WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry stayed non-committal Tuesday on the nomination of a prominent Republican to head the CIA, but called for urgent action to create a national intelligence czar with real clout.
The Massachusetts senator delivered no direct judgment on the choice of Porter Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and an ally of President George W. Bush, to direct the troubled Central Intelligence Agency.
He called for "fair, bipartisan and expeditious (Senate) confirmation hearings" on the nomination of Goss to run the agency which has been accused of massive failures before the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Iraq war.
But Kerry added in a statement: "The most important position is one that hasnt been created yet, National Intelligence Director with real control of budgets and personnel."
"We need to move urgently on this and other recommendations by the 9/11 Commission to make America safer," he said in a reference to the national inquiry panel on the terror attacks that issued its final report last month.
"The most important thing we can do right now is reform and strengthen our intelligence services as the 9/11 Commission has recommended," Kerry said. "I hope that Congressman Goss shares this view and will now support the creation of this important post."
Bush has accepted the recommendation for an intelligence director to oversee the activities of 15 agencies after the failure to predict the September 11 attacks and the faulty reports that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
But the president has balked at the commission's call to place the position in his cabinet or the White House, prompting fears it could end up as simply another layer of bureacuracy without real budgetary or managerial power.
While Kerry withheld any direct comment on the nomination of the 65-year-old Goss, he was not likely to be crazy about the prospect of the former spy taking over the CIA.
A 15-year veteran of Congress from the electorally crucial state of Florida, Goss is a strong Bush supporter and recently slammed Kerry's national security views as "unrealistic and dangerously naive."
The nomination drew praise from several Democrats as well as Republicans. But some in Kerry's party were leery about politicizing the intelligence reform process with the choice of Goss.
"A person should not be the director of central intelligence who has acted in a very political way," Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, told reporters on Tuesday.