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Analysis: Spotlight on a Spymaster

Council on Foreign Relations

May 16, 2006
Prepared by: Robert McMahon

The vast U.S. intelligence apparatus, famously blamed for a failure of imagination prior to the 9/11 attacks, faces a new test today as it seeks to restructure and reform its operations. With that work underway, the Bush administration stirred new concern among Democrats and some Republicans late last year after acknowledging its terrorist surveillance system involved intercepting calls between the United States and abroad. Lawmakers in both parties were further aroused by a report last week from USA Today pointing to far more extensive data mining by the National Security Agency (NSA), which allegedly culled phone records from tens of millions of Americans. President George W. Bush says there is no government eavesdropping on domestic phone calls (AP) but has not directly addressed the report about compiling phone records of American citizens. Under pressure from Democrats, the White House today will brief the full House and Senate intelligence committees for the first time on the domestic spying program (NYT).

That issue will likely get its most thorough airing on Thursday when the president's choice to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Gen. Michael V. Hayden, goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a nomination hearing. Until last year, Hayden directed the National Security Agency, helping to set up a secret anti-terror program that included listening in on phone calls of suspected terrorist accomplices in the United States without warrants from the court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Hayden said earlier this year "one end of any call targeted under this program is always outside the United States." He added that for the NSA to do its job properly—that is, protect American lives—it has to be "powerful in its capabilities, and secretive in its methods."

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Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.