Secretive Agency Under the Spotlight
Chief Tries to Repair CIA as Scrutiny Grows

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 5, 2008; A01

Soon after accepting the post of CIA director two years ago, Michael V. Hayden set an unusual goal for his scandal-beset agency: virtual invisibility.

"CIA needs to get out of the news as source or subject," he said in an internal memo to his staff in 2006.

Two years later, that goal is far from met, as Hayden has tacitly acknowledged. In a retirement ceremony last month marking the end of his military career, the Air Force general stressed the need for the agency to "stay in the shadows" while ignoring what he called the "sometimes shrill and uninformed voices of criticism."

The comment reflected the difficulties that Hayden's CIA faces in trying to turn the corner on six years of controversy at the same time that it attempts sweeping internal changes. While the agency's leadership has sought a return to normal and has launched initiatives intended to improve ties with lawmakers and foreign allies, it finds itself in the cross hairs of a Congress determined to force a reckoning over the agency's past intelligence failures and its conduct in the fight against terrorism.

In recent weeks, both the House and the Senate have intensified their scrutiny of the CIA's treatment of detainees, with Senate investigators launching new inquiries into whether agency lawyers influenced the Defense Department's decision to use harsh interrogation techniques in the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Both Congress and the Justice Department are examining whether top CIA officers broke the law in ordering the destruction of videotapes that recorded the waterboarding of al-Qaeda suspects.

At the same time, lawmakers are attempting to set new limits on how the CIA deals with suspected terrorists in the future, and even who at the agency may interrogate them. One measure would ban the CIA from using contractors to question detainees, while another would require prompt notification of the International Committee of the Red Cross when a new prisoner enters CIA custody. A third would again seek to limit CIA interrogators to a shortlist of Army-approved tactics, a restriction approved last year by Congress but vetoed by President Bush.

The prospect for passage of the measures is unclear, but the attempts have set back relations between Democratic congressional leaders and Hayden, who has been battling proposals that he says would undermine the agency's ability to protect the country.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Hayden acknowledged "changed circumstances" since the weeks immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he noted that the intelligence agencies must operate within the limits set by a democratic society. "We exist in a political context," Hayden said. But he warned that the threat of continual change is making it harder for counterterrorism officers to do their jobs.

"We cannot have an approach to terrorism that only uses the hated words 'renditions' and 'detentions' and 'interrogations' [and] that has an on-off switch every other November," Hayden said. "It has to have stability."

Hayden opposes many of the specific measures sought by lawmakers, adopting a stance similar to that of the White House and Republican congressional leaders. While he says Congress is free to ban specific techniques such as waterboarding, he contends that it would be a mistake to publicly limit the CIA to using only the interrogation tactics spelled out in the Army Field Manual, thus allowing al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups to know in advance what to expect if captured.

He also chafed at the proposal to ban contractors from participating in interrogations. In the early weeks of the CIA's secret detention program, the agency relied on outside experts -- mostly former military and law enforcement officials -- to structure and administer the interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects, because the agency had few experienced interrogators on its payroll.

"The person who does the interrogation is defined by only one thing: the best interrogator available for this subject," he said. "And it is less interesting to us whether the person is currently a government employee or is available as a contractor."

The conflict is partly a continuation of a decades-long tradition of clashes between the agency and its congressional overseers, though rarely have the underlying issues commanded so much unwanted international attention for the CIA. Democratic lawmakers behind the push for changes say sweeping measures are needed to send a message to the rest of the world.

"The Bush administration's embrace of torture and secret detentions has led our country down a dark hallway," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in unveiling legislation to restrict CIA interrogations. He said the proposals would "help put right what has gone so badly wrong, and restore the stature and goodwill this nation had earned around the world before this administration took office."

While the CIA generally declines to comment on specific interrogation policies, Hayden, now in his third year as director, has repeatedly asserted that the agency has moved away from practices that generated most of the controversy.

Four months after becoming CIA chief in May 2006, he presided over the emptying of secret CIA prisons and the transfer of al-Qaeda detainees to U.S. military custody. Hayden disclosed last year that the agency had abandoned the practice of waterboarding after 2003 and that it was no longer in the business of operating long-term detention facilities for terrorism suspects.

In a move viewed as intended to defuse congressional criticism, he also agreed to expand the number of lawmakers receiving classified briefings on the agency's counterterrorism programs. Previously, briefings about the most sensitive CIA operations had been limited to four lawmakers -- the top Democrat and Republican on the House and Senate intelligence committees -- who were prohibited by law from sharing details with others, including their staff members.

The reaction from lawmakers has been mixed. While Democrats generally describe Hayden as pragmatic and likable, some complain that his CIA remains unduly secretive and in lockstep with the Bush administration on controversial policies such as wiretapping and detainee interrogation. Some lawmakers are still angered over a decision last year to investigate the agency's internal watchdog, the CIA inspector general, which has been critical both of the agency's interrogation practices as well as its failure to anticipate the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I don't think anyone questions that General Hayden is a good manager," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). "But when it comes to the public's right to know, in some cases, he has been on the wrong side."

Hayden has had greater success in mending fences with foreign intelligence services, some of which had distanced themselves from the Bush administration since the start of the Iraq war. By late August, Hayden and his chief clandestine officer, Stephen R. Kappes, will have made visits to 50 foreign countries to cement relations with their intelligence counterparts. Other foreign intelligence heads have been hosted by Hayden at his private residence on the grounds of Bolling Air Force Base in Southwest Washington.

"[We] seek out their ideas, undertake common efforts," Hayden said. "We've given many of them secure phones so they can call me directly."