Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday ridiculed media speculation of a power struggle between the Pentagon and CIA as “pedestrian and unimpressive.”
“There is no power play taking place in Washington,” an obviously exasperated Rumsfeld told reporters. “And yet all we read about is: Oh, this bureaucratic fight there, and someone?s doing a power grab there, and oh my goodness gracious, there?s a conspiracy about this.”
Rumsfeld was trying to downplay the controversy over President Bush?s nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden on Monday as the next director of the CIA.
Critics have expressed concerns over a uniformed military officer taking over the civilian spy agency at a time when Rumsfeld already is working to consolidate intelligence operations at the Pentagon.
“The quality of the debate on this subject is pedestrian and unimpressive,” said Rumsfeld, who complained about “the monumental dearth of facts.”
“If you look at the debate and the articles in the newspaper and the comments that are being made, they are about theoretical conspiracies, they?re about theoretical bureaucratic turf fights. They?re all off the mark,” he said.
