Influential Democrat asks Obama to keep spy chiefs

The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in McLean, Virginia, August 14, 2008.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama should retain the Bush administration's top spy chiefs, the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee's Democratic chairman said.

The comments in Wednesday's Congress Daily by U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, run counter to the views of his likely Senate counterpart, who has called for a new team.

Reyes said he had recommended to Obama's transition team that CIA Director Michael Hayden and Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell be kept in place for at least six months.

"There's got to be some continuity, and the leadership of both the CIA and the DNI is going to be pivotal to keeping us safe and secure," Reyes said. "I made a recommendation that they stay on during the transition so that there would be a period of time that there would be overlap."

"I know that they're considering, they're weighing the options," he said. Reyes' spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Obama last week unveiled other choices for his national security team, and said current Defense Secretary Robert Gates would stay on, but he did not address the intelligence agencies. Some liberal activists have complained that his security team is too hawkish and insufficiently antiwar.

McConnell and Hayden have been criticized by human rights groups and others for their defense of Bush administration counterterrorism tactics including harsh questioning of suspect and wiretapping Americans' international phone conversations.

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, expected to take over as chairman of the Senate intelligence committee that would consider any nominations for the top spy posts, has called for new leaders to head the agencies. (Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen; editing by David Wiessler)