Lawmakers Criticize CIA Director's Review Order

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said that Hayden "firmly believes that the work of the Office of Inspector General is critical to the entire agency" and since taking over CIA "has accepted the vast majority of its findings." He described Dietz, who served as National Security Agency general counsel when Hayden headed that agency, as "a seasoned observer" from outside the agency who can "if need be, suggest specific improvements for consideration by the [IG] unit itself."

The senior intelligence official described it as an "effort in-house to determine whether the complaints [Hayden] was receiving had merit," the senior intelligence official said. "Nothing that rises to the level of asking some outside group to put this IG under a microscope." It was to be, he added, "a careful, discreet inquiry."

Suzanne Spaulding, a former CIA associate general counsel and former senior staff member on the Senate and House intelligence panels, said the review had created "an appearance of attempted intimidation" of the inspector general.

But Jeffrey H. Smith, CIA general counsel during the Clinton administration, cautioned yesterday that "inspector general second-guessing on legal authority, using their own lawyers, may result in risk aversion by officers in the future." He added that an IG "is engaged in looking backwards with 100 percent clarity and does not have the pressures on them and risks the operators face."

Smith noted that the CIA inspector general not only finds facts but also suggests "what disciplinary actions should be taken. That converts him into a prosecuting attorney."

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.