Looking at the Future of the CIA; Fake Guns
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: San Francisco's Barry Bonds just one home run behind Babe Ruth on the all-time homer list. Bonds hit dinger number 713 last night in Philly, deep, upper deck, right field. Not bad.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They still lost.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Oh, you know, details, details.</s>S. O'BRIEN: There is that.</s>M. O'BRIEN: There is that. Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.</s>S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. As we've been reporting all morning, Air Force General Michael Hayden's going to be the president's pick this morning to take over as the CIA chief. The official announcement is going to come a little bit later. The prospect of a career military officer leading the civilian agency already stirring things up in Congress. Let's get right to CNN's Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel. She's live on Capitol Hill for us. Hey, Andrea, good morning. What's the fallout been?</s>ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Well so far the reaction up here has been mixed. You've had some Republicans like John McCain who've given Hayden a thumb's up. You've also had key Democrats like Dianne Feinstein of California who's also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee also giving her blessing to Hayden. But what's raised eyebrows among many was the bombshell that Congressman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan dropping yesterday. Hoekstra said that he came out actually opposing the nomination, saying that he felt that to put a general in charge is going to send the wrong signal. Now it's significant because Hoekstra is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, a position that he took over when Porter Goss resigned to head over to the CIA. Now the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harmon of California, also echoed those concerns, as did Senator Saxby Chambliss, who's a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.</s>REP. JANE HARMAN, (D) INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The goal now is to transition the CIA into our premier spy agency. I am for doing that. That's not a skill set that Mike Hayden brings. Plus he brings the military background. Plus there's the issue of his independence. So the Senate has got to be tough and fair in these confirmation hearings or we may make a mistake.</s>REP. SAXBY CHAMBLISS, (R) INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I, too, have a little bit of concern, frankly, about military personnel running the CIA. It is a civilian agency. It operates differently from the way that the defense intelligence agency operates.</s>KOPPEL: Now among other key concerns we've heard echoed are the fact that Hayden was the one who developed that NSA surveillance program, the highly controversial program, and that he was also the one who was sent out to do spin control after "The New York Times" broke the story in December. So the perception, Soledad, is that he is perhaps too close to the White House and too close to President Bush and Vice President Cheney.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Could very much make for a very tough hearing. Andrea Koppel for us on Capitol Hill. Andrea, thanks. Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Andrea mentioned Congressman Peter Hoekstra. He joins us now from his office in Holland, Michigan. He is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman Hoekstra, good to have you with us.</s>REP. PETER HOEKSTRA, (R) CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, thank you. Good morning.</s>M. O'BRIEN: There's certainly been military people who have run the CIA in the past. What's your concern here?</s>HOEKSTRA: Well, I think you need to go back to the Intelligence Reform Bill that we passed about 18 months ago in December of 2004. There were two issues that we were very, very concerned about, that we continue to be very concerned about. And that is the relationship of the intelligence community to the Department of Defense, and it is also the growth of the director of National Intelligence. His office. And I think this appointment sends the wrong signal in both of these areas. It signals that we are not that concerned about having an independent intelligence community, independent of the Department of Defense. And the second thing I believe that it starts to send a signal is that the director of National Intelligence is going to become more of an operational office rather than an executive office.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it sounds like a lot of bureaucratic turf war kind of stuff to the average person listening to all of this. Help us understand why this is important for, you know, people who are concerned about their personal security.</s>HOEKSTRA: Well, very simply, military intelligence is focused on helping our troops in wartime. It is a short term objective, helping the soldier in the streets of Baghdad or in the hills of Afghanistan, giving them the intelligence to find and kill the enemy and keep our troops safe. The intelligence community needs to provide different kinds of information for those of us who are making public policy. The plans and intentions -- you know, what is Iran really thinking? What's North Korea really thinking? And we need to get it in an unvarnished way through a civilian, not through a military, lens.</s>M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, General Hayden is a pretty smart guy and, as a matter of fact, some people would say he's probably one of the most gifted intelligence operatives of all, whether military or civilian. You don't think he can adapt to the civilian agency?</s>HOEKSTRA: Oh, it sends the wrong signal. I'm not sure he can adapt. He is a distinguished tin guy but he spent a career in the military. There are, I'm sure, talented people with civilian backgrounds that we don't even have to have the debate about whether a military person should or should not be heading the CIA. This debate should be focused on creating a strong CIA, creating a strong, independent intelligence community and we're going to spend the next three or four months going through confirmation hearings in the Senate, talking about whether a military person can or cannot or should or should not head the CIA, and we're going to be talking about the terrorist surveillance program. Exactly the wrong things to be talking about at this critical moment.