Thinker, Briefer, Soldier, Spy

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Hayden spent two years in the 1980s hunting military secrets of the cold war as a defense attaché in the U.S. embassy in Bulgaria, where, according to the Times of London, he was known to dress as a workman and ride buses listening to off-duty soldiers talking (he speaks Bulgarian). That was about the extent of his undercover work; he was always more in the business of data analysis than field operations. He has considerable public relations savvy. When he took over the NSA in 1999, it was still a very secretive place--the nerve center of U.S. espionage--and what little was said about it wasn't good. He helped elevate the agency through careful cultivation of patrons on the Hill as well as selected reporters and writers. He even let in the occasional TV crew. He also shifted the agency's mission from monitoring spies from the former Soviet bloc to tracking terrorists. Two days after 9/11, he told his stricken staff, "Right now, a quarter of a billion Americans wish they had your job, to go after the enemy." When John Negroponte was named the first director of national intelligence (DNI) in 2005, Hayden was a natural choice to become his principal deputy.

Some lawmakers, like Goss's friends House Speaker Dennis Hastert and fellow Republican Peter Hoekstra, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, say they worry about putting a military man in charge of the CIA when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been expanding an empire that already absorbs about 80% of the U.S. intelligence budget. In that view, the CIA needs to remain an independent counterweight to the Pentagon, another set of eyes, ears and instincts, not become a subsidiary of it. But Hayden has hardly been acting like a covert Rumsfeld agent. In his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in August 2004, he strongly supported the plan to create the DNI role, over Rumsfeld's objections, and he even proposed--to no avail--that the NSA be moved out of the Pentagon and into the DNI portfolio.

Rumsfeld, who was not pleased, called Hayden into his office to chew him out. Hayden argued that his sworn duty as a general was to give his honest opinion when asked. So among CIA insiders, his appointment to head the largest civilian intelligence agency hardly represents a Rumsfeld coup. During private meetings on the Hill in advance of confirmation hearings scheduled to begin this week, Hayden said he would consider retiring from the uniformed military as part of assuming the CIA job. It may be that, in spirit at least, he already has.

A well-placed intelligence official said that as deputy DNI, Hayden has been fully engaged. More orders seem to be issued, more memos signed and pushed out the door when Negroponte is on the road and Hayden is running the show, the source observed. That energy, along with his alliances throughout the intelligence community and his standing on the Hill, could help Hayden rebuild morale at an agency that has suffered from public failures and private infighting. Many officers in Langley, Va., were ecstatic over the news that the unpopular Goss was leaving and that Hayden hopes to make Stephen Kappes--a respected veteran of covert operations who quit on Goss-- his deputy.