General Michael Hayden, the White House nominee to run the Central Intelligence Agency, will on Thursday be grilled by the Senate intelligence committee over his role managing two controversial National Security Agency spying programmes.

President George W. Bush tapped Gen Hayden, former head of the NSA from 1999 to 2005, to run the CIA following the dramatic ousting of Porter Goss. The former head of the House intelligence committee, who ran the agency for only 18 months, was fired because of his poor and abrasive management, which caused an exodus of experienced agents, resulting in plummeting morale.