US House Representative Porter Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was nominated by President George W. Bush as the new head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Tuesday.

"He knows the CIA inside and out. He's the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation's history," Bush said in a statement at the White House.
 
If confirmed by the Senate, the 65-year-old Republican from Florida will become second congressman to head the CIA after George H.W. Bush, the former president and father of the current US president.

Born on Nov. 26, 1938, in Waterbury, Connecticut, Goss served two years in the US Army as an intelligence officer after graduation with a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1960. He joined the CIA in 1962 and worked as a clandestine agent for nearly 10 years till 1971.

Goss was elected to the Congress in 1988 and has served on the House intelligence committee since 1995. He also serves on the House rules committee and the House homeland security committee.

The CIA has been under fire since the Sept. 11 attacks for failing to provide credible and accurate intelligence to foil the plot, and for prewar intelligence failures on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction that the Bush administration used to justify its war against Iraq last year. No such weapons have been found since the start of the war in March 2003.

Former CIA director George Tenet tendered his resignation in early June on "personal reasons," and resigned from the post on July 11. The CIA is currently being run by acting director John McLaughlin.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2004)