With his opening statement yesterday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gen. Michael V. Hayden left no doubt that he was a man on a mission to make the CIA the best it can be, a man with a vision for that demoralized Agency.  Priority Number One will be human intelligence collection — HUMINT.

He sees an increased use non—traditional operational platforms, greater emphasis on language skills and "the inculcation of what I would call an expeditionary mentality." He believes that a lot of agents want to get out in the field as operators collecting HUMINT, so he will ensure that they "have the right incentives, rewards, support & leadership to take those risks."  

Since the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) is also the National HUMINT Manager, Gen. Hayden will use that authority to "enhance the standards of tradecraft in HUMINT collection across the (intel) community.  He stated that he will "expect more from our human intelligence collectors (DoD, FBI, et al) — both in terms of cooperation & in the quality of their tradecraft." 

As DCI Gen. Hayden intends to "reinforce the Directorate of Intelligence's tradition of autonomy & objectivity, with a particular focus on developing hard—edged assessments."  Since its analytical product will serve as basis for important policy decisions "we ultimately have to get (that) analysis is right."  But on the other hand, he stated, "we must be transparent in what we assess to be true & what we just don't know."

Gen. Hayden will focus the Science & Technology (S&T) Directorate on developing programs to "enhance CIA's core collection & analytical functions." and will further integrate the S&T function into the intel community to "increase pay—offs from cooperative & integrated R&D."
Beyond these goals, Gen. Hayden will "vehemently push for greater information sharing within the US, among the intel community, and with other federal, state, local & tribal entities."

Further, Hayden believes that "users should have access to the information at the earliest possible moment."   That info sharing includes allies, so Hayden will  make the handling of intelligence relationships with foreign partners a top priority.  This will require, as the general noted, a paradigm change, from "they ask, we provide" to one of "information access" that would involve "opening more data bases to other intel community agencies as well as trusted foreign partners."

In closing, Gen. Hayden mentioned the inordinate number of hits taken by the CIA over the past few years, "some fair, many of them not."  He stated that "accountability is one thing — and we will have it — but true accountability is not served by inaccurate, harmful and illegal public disclosures.  I will draw a clear line between what we owe the American public by way of openness and what must remain secret in order for us to continue to do our jobs as charged."  Here's hoping this means he'll continue the crackdown on leakers.

So good luck to Gen. Hayden in his new job, though I believe his experience—based leadership will obviate the need for much of it.

John B. Dwyer       5 19 06