Lawmakers Hear Progress Report on New Spy Chief

In his first three months on the job, the nation’s intelligence czar has used his authority to shift resources among spy agencies and begun an extensive review of one of America’s most expensive espionage programs, the deputy director of intelligence testified Thursday.

The comments by Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden suggest that he and Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte are moving swiftly to consolidate control over intelligence budgets that previously were scattered among 15 agencies and largely dominated by the Pentagon.

Hayden said Negroponte’s staff was only partly assembled and was spread out among several temporary quarters in Washington.

Still, he said, the director’s office had taken over important functions -- including briefing the president -- and was managing key aspects of the intelligence community.

“I don’t think anyone can accuse us of still being in the starting blocks,” Hayden said.

The creation of an office to oversee national intelligence came amid sweeping reforms prompted by intelligence failures leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq. Hayden’s testimony before a House intelligence subcommittee was his first progress report on the changes.

Critics have questioned whether the director of national intelligence was given adequate authority to resist encroachment by the Pentagon and to direct the activities of previously autonomous spy agencies. Some lawmakers have expressed interest in adjusting the director’s powers.

But Hayden said the new alignment had made the intelligence community more agile and able to adapt to terrorism and other threats. He urged lawmakers to resist further changes.

“Let me make a plea to the committee that we let the legislative dust settle just a bit,” he said.

At one point, Hayden said the director’s office had “already taken reprogramming action,” referring to the transfer of funds or other resources from one agency to another. He did not elaborate on the moves.

A spokeswoman for the director’s office said the changes so far had involved funding and not personnel. But she added that employees probably would be transferred from the CIA or other agencies to a new center being established to track weapons proliferation.

Hayden said the director’s office would issue an assessment of a costly spy program being considered by Congress. He did not identify the program, saying, “It’s a very classified program, but it’s very expensive, very important.”

Hayden may have been referring to a new generation of spy satellites designed to orbit undetected. The program’s budget has soared, officials said, accounting for an enormous chunk of the nation’s presumed $40-billion annual spy budget. Intelligence officials had said the program, code-named Misty, was the focus of criticism last year by Senate Democrats.

Hayden suggested that Negroponte might take steps to improve management of one of the lesser-known areas of intelligence collection.

The category, known as Measures and Signatures Intelligence, includes technologies such as “sniffers” -- designed to take air samples outside plants suspected of producing biological weapons -- and acoustic underwater sensors employed to track submarine movements.

A congressional official said such technologies often received inadequate attention from the intelligence community despite their growing importance in tracking the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Hayden said the intelligence director’s staff of about 390 employees probably would grow to “somewhere between 500 and 700.”