U.S. Senate Confirms Porter Goss As C.I.A. Head

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (AFP) - The US Senate Wednesday confirmed Porter Goss as head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Senators voted 77-17 to allow the Florida representative and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to take over from George Tenet, who resigned in July.
Goss, 65, spent more than 10 years as a spy before entering politics. He is only the second member of Congress, after the elder George Bush, to become CIA director.
Supporters said Goss's background makes him the perfect choice to rebuild the troubled agency, which is facing strong criticism over the failure to head off the September 11, 2001 attacks and the information used to justify the Iraq war.
But opponents have criticized Goss as being too closely connected to the intelligence establishment and the Bush administration.
Among those who voted against Goss were Democratic senators Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.