The chairman of the House intelligence committee says he has now received commitments from the director of the CIA that will ensure “vigorous intelligence oversight” of the agency’s activities, despite concerns he expressed in a private letter to President Bush earlier this spring that the current CIA deputy director had engaged in a leak offensive to undermine the president’s administration.

In a May 18, 2006, letter to Mr. Bush, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Republican of Michigan, wrote that Stephen Kappes was part of a “a strong and well-positioned group within the agency” that “intentionally undermined the administration and its policies.”

General Michael Hayden, the president’s Senate-confirmed choice to replace CIA director Porter Goss, brought back Mr. Kappes as his deputy after Mr. Kappes resigned from his old post as the chief of the directorate for operations at Mr. Goss’s request.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr. Hoekstra said earlier concerns that General Hayden would not cooperate with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence are now moot.

“Chairman Hoekstra has a commitment from Hayden to be forthcoming and work with the committee to ensure vigorous intelligence oversight,” Jamal Ware wrote in an e-mail yesterday. “The chairman is satisfied with the commitment and is moving forward with the director to continue reform and strengthening of the CIA’s human intelligence capabilities.”

At the time of General Hayden’s nomination, Mr. Hoekstra took the unusual step of publicly opposing him on the grounds that a former military officer should not run the CIA. But it turns out that Mr. Hoekstra’s concerns were greater than that. Mr. Hoekstra was particularly concerned about General Hayden’s choice of Mr. Kappes to be his deputy.

“The appointment of Mr. Kappes sends a clear signal that the days of collaborative reform between the White House and this committee may be over. I am concerned that the strong objections — not just about this personnel selection — are being dismissed completely, perhaps sending us back to a past, less cooperative relationship, at a time when so much more needs to be done.”

In the May 22 edition of the Weekly Standard, Stephen Hayes quoted anonymous sources confirming that Mr. Goss summoned Mr. Kappes to his office on November 5, 2004, demanding he reassign one of his loyal charges, Michael Sulick, to punish him for his insubordination earlier with a chief of staff in a discussion about leaks. Mr. Kappes refused and threatened to resign, which Mr. Goss accepted.

Mr. Hoekstra all but accuses Mr. Kappes as being a participant in a partisan plot of CIA officers and executives dedicated to destroying the Bush presidency. The chairman writes that he believes that Kappes was part of the group of CIA bureaucrats who orchestrated a string of leaks to the press in the run up to the 2004 presidential elections. He also hints Mr. Kappes had a role in the events surrounding former ambassador Joe Wilson and his CIA officer wife, Valerie Plame. “I must take note when my Democratic colleagues — those who so vehemently denounced and publicly attacked the strong choice of Porter Goss as director — now publicly support Mr. Kappes’s return,” he wrote.

In particular, Mr. Hoekstra is troubled by his understanding of how Mr. Kappes left the CIA in 2004 when his predecessor, Porter Goss, took over the reins of the agency. “The fact is, Mr. Kappes and his deputy, Mr. Sulick, were developing a communications offensive to bypass the Intelligence Committees and the CIA’s own Office of Congressional Affairs. One can only speculate on the motives but it clearly indicates a willingness to promote a personal agenda.”