For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 13, 2006
President's Radio Address
Audio
In Focus: National Security
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week I nominated General Mike Hayden
to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The work of
the CIA is essential to the security of the American people. The
enemies who struck our Nation on September the 11th, 2001, intend to
attack us again, and to defeat them, we must have the best possible
intelligence. In Mike Hayden, the men and women of the CIA will have a
strong leader who will support them as they work to disrupt terrorist
attacks, penetrate closed societies, and gain information that is vital
to protecting our Nation.
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General Hayden is supremely qualified to lead the CIA. For the last
year, he's been our Nation's first Deputy Director of National
Intelligence, and has played a critical role in our efforts to reform
America's intelligence capabilities to meet the threats of a new
century. He has more than 20 years of experience in the intelligence
field. He served for six years as Director of the National Security
Agency and has a track record of success in leading and transforming
that large intelligence agency. He also has held senior positions at
the Pentagon and the National Security Council, and he served behind the
Iron Curtain in our embassy in Bulgaria during the Cold War.
Mike knows our intelligence community from the ground up. He's been
both a producer and a consumer of intelligence and has overseen both
human and technical intelligence activities, as well as the all-source
analysis derived from those activities. Mike was unanimously confirmed
by the Senate last year for his current post, and this week members of
both parties have praised his nomination. I urge the Senate to confirm
him promptly as the next Director of the CIA.
During General Hayden's tenure at the NSA, he helped establish and run
one of our most vital intelligence efforts in the War on Terror -- the
Terrorist Surveillance Program. As the 9/11 Commission and others have
noted, our government failed to connect the dots in the years before the
attacks of September the 11th. We now know that two of the hijackers in
the United States made phone calls to al Qaeda operatives overseas, but
we did not know about their plans until it was too late.
So to prevent another attack, I authorized the National Security Agency
-- consistent with the Constitution and laws -- to intercept
international communications in which one party has known links to al
Qaeda and related terrorist groups. This terrorist surveillance program
makes it more likely that killers like the 9/11 hijackers will be
identified and located in time. It has helped prevent possible
terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad, and it remains
essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our
country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it. We
will not sit back and wait to be attacked again.
This week, new claims have been made about other ways we are tracking
down al Qaeda to prevent attacks on America. It is important for
Americans to understand that our activities strictly target al Qaeda and
its known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their
plans. The intelligence activities I have authorized are lawful and
have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican
and Democrat. The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all
our activities. The government does not listen to domestic phone calls
without court approval. We are not trolling through the personal lives
of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused on links to
al Qaeda terrorists and its affiliates who want to harm the American
people.
Americans expect their government to do everything in its power under
our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties.
That is exactly what we are doing. And so far, we have been successful
in preventing another attack on our soil. The men and women of the CIA
are working around the clock to make our Nation more secure. I am
confident that General Hayden will strengthen the CIA and integrate its
vital work with our other intelligence agencies, so we can defeat the
terrorists of the 21st century.
Thank you for listening.
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