Hayden: Review of CIA IG ready in a week

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The controversial management review that the CIA director ordered of the agency’s inspector general will report in the next week or so.

Director Michael Hayden told PBS’ Charlie Rose Monday that he had ordered the review because “there are some things that I had questions about with regard to the (inspector general).”

Some reports have said the concerns were about long drawn-out prosecutorial inquiries by the office, and several lawmakers have said they are worried that the review might be seen as pushing back against oversight of the agency’s controversial programs of detention, interrogation and rendition.

Hayden said he had “kept this as low key as I possibly could,” in part by tasking it to a special adviser, Robert Deitz, who had been Hayden’s general counsel when he ran the National Security Agency.

“We didn't make this a federal case … I asked Bob to organize a small team, and it was. He's got three people on it.”

He said none of the questions he had raised related to the conclusions of the inspector general’s reports, which he had acted upon.

“None of them were pushing back on the findings of the reports,” he said. “I wanted (Deitz) to look at these questions and to work with John, John Helgerson, the inspector general, to see if there was any merit in some of my concerns, and if there were, what we could do to improve the functioning of the (inspect general’s office), just like we want to improve the functioning of the (Directorate of Intelligence), or our National Clandestine Service or anything else.”

He said the review had been in train since April and that Deitz would be “doing a report out in the next week or so, not just to me, but to the (inspector general)” himself.

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Shaun Waterman, UPI Homeland and National Security Editor