</s>M. O'BRIEN: It seems as if, in spite of all the talk, post 9/1, the commission reports, seems as if for all the billions we spend on intelligence in this country, it's still a big, fat mess.</s>HOEKSTRA: Well, I mean, this is why -- going back to the Intelligence Reform Bill, 18 months ago we had agreement between the House and the Senate, between Republicans and Democrats, between the Congress and the president on the direction that we all wanted to go and do -- all wanted to take in intelligence reform. We had agreement. We passed a major overhaul bill and now, 18 months later, I think the White House is renegotiating the parameters of that agreement. And so rather than continuing the road that we were going down on what we all agreed need to happen in the intelligence reform, we're now going back and I think we're renegotiating some of those aspects. And I'm not sure where the White House is headed and I am concerned because, you're absolutely right, we need to rebuild the intelligence community. We need a strong intelligence community to get there. We need a shared vision. We had it and now we are losing it.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Is the intelligence apparatus dysfunctional? Are we just as unsafe as we were pre-9/11?</s>HOEKSTRA: Oh, I don't think we're as unsafe. I think we've made major strides. We continue to make progress. But at the same time, al Qaeda's adapting. We still don't have an intelligence community that is as entrepreneurial, that has as flat of a structure. Meaning that, you know, people at the lower levels can make decisions or that is as quick as al Qaeda. That's where we need to get to. We need a lot -- we have a lot of work we still need to do.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Well, let's get on it, shall we?</s>HOEKSTRA: Absolutely. Let's focus on the issue that is are important.</s>M. O'BRIEN: All right. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, thanks for being with us from your office in Holland, Michigan.</s>HOEKSTRA: Hey, great. Thank you.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Well, the Pentagon is taking recruiting to some new heights. Passengers on some United Airlines flights are now being shown a 13-minute long videotape called "Today's Military." That's between standard in-flight programming. Five different military jobs are profiled in the videotape. A military source says the Pentagon is paying United about $36,000 for that service. At 37 minutes past the hour, it's time to check the weather once again with Chad. Hey, Chad, good morning.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Police in Denver say a suspect who was killed in a confrontation with officers this weekend was carrying a fake gun. Police say he stole a car and when they found the car, surrounded it. They say the suspect pointed a fake handgun at them. Then they shot and killed him. This tragic case is just the latest example of the growing danger of authentic-looking fake guns. Here's AMERICAN MORNING's Dan Lothian.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): At this police department west of Boston, Lieutenant Paul Shastany not only worries about real weapon.</s>LT. PAUL SHASTANY, FRAMINGHAM POLICE: This is a real Rouger 9mm semi-automatic handgun.</s>LOTHIAN: But also toys, like the airsoft pellet gun that have become very popular with teens and even some adults.</s>SHASTANY: This is a replica beretta airsoft gun.</s>LOTHIAN: Everything from handguns to assault weapons.</s>SHASTANY: If you're going to let children use these, make sure that they're adequately prepared to handle these that they're supervised when they use them.</s>LOTHIAN: Police fear more deadly accidents, like what happened to a Florida eighth grader. The boy was shot and killed in January by police who thought he was pointing a real weapon.</s>SHASTANY: And the consequences for a police officer shooting a youth with a plastic airsoft gun can be awful, devastating to the police officer, to the family, and we do not want to see that happen.</s>LOTHIAN: The problem is, these toys look extremely real, right down to the clip that holds the plastic pellets. So here's the test. Which gun is real? Which one isn't? If you don't know the answer, don't feel bad because even police officer who know so much about so many different weapons would have a tough time answering that question unless they had a chance to inspect the gun up close.</s>SHASTANY: And at that point then you can determine what it is. But a police officer on the street at 2:00 in the morning from four feet away can't determine the difference.</s>LOTHIAN: But what makes these guns potentially dangerous is also what appeals to teens, like Tom Woodward, a high school senior and police department intern.</s>TOM WOODWARD, POLICE DEPARTMENT INTERN: Kids want to have guns that look real. It's a new way to play cops and robbers.</s>LOTHIAN: Federal law requires that the tip of these toy guns be painted bright orange, but sometimes, like this weapon seized by Framingham police, they are repainted black. One of the biggest retailers of the guns warns on its website "mistaken identification of an airsoft gun may result in the accidental death of the user." And that it "must never be taken to a area in which a police officer or another person may interpret the airsoft as a real gun." Woodward says he follows those rules.</s>WOODWARD: We play in my backyard. We can play back there without people seeing.</s>LOTHIAN: That's exactly what police want to hear as they try to make sure the use of fake guns doesn't lead to real accidents. Dan Lothian, CNN, Framingham, Massachusetts.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a look at what's happening business-wise. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" just after this short break. We're back in a moment.