Bush appoints all-powerful spy chief

[Matt D]

One of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission was the creation of a "National Intelligence Director", to oversee the entire US Intelligence Community - a responsibility previously given to (but rarely used by) the CIA Director in his position as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).

After a lot of fighting, talk, compromise, & watering down, the recommendation was passed by both of Congress & signed into law by George Bush.


So, who has Dubya nominated to be the first NID? Why, none other than John Negroponte He's currently the US Ambassador to Iraq, but anyone who's ever heard or read about the "Contra" affair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair) will have heard of him before...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/internatio...417273,00.html

Julian Borger in Washington
Friday February 18, 2005
The Guardian

John Negroponte, the US ambassador in Baghdad, was yesterday nominated as America's first director of national intelligence (DNI), making him potentially the most powerful spy chief in US history.

Announcing Mr Negroponte's nomination President George Bush described intelligence as "our first line of defence" in the struggle with terrorists and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

"If we're going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we must ensure that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise," Mr Bush said. The president made it clear he meant the DNI to be a figure of real authority, giving Mr Negroponte control over the budgets of America's 15 competing intelligence agencies and primarily responsible for daily Oval Office briefings.

"He will have the authority to order the collection of new intelligence, to ensure the sharing of information among agencies, and to establish common standards for the intelligence community's personnel ... Vesting these authorities in a single official who reports directly to me will make our intelligence efforts better coordinated, more efficient, and more effective," Mr Bush said.

(snip)

Some info on the new NID:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte

http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/negroponte/eng.html

[punky]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Some info on the new NID:

To be fair he is only a nomination; his appointment has to be confirmed by the bi-partisan US senate (the same US senate with B. Boxer and H. Clinton). Of course Bush's nomination would be someone he thinks is on the same page, you can't blame Bush for that; Any left/right-wing president would do the same.

I don't know what kind of majority is needed to confirm Negroponte, but it seems like he is favoured by the Democrats too, as in this news report, they said his nomination drew "bipartisan praise". Also, i'm not an expert on the Iran-contra thing, but it seems everyone had a hand in it from Reagan to Colin Powell, so to lump it on him, although it sounds like he was lucky to escape human rights convictions for his time as abassador to Honduras.