Who's Afraid of a CIA Appointment?

Intelligence agencies have incredible potential for abuse of power. Remember J Edgar Hoover? He is the guy who directed the Federal Bureau of Investigations for four decades. He built the G-man mystic and he was very interested in what other people kept in their closets. After all, his own closet held quite a few juice tidbits from little boys to frilly lace panties.

Hoover was in his heyday during the McCarthy Era. He generated secret files, on popular people of public interest, to blackmail, blacklist, intimidate and even assassinate. Part of the reason he stayed in power so long is you never knew what fragment of information could be twisted to imply wrongdoing. Maybe you attended a socialist gathering, have you participated in a protest or ever associated with someone who has?
Intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies must have checks and balances in democratic societies. Democracies cannot function where free speech and freedom or information is squelched.

This brings me around to General Michael Hayden. He is the Bush administration crony who implemented the National Security Agencies domestic wiretapping program with out warrant. Advocating and implementing a program that is in direct opposition to the Bill of Rights should, and does, have people concerned. As an Air Force General he naturally has strong ties to the Defense Intelligence Agency. Now Bush has nominated him as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

This appointment politicizes the agency. Though Hayden has critics on both sides of the political isle, does it concern you that a person who is willing to violate the Constitution is being put in charge of an agency accused of kidnapping, torturing and assassinating people?

Are you concerned about the incredible black budget this man will have power over and the resources that can be turned against the American people the way the NSA did by wiretapping Americans?

Where are the checks and balances?