GOP lawmaker criticizes spy chief

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee has lashed out at CIA Director Michael Hayden for bringing back and promoting an officer who quit the agency in protest.

Hayden announced last week he had named Michael Sulick, a longtime spy who recruited Soviet agents in Eastern Europe, as head of the clandestine service.

Sulick quit a senior post in the clandestine service in 2004 when aides to then-Director Porter Goss, a former Republican congressman, wanted to transfer the officer to New York and put their own man in the job.

“I think it’s very disappointing,” Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., told The Examiner of Sulick’s rehiring. “It’s a decision made by Gen. Hayden that is clearly a poke in the eye of his predecessor, Porter Goss, but more importantly it’s a stick in the eye of the president.”

Added Hoekstra, top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, “Sulick did undercut Porter and Porter’s agenda and thereby undercut the president’s agenda. For his behavior, he gets welcomed back into the CIA and gets welcomed back with a promotion.”

The CIA Thursday provided a fierce defense of the veteran covert officer.

“Michael Sulick built his distinguished career on operational tradecraft and leadership skill,” said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. “He is committed to the change his profession demands in crucial areas ranging from innovative operational platforms to cover, information sharing and more.”

“It would be wrong to assume the administration did not know of this vital appointment in advance,” Gimigliano said.

An intelligence official, who asked not to be named, said Sulick’s resignation had nothing to do with opposing reform. This official declined to comment on why Sulick left.

Goss, who succeeded George Tenet, took over an agency that had been roundly criticized by a bipartisan congressional committee in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Goss believed the clandestine service was not productive enough and was too afraid to take risks. He met stiff opposition from the Langley headquarters and was forced out by the administration after 18 months.

“It’s clear under Gen. Hayden that reform will not take place,” Hoekstra said. “He’s made his decision that he will buy in with the group of people at the CIA who believed there are no problems at the CIA.”

Gimigliano responded by saying Hayden, a four-star Air Force officer, has issued a “strategic blueprint” as a “road map for continued change. Intelligence is not a field in which you can ever afford to stand still. Our enemies are always learning and adapting. So is the CIA.”

rscarborough@dcexaminer.com

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