Feinstein Calls for New Intelligence Leadership

[babylonsister]

Feinstein Calls for New Intelligence Leadership
By Keith Perine and Tim Starks, CQ Staff


Dianne Feinstein , the California Democrat expected to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee next year, called Thursday for new leadership for the nation’s intelligence community.

“My view is that it’s time for a new start,” Feinstein said in an interview.

Her call deals a blow to the prospects of Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden carrying over to the administration of President-elect Barack Obama .

Feinstein is poised to take the gavel of the Intelligence panel from John D. Rockefeller IV , D-W.Va., who is expected to chair the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Both McConnell and Hayden meanwhile signaled publicly that they would like to remain in their posts under Obama.

Democrats who follow the intelligence community agree that cooperation within the intelligence community has improved under Hayden, McConnell, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Pentagon intelligence chief James R. Clapper.

But McConnell and Hayden have been outspoken defenders of the Bush administration’s surveillance and interrogation policies that have drawn critical fire from the same Democrats. Feinstein in particular has been critical of CIA interrogation practices she considers torture.

“I want to see the Senate Intelligence Committee with much closer oversight and a much closer relationship with the intelligence community,” Feinstein said.

A second Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Russ Feingold , D-Wis., echoed Feinstein’s call for new leadership in the spy community.

more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002986034

[SpiralHawk]

1. "What's wrong with the old, um, intelligence?" - Commander AWOL (R)

[slackmaster]

2. She's demonstrated a lack of respect for peoples' privacy a number of times

Put anyone in charge of it but her.