[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
[May 13, 2006]
[Pages 924-926]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
May 13, 2006

    Good morning. This week I nominated General Mike Hayden to be the next Director of the Central 
Intelligence Agency. The work of the CIA is essential to the security of 
the American people. The enemies who struck our Nation on September the 
11th, 2001, intend to attack us again. And to defeat them, we must have 
the best possible intelligence. In Mike Hayden, the men and women of the 
CIA will have a strong leader who will support them as they work to 
disrupt terrorist attacks, penetrate closed societies, and gain 
information that is vital to protecting our Nation.
    General Hayden is supremely qualified 
to lead the CIA. For the last year, he's been our Nation's first Deputy 
Director of

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National Intelligence and has played a critical role in our efforts to 
reform America's intelligence capabilities to meet the threats of a new 
century. He has more than 20 years of experience in the intelligence 
field. He served for 6 years as Director of the National Security Agency 
and has a track record of success in leading and transforming that large 
intelligence agency. He also has held senior positions at the Pentagon 
and the National Security Council, and he served behind the Iron Curtain 
in our Embassy in Bulgaria during the cold war.
    Mike knows our intelligence community 
from the ground up. He's been both a producer and a consumer of 
intelligence and has overseen both human and technical intelligence 
activities, as well as the all-source analysis derived from those 
activities. Mike was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last year for 
his current post, and this week members of both parties have praised his 
nomination. I urge the Senate to confirm him promptly as the next 
Director of the CIA.
    During General Hayden's tenure at the 
NSA, he helped establish and run one of our most vital intelligence 
efforts in the war on terror, the terrorist surveillance program. As the 
9/11 Commission and others have noted, our Government failed to connect 
the dots in the years before the attacks of September the 11th. We now 
know that two of the hijackers in the United States made phone calls to 
Al Qaida operatives overseas, but we did not know about their plans 
until it was too late.
    So to prevent another attack, I authorized the National Security 
Agency--consistent with the Constitution and laws--to intercept 
international communications in which one party has known links to Al 
Qaida and related terrorist groups. This terrorist surveillance program 
makes it more likely that killers like the 9/11 hijackers will be 
identified and located in time. It has helped prevent possible terrorist 
attacks in the United States and abroad, and it remains essential to the 
security of America. If there are people inside our country who are 
talking with Al Qaida, we want to know about it. We will not sit back 
and wait to be attacked again.
    This week new claims have been made about other ways we are tracking 
down Al Qaida--prevent attacks on America. It is important for Americans 
to understand that our activities strictly target Al Qaida and its known 
affiliates. Al Qaida is our enemy, and we want to know their plans. The 
intelligence activities I have authorized are lawful and have been 
briefed to appropriate Members of Congress, both Republican and 
Democrat. The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our 
activities. The Government does not listen to domestic phone calls 
without court approval. We are not trolling through the personal lives 
of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused on links to 
Al Qaida terrorists and its affiliates who want to harm the American 
people.
    Americans expect their Government to do everything in its power 
under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil 
liberties. That is exactly what we are doing. And so far, we have been 
successful in preventing another attack on our soil. The men and women 
of the CIA are working around the clock to make our Nation more secure. 
I am confident that General Hayden will 
strengthen the CIA and integrate its vital work with our other 
intelligence agencies, so we can defeat the terrorists of the 21st 
century.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 7:50 a.m. on May 12 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 13. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
May 12 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office of 
the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of this 
address.

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