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Bush Nominates National Intelligence Director By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush today nominated U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte to serve as the first director of national intelligence (see GSN, Jan. 31). The position was created in December when Bush signed into law a sweeping intelligence reform bill that established the director to oversee the U.S. intelligence community. “The director’s responsibility is straightforward and demanding. John will make sure that those whose duty it is to defend America have the information they need to make the right decisions,” Bush said. “I appreciate your confidence in choosing me for what will no doubt be the most challenging assignment I have undertaken in more than 40 years of government service,” Negroponte told Bush during a press conference this morning announcing his nomination. Prior to becoming U.S. ambassador to Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein, Negroponte served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines. His confirmation as national intelligence director is subject to Senate approval. Bush said that one of the factors in his selection was Negroponte’s diplomatic background, which should help him work with the various heads of the U.S. intelligence agencies. “He understands the power centers in Washington. He’s been a consumer of intelligence in the past. And so he's got a good feel for how to move this process forward in a way that addresses the different interests,” Bush said, referring to budgetary issues. Bush also nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden to serve as deputy national intelligence director. Hayden now leads the National Security Agency. “Mike has already demonstrated an ability to adapt our intelligence services to meet the new threats of a new century,” Bush said. One of the chief architects of the intelligence reform law, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), today praised the nominations. “Ambassador Negroponte and Lieutenant General Hayden will bring a wealth of experience to the positions for which they are nominated. I hope that Congress acts quickly on these nominations,” Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a prepared statement. John Pike, director of the GlobalSecurity.org think tank, said today that Negroponte was a person with “considerable experience.” Even so, Pike said it would have been “better for the country” to have Negroponte remain as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, where he has had “six months of on-the-job training.” Pike also said that the Senate was likely to confirm Negroponte, though one issue could be whether Democrats choose to use his confirmation hearings to attack the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq. Senator Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, criticized the White House yesterday for the delay in nominating a national intelligence director. Citing recent visits to various intelligence agencies, Rockefeller said the delay has hindered other reform efforts. “The message I heard over and over — through words or body language — [from] senior leadership at these agencies was that acting on how best to carry out some key provisions on the intelligence reform bill was being held up, pending the arrival of the new director of national intelligence,” Rockefeller said during his opening remarks before the committee’s annual hearing on worldwide threats (see related GSN story, today). “The delay in appointing a DNI has kept implementation of the reform bill therefore, in my judgment, in idle,” he said. The delay will also make it difficult for the director, once confirmed, to have a team of deputies in place within the six-month schedule mandated by the intelligence reform law, Rockefeller said. He also claimed that the “practical consequences” of the delay have included a lack of progress in creating a National Counterterrorism Center and the lack of a decision by the administration on whether to move forward with a National Counterproliferation Center — both of which were set out in the intelligence reform law. “We need a person in charge. We need an organization in place that can coordinate counterterrorist operations across agencies against this multiplying terrorist threat,” Rockefeller said.
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