Bush pick for CIA chief causing confrontation

US President George W Bush’s nomination of Gen Michael Hayden as CIA chief ignited a confirmation fight Monday over the intelligence veteran’s ties to the controversial eavesdropping program and his ability to be independent from the military establishment.

With Hayden at his side, Bush urged senators to promptly approve the former National Security Agency head, who one year ago was confirmed unanimously to be the nation’s first deputy director of national intelligence.

“Mike Hayden is supremely qualified for this position,” Bush said in the Oval Office. “He knows the intelligence community from the ground up.”

CIA Director Porter Goss announced his resignation last week after tussling with Hayden and his boss, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, about the agency’s autonomy and direction.

Even before Hayden’s nomination became official, Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers had begun questioning whether he was the right choice to head the spy agency.

Hayden is credited with designing the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program. Disclosure of the program late last year sparked an intense civil liberties debate over whether the president can order the monitoring of international calls and e-mails in the US without court warrants.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa, has said he would use a Hayden nomination to raise questions about the legality of the eavesdropping program, and has not ruled out holding up the nomination.