.

Bush still has a major decision to make. He has embraced a cornerstone recommendation by the commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks: creation of a new intelligence czar to oversee the activities of the CIA and more than a dozen other intelligence agencies. Bush has not yet named the czar.

“Every American knows the importance of getting the best possible intelligence we can get to our decision-makers,” Goss said in the Rose Garden.

Retired Adm. Stansfield Turner, CIA chief during the Carter administration and supporter of John Kerry’s presidential bid, said Goss’ selection marked “a bad day for the CIA”.

Goss was chosen “to help George Bush win votes in Florida,” he said.

“This is the worst appointment that’s ever been made to the office of director of central intelligence because that’s an office that needs to be kept above partisan politics,” Turner said.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan would not rule out Goss being named intelligence czar, if Congress creates the position.

If the president names a czar, his CIA chief would essentially be required to report to the new head of all intelligence operations.

The CIA had no comment on the appointment.

Congressman and ex-agent

SHOULD Porter Goss take over the CIA, it would come at a pivotal moment.

The leaders of various intelligence agencies worry about a series of high-profile events this summer. It is widely believed that al-Qaida and its allies might try to strike the US in a way that replicates the political and economic impact of March’s train bombings in Madrid.

Mr Goss graduated from Yale in 1960 and launched a career in clandestine operations, working for Army intelligence for two years and eventually the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.

When he entered politics, Mr Goss had to get special permission to reveal that he was associated with “the agency” for roughly a decade, reportedly in Europe and Latin America.

He still doesn’t discuss classified details of his work, although he has said he was in Miami during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Mr Goss has served in Congress for 16 years, including eight years as House Intelligence chairman. He planned on making his 2000 election bid his last, but stayed on after 9/11.