The Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT) July 10, 2004
Shays named as short-list candidate to replace CIA chief
By Peter Urban
WASHINGTON - Rep. Christopher R. Shays, R-4, was surprised and flattered by a newspaper report this week saying he is on a short list to direct the embattled Central Intelligence Agency.
"I was surprised by it," Shays said Friday. "If I had the opportunity to do something like that, I would certainly consider it - but nobody is asking."
The Washington Post, quoting an unnamed senior Bush administration official, reported Thursday that Shays was being considered along with at least four others to replace George J. Tenet, who retired under fire Thursday as CIA director.
The White House indicated it may name a replacement in the next few days, which would give the Senate less than two weeks to act before its summer recess, the Post said.
Shays said that he has not been asked or approached by anyone within the Bush administration about heading the agency.
"It's probably a list out there to see how people react," Shays said.
The short list, the Post reported, includes: Shays, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.
Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., a former CIA case officer and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was an early favorite, but Democrats reportedly objected to him.
The speculation came as a Senate investigation Friday blamed the CIA and other intelligence agencies for wholesale failures before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said it is extremely unlikely Bush would nominate a replacement prior to the November elections, given the almost certain opposition Senate Democrats would have to confirming any candidate with a whiff of partisanship.
"I just think it is too close to the election for them to confirm anybody," Pike said.
As to Shays, Pike said he is evidently conversant on national security matters, is not seen as a polarizing figure and has no ties to the CIA that would cloud his judgments over needed reforms.
Shays has not served on the House Intelligence Committee, which has direct oversight of the CIA, but is chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee that oversees national security issues. He has held dozens of hearings before and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on domestic terrorist threats. As subcommittee chairman, Shays also has butted heads with Tenet over a number of issues, most notably the CIA's role in covering up the fact that tens of thousands of American troops may have been exposed to chemical agents when an Iraqi ammunition depot was blown up during the Gulf War.
Two months before the Sept. 11 attacks, Shays bitterly complained about CIA refusal to cooperate with congressional oversight other than that initiated by the Select Intelligence Committee.
"National security will be enhanced, not undermined, by the full exercise of congressional oversight authority," Shays said at the opening of a hearing on July 18, 2001. "We have a keen interest in how effectively and efficiently the CIA and other intelligence agencies meet statutory programs and objectives."
The CIA is now under intense scrutiny over intelligence failures before the 2001 terrorist attacks and before President Bush declared war on Iraq.
Shays said that whoever is tapped to take the CIA helm has a major job ahead of him.
"We have to improve our intelligence gathering and we have to do a better job of integrating this information and knowing what is good information and what isn't," Shays said.
As for who should get the job: "I think Armitage would be my choice," Shays said. "He has tremendous experience in the military and outside. He has done a terrific job at State. He knows where the bodies are buried. And, he has tremendous contacts."
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