Bush Names Goss to Head CIA

For the past seven years, Goss has chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Before his election to the House in 1988, Goss was an intelligence officer in the Army and served nearly 10 years as a CIA undercover agent with postings in Latin America and Europe. He was deployed to Miami during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Bush lauded Goss's strong intelligence background, saying, "He knows the CIA inside and out." He said Goss would advise him on how to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, but he didn't say he would name Goss as the national intelligence director--a key recommendation. If an intelligence czar were established, the CIA director would lose some authority and would have to report to this new head of all intelligence operations.

Goss's nomination would sail through the Senate if only his qualifications, intelligence background, and strong support for reform were considered. But Democrats--especially Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and former CIA director Stansfield Turner--have voiced concern about Goss's partisanship, his independence, and the timing of the nomination just months before the presidential election.

If confirmed, Goss, 65, would follow in the footsteps of former President George H. W. Bush, becoming only the second member of Congress to head the CIA. He would replace Acting Director John E. McLaughlin, who stepped in when George J. Tenet resigned in July.