Snubs critics & picks gen. to head CIA
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 

WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday thumbed his nose at congressional critics by tapping Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA.

And in a pointed rebuke of former CIA Director Porter Goss, the White House also moved to rehire Steve Kappes as Hayden's deputy.

Goss' treatment of Kappes, who ran the CIA's clandestine operations, prompted Kappes and his deputy, Michael Sulick, to abruptly quit in protest in 2004.

Bush's intelligence czar John Negroponte said he is "seriously looking at" Kappes as the "leading contender" for the No. 2 job at the CIA's Langley headquarters.

"There is a message there. This is an acknowledgment [by the White House] that there were mistakes made," said John Brennan, a retired CIA officer and former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Kappes has since taken the top job at the bodyguard firm ArmorGroup, which protects dignitaries in Iraq.

"He is highly, highly regarded" within the CIA, said an intelligence official, who welcomed the selection but said it's not clear Kappes will give up his lucrative civilian job.

"He'll be well received," former CIA agent Larry Johnson said. "It'll calm the waters."

Frederick Rustmann, a former CIA station chief, agreed that hiring Kappes back at CIA sends "a great message and it's exactly what is needed" to rebuild the spies' morale.

But in a sign the backbiting hasn't abated, intelligence sources said Hayden, a four-star Air Force general who also led the National Security Agency, might not be so welcome at the CIA. One source said Hayden tried to force Goss to hire White House favorites, and the outgoing CIA chief's refusals led to his firing.

Hayden's nomination also has been criticized because as a military officer, he may not be sufficiently independent from the Pentagon.

He is also the author of the Bush administration's controversial domestic eavesdropping program.
And while he is considered a whiz at electronic spying, Hayden has no experience in recruiting human spies.

Hiring Kappes may alleviate concerns about Hayden's techno-spying background, experts said.
"[Kappes] bolsters Hayden's bankruptcy of experience in human intelligence collection, because Steve is one of the best," said ex-CIA Osama Bin Laden hunter Michael Scheuer.

In naming Hayden as his choice, Bush stressed the Air Force general's long experience as a "provider and a consumer of intelligence."

"He's the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history," Bush said.