The Spy Master Cracks the Whip

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Goss's allies insisted the ex-spook's decision to leave was a mutual one. One Goss friend says that Goss resisted the DNI reforms not as a matter of turf but because he believed the CIA would lose critical skills if key missions were shifted to the DNI. "Porter was not just defending the agency's turf but also the principle of 'Do no harm,'" the friend says. "There were tensions. And what I think you had was a decision mutually arrived at."

If, as expected, Hayden takes over the CIA, the agency will more than ever become an extension of Negroponte's growing empire. A friendly and intense four-star, Hayden would be the first active-duty military man at the CIA's helm since Admiral Stansfield Turner ran the place for President Jimmy Carter. In the half-raw, half-coded patois some military men often favor, Hayden told TIME in a lengthy interview last month that only a strong central authority would make the intelligence agencies work together. "Let me tell you what we've learned," Hayden said. "There is no way to get a self-aware, self-synchronizing intelligence system without a kick-ass center because no one plays nice with each other voluntarily."

Until early last year, Hayden ran the supersecret National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md., which covertly eavesdrops on conversations worldwide. It was under Hayden that the Bush Administration launched a secret, warrantless wiretapping program that began capturing conversations of private citizens at home, causing an explosion of criticism last December for being outside the legal process. Senators will question Hayden closely about what other conversations the Federal Government may be secretly monitoring.

Goss's departure means Negroponte's next test will be facing down the Pentagon, which has steadily been gathering clout in intelligence since the war on terrorism began. Everyone knows that battle will make the tug of war with the CIA look like a warm-up, if only because Rumsfeld's skills as an infighter are unsurpassed. But Negroponte will at least have an ally in Michael Hayden at the CIA.