Gates' Views Have Differed From Bush

Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, left, looks on as Robert Gates, President Bush's nominee to replace him, speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, in this Nov. 8, 2006 file photo. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

"I worry that political leaders _ and particularly presidents _ will come to require absolute evidence before acting and, by that time, it may well be too late," he said. "But also there is the danger that they will act on the basis of ambiguous information and find that they were wrong."

"If intelligence is going to be used to justify a military attack or a pre-emptive action, it better be unambiguous and it must be timely," Gates said.

Among other observations in the Texas A&M speech:

_ TV pundits make it sound easy to capture terror leaders and heads of rogue states. "Locating a Saddam or an Osama bin Laden is a lot harder than it seems."

_ Intelligence officials need to be challenged on their information. "U.S. intelligence is rarely open with decisionmakers, including presidents, about the quality and freshness of its information and of its sources."

_ Analysts probably did not overstate their conclusions about Iraq's weapons because of pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney or others. "One of my favorite sayings about Washington is, 'Never mistake for malice that which is easily explained by stupidity and incompetence.' I think when the analysts have erred, it has been due more to incompetence than it has to political pressure."

Bush announced Gates' nomination hours after a bruising defeat for Republicans in the midterm elections. With Congress still on recess, it's not yet clear how much opposition his nomination might face.

The White House would like to get Gates confirmed quickly, while the Republicans are still in control.

In hearings on his 1991 nomination to be CIA director, he was accused of slanting Cold War intelligence to support the White House. He also was questioned about his knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration.

A 1993 report from Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh noted that Gates was close to many figures who played significant roles in the arms-for-hostages scandal, but Walsh didn't charge him. The prosecutor said he lacked proof that Gates lied when he said he did not recall knowing that proceeds from arms sales to Iran were being diverted to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Gates defended his actions in his 1996 memoir, "From The Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War."

"I was criticized for willfully keeping myself uninformed on what was going on in Central America, and for not aggressively looking into both the Iran and Contra operations" after becoming deputy director of the CIA, Gates wrote. But he added: "I was new to the job and was trying to learn the ropes while all this was going on."

A trusted national security aide to the elder Bush, Gates also has a resume that has intersected with top current officials, including CIA Director Michael Hayden and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. However, he has expressed mixed feelings about Washington and working in a Cabinet.

"There is nothing comparable to working at the White House," he wrote in his book. "The pace is frenetic and the hours impossible. Intrigue. Backstabbing. Ruthless ambition. Constant conflict. Informers. Leakers. Spies. ... Egos as big as surrounding monuments. Battles between Titans. Cabinet officers behaving like children. High-level temper tantrums."

Some wonder why Gates is returning, given his fondness for Texas A&M. Bush asked him to be the country's first national intelligence director, and he turned it down last year.

"Washington, D.C., is my past. Texas A&M is my present and my future _ at least for a while," Gates told the students there last fall. "There is no position or opportunity for me now more significant than president of Texas A&M University. And none I would trade it for."

That is, until now.