Intelligence design?
I know that there’s a joke here that is so easy to make but I’ll have to pass. Probably a half a dozen of them. But I’m not in the mood for shooting fish in barrels today. I just have a question.
Who’s in charge of intelligence in the Bush Administration?
No, seriously…. Who’s in charge?
Isn’t it worrisome, or telling, or whatever….., that the top two spots at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the office that is supposed to correlate, corroborate, coordinate and otherwise oversee all of the various national intelligence agencies…… that those top two spots are empty.
With the latest administrative shuffle, John Negroponte, leaves his post as Director of National Intelligence to become the number two person at the State Department, the Deputy Secretary of State, underneath Condoleezza Rice. (Yuk, get your minds out of the gutter. That’s not what I meant.)
Whether the DNI really has any oversight or power remains to be seen. He can’t actually direct or control any part of the intelligence community beyond his own staff and the bulk of the intelligence infrastructure remains within the controls of the Department of Defense. Nonetheless, the establishment of the office was one of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and arose from a belief that lack of coordination between the various agencies was a key factor in the intelligence failures prior to the attacks.
Even if he didn’t have any real power, a Congressional Quarterly article quoted at Negroponte’s Wikipedia page says that he didn’t seem to be trying all that hard:
On many a workday lunchtime, the nominal boss of U.S. intelligence, John D. Negroponte, can be found at a private club in downtown Washington, getting a massage, taking a swim, and having lunch, followed by a good cigar and a perusal of the daily papers in the club’s library.
“He spends three hours there [every] Monday through Friday,” gripes a senior counterterrorism official, noting that the former ambassador has a security detail sitting outside all that time in chase cars. Others say they’ve seen the Director of National Intelligence at the University Club, a 100-year-old mansion-like redoubt of dark oak panels and high ceilings a few blocks from the White House, only “several” times a week.
Sound’s like Dubya’s kind of a guy. Heckuva job.
But hey, you might say, people move around all the time, so surely this is no big deal. I’m sure there’s a capable Number 2 man/woman in that office who’s entrenched and can run things in transition, right? You’d think, huh?
Wrong.
The Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, the number two spot in the office, is also open, and has been since May of 2006, when Michael Hayden left to replace Porter Goss as Director of the CIA. Ronald Burgess, Jr. has been keeping the chair warm as the acting PDDNI until further notice. I’m sure that filling that spot has been right up at the top of the “to do list”. I’d guess that Lt. Gen Burgess Jr. can go ahead and hang a few pictures and get comfy, given the other problems looming ahead for the President.
Anyway, Retired Navy Vice Admiral John M. (Mike) McConnell is President Bush’s choice to be the next director of national intelligence. We’ll see how he turns out, but from what I can find online, he seems to be a Bush the Elder veteran with close ties to Cheney. Meet the New Boss….. Same as the Old Boss.
