US: Gen Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee for CIA director, strongly defended a domestic eavesdropping programme yesterday, saying it protected the country against terrorism and did not violate the civil rights of Americans. David Morgan reports from Washington
At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gen Hayden began with a plea not to make the CIA a political football. He won strong support from Republicans while most Democrats seemed wary about attacking him.
The toughest questions came from Oregon Democratic senator Ron Wyden and concerned Gen Hayden's role as architect of Mr Bush's domestic spying programme.
Mr Wyden said Gen Hayden had not kept Congress fully informed of the eavesdropping programme and had made misleading statements in previous appearances before Congress.
"General, having evaluated your words, I now have a difficult time with your credibility," Mr Wyden said.
"So with all due respect, general, I can't tell now if you've simply said one thing and done another, or whether you have just parsed your words like a lawyer to intentionally mislead the public."
Gen Hayden responded: "Well, senator, you're going to have to make a judgment on my character ... I was as full and open as I possibly could be."
Gen Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency, had been expected to face tough questions about the eavesdropping, which the administration has defended as legal and necessary to protect citizens after the September 11th attacks.
Under the programme, the NSA monitors international telephone calls and e-mails to or from suspected terrorists without first obtaining a court order.
Mr Bush nominated Gen Hayden, a four-star Air Force general, to replace Porter Goss, who was forced to resign as CIA director this month after clashing with US intelligence chief John Negroponte over the US spy agency's future.
The full Senate must vote to confirm the general as CIA director. Most independent experts said there was little from yesterday's session to suggest he would not easily be confirmed. The committee planned to hold a closed session later yesterday, where the questions might be more pointed but would remain secret.
The administration briefed the whole committee about the eavesdropping programme for the first time only on Wednesday. Wisconsin Democratic senator Russ Feingold said he emerged from that briefing convinced the programme was illegal and Mr Bush had misled the country about it.
As head of the NSA, Gen Hayden crafted and implemented the warrantless eavesdropping programme that remained secret until it was leaked to the media late last year.
Maine senator Olympia Snowe was the only Republican to complain that Congress had not been sufficiently briefed and consulted about the programme.
"I happen to believe that, with the programmes in question, that the Congress was really never ... consulted or informed in a manner that we could truly perform our oversight role," Ms Snowe said.
Earlier, facing friendly questions from Missouri Republican senator Kit Bond, Gen Hayden said the eavesdropping was narrowly targeted to suspected terrorists, closely supervised and regularly reviewed.