Informed Speculation

…was behind door number one:

President Bush has settled on Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as his choice for CIA director, and an announcement is planned for Monday, senior administration officials told CNN late Friday.

Hayden, 61, is the principal deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

If confirmed by the Senate, Hayden would replace Porter Goss, who abruptly resigned the CIA post earlier Friday after losing what intelligence sources described as a power struggle with Negroponte.

Hayden was director of the National Security Agency in 2001 when Bush authorized a controversial program allowing the agency to monitor the communications of people inside the United States who were in contact with suspected terrorists overseas without first obtaining a warrant.

Critics charge the surveillance program is a violation of law and an assault on civil liberties. Hayden has defended the program, insisting that it is a necessary tool to thwart terrorists and that the process of obtaining warrants is too slow and cumbersome to deal with “a lethal enemy.”

Intelligence sources told CNN that Goss’ resignation was triggered by differences with Negroponte over plans to move staff, including analysts from the CIA’s counterterrorism center, to other intelligence agencies.

Goss was worried about too many people being taken out of key roles, the sources said.

Hmmm…Hayden, eh?…

Say, did anybody think to clear this with Glenn Greenwald?…

UPDATE 11:51 p.m.: The NY Times weighs in:

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who senior administration officials said Friday was the likely choice of President Bush to head the Central Intelligence Agency, has a stellar résumé for a spy and has long been admired at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

But General Hayden, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, would also face serious questions about the controversy over the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program, which he oversaw and has vigorously defended.

His Senate nomination hearing, if he is chosen to succeed Director Porter J. Goss, is likely to reignite debate over what civil libertarians say is the program’s violation of Americans’ privacy.

Mr. Bush has often reserved decisions about top-level appointments until just before they are announced, but senior administration officials said Friday that General Hayden was the clear leading candidate.

Confirmation hearings would give the administration’s opponents a highly visible forum for questioning not only the eavesdropping program but President Bush’s overall handling of national security.

That’s Scott Shane reporting…methinks the editorial board won’t be happy with Hayden:

His departure creates a fresh opportunity for new and more creative approaches to intelligence. It’s a chance the nation can ill afford to squander. President Bush now needs to appoint a real reformer to this critically important job.

The WaPo is blunter about Goss’s departure, calling it a force-out:

…[S]enior administration officials said Bush had lost confidence in Goss, 67, almost from the beginning and decided months ago to replace him. In what was described as a difficult meeting in April with Negroponte, Goss was told to prepare to leave by May, according to several officials with knowledge of the conversation.

“There has been an open conversation for a few weeks, through Negroponte, with the acknowledgment of the president” about replacing Goss, said a senior White House official who discussed the internal deliberations on the condition of anonymity. Another senior White House official said Goss had always been viewed as a “transitional figure” who would leave by year’s end. His departure was accelerated when Bush shook up his White House staff in hopes of beginning a political turnaround.

Members of Congress privately predicted that Hayden, who once enjoyed tremendous support on the Hill, would face a contentious confirmation process over the Bush administration’s domestic spying program. Other sensitive issues, such as the existence of secret prisons abroad for terrorism suspects, also are likely to arise.