US President George W Bush on Wednesday praised Air Force General Michael Hayden as a "superb" new CIA director at a swearing-in ceremony for the intelligence expert.
WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush on Wednesday praised Air Force General Michael Hayden as a "superb" new CIA director at a swearing-in ceremony for the intelligence expert.
"Mike is a patriot, he's a reformer, one of our nation's finest intelligence professionals," Bush said at a ceremony at the Langley, Virginia headquarters of the troubled spy agency.
"He brings more than two decades of experience in the intelligence field. He is going to be a superb leader for the dedicated men and women of the CIA," the US president told an audience of dozens of agency employees.
The ceremonial swearing-in on Wednesday followed an official oath-taking on Tuesday.
"He's such a good man, we're going to swear him in twice," Bush quipped.
For his part, Hayden told the US president and the employees now working under him: "I could not be more grateful. The president has laid out in front of us what we have to do, and as I said yesterday ... when I talked to you for the first time, let's just go to work."
The oath was given to Hayden by US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, who oversees several US global espionage operations, including those at the CIA.
Hayden, 61, was confirmed last week by the US Senate to run the embattled Central Intelligence Agency by a vote of 78 to 15, despite questions raised during Senate hearings over his oversight of the National Security Agency's controversial domestic wiretap program.
He replaces Porter Goss, a former US lawmaker and CIA operative who stepped down after a year and a half as the agency's director, amid criticism that morale at the agency had deteriorated on his watch.
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