White House under pressure to pick new CIA chief quickly

WASHINGTON – US President George W Bush is facing pressure to nominate a permanent CIA director quickly after a Senate Intelligence Committee report revealed serious breakdowns in US intelligence-gathering and analysis.

George Tenet left office on Sunday after announcing in early June that he was resigning for personal reasons. That leaves Tenet’s deputy, John McLaughlin, in charge as acting CIA director until a new appointment is made.A senior administration official said in early July an announcement could happen soon, but a White House spokeswoman gave no indication on Sunday as to specifically when.Appearing on Sunday television news shows, senators leading the intelligence committee urged Bush not to delay, saying the country couldn’t wait until after the November election given the current terrorist threat.Their comments came two days after the panel concluded the CIA provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq with weapons of mass destruction.”An acting director for the next six or seven months, during such a dangerous period for the United States, with all of these talks about attacks on the United States, is not acceptable,” said West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, the committee’s top Democrat.Federal officials said last week that intelligence from militant-linked Web sites and elsewhere indicated al Qaeda wants to attack the United States to disrupt the upcoming elections.The government is putting in place elaborate security plans for the political conventions this summer in Boston and New York.Also, officials are considering how to secure polling places in November.Such security measures require a strengthened CIA, Rockefeller said.Without mentioning names, Rockefeller said there were four or five candidates who could get quick bipartisan support if Bush were to nominate them now.Meanwhile, senators are at odds over whether administration officials had pressured intelligence analysts to reach predetermined conclusions on the Iraq threat.The White House’s role will be examined in a second phase of the committee’s investigation, which probably will not be finished until after the election.Rockefeller said the administration should be held partly accountable for what he considered to be an undue interest in invading Iraq after the September 11 2001, attacks.”In the meantime, we have created, therefore, the lowest standing of the United States in our history around the world; more people trained and being trained for probably a generation or so to come to hate us and to try and hurt us abroad and here in the homeland,” the Democrat said.Roberts said the White House should not be blamed for asking tough questions of analysts and making public statements such as those referring to a “mushroom cloud” – which is produced after a nuclear explosion – in describing the Iraqi threat.”The information that was provided to the president and to the Congress – that led to the same kind of assertive comments that the same critics are now blaming the president for – was flawed,” he said.The lawmakers appeared on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’, ‘Fox News Sunday’ and CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’.That leaves Tenet’s deputy, John McLaughlin, in charge as acting CIA director until a new appointment is made.A senior administration official said in early July an announcement could happen soon, but a White House spokeswoman gave no indication on Sunday as to specifically when.Appearing on Sunday television news shows, senators leading the intelligence committee urged Bush not to delay, saying the country couldn’t wait until after the November election given the current terrorist threat.Their comments came two days after the panel concluded the CIA provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq with weapons of mass destruction.”An acting director for the next six or seven months, during such a dangerous period for the United States, with all of these talks about attacks on the United States, is not acceptable,” said West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, the committee’s top Democrat.Federal officials said last week that intelligence from militant-linked Web sites and elsewhere indicated al Qaeda wants to attack the United States to disrupt the upcoming elections.The government is putting in place elaborate security plans for the political conventions this summer in Boston and New York.Also, officials are considering how to secure polling places in November.Such security measures require a strengthened CIA, Rockefeller said.Without mentioning names, Rockefeller said there were four or five candidates who could get quick bipartisan support if Bush were to nominate them now.Meanwhile, senators are at odds over whether administration officials had pressured intelligence analysts to reach predetermined conclusions on the Iraq threat.The White House’s role will be examined in a second phase of the committee’s investigation, which probably will not be finished until after the election.Rockefeller said the administration should be held partly accountable for what he considered to be an undue interest in invading Iraq after the September 11 2001, attacks.”In the meantime, we have created, therefore, the lowest standing of the United States in our history around the world; more people trained and being trained for probably a generation or so to come to hate us and to try and hurt us abroad and here in the homeland,” the Democrat said.Roberts said the White House should not be blamed for asking tough questions of analysts and making public statements such as those referring to a “mushroom cloud” – which is produced after a nuclear explosion – in describing the Iraqi threat.”The information that was provided to the president and to the Congress – that led to the same kind of assertive comments that the same critics are now blaming the president for – was flawed,” he said.The lawmakers appeared on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’, ‘Fox News Sunday’ and CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’.