FACTBOX-Senate panel weighs Bush pick for intelligence job

(Reuters) - Retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell went before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday for his confirmation hearing as President George W. Bush's nominee for U.S. director of national intelligence.

Here are five facts about the career military intelligence officer as lawmakers assess his candidacy to replace departing U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte.

* McConnell was a member of the administration of Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, during the 1991 Gulf War when he served as top intelligence advisor to Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

* From 1992 to 1996, McConnell was director of the National Security Agency, the Pentagon code-breaking and electronic surveillance organization that more recently has been embroiled in a controversy over Bush's domestic spying program.

* McConnell spent the past decade at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led the consulting firm's assignments in military intelligence and information operations for the Pentagon.

* He has a bachelor's degree in economics from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and a master's in government and public administration from George Washington University in Washington. He also has masters equivalents from the National Defense University, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the Defense Intelligence College.

* McConnell was born July 26, 1943, in Greenville, South Carolina, and became an intelligence officer after a tour of duty in Vietnam.