Now that our Nincompoop in Chief has nominated a new Director of Central
Intelligence (DCI) to head the Central Intelligence Agency, here are some
words of wisdom from a trustworthy mathematician friend who does top-secret work for the
Department of Defense and the American military:
“Stan Turner’s comments on the 9/11 report
are worth reading. The following excerpt is (in my view) a persuasive argument for a
Cabinet-level National Intelligence Director (NID)”:
A serious problem today, which the commission addresses nicely, is that the“The same thing is done in DoD and the Services,” my friend
1947 law did not give the DCI sufficient authority to ensure adequate exchange of data among the
agencies. It would take only an executive order from the president to give the DCI, or a new
NID, the authority to set the standards for classifying secret intelligence materials. Today, each of
the heads of the 15 agencies can create classification categories so as to exclude other agencies
from their data. Some intelligence does deserve special treatment. But that should be decided by
the NID/DCI, who has the national interest in view, not someone with an agency’s
perspective.
writes, “often by withholding a ‘need to know’ certification for individuals who have the necessary
clearance but might ask the wrong questions.”
Turner, a former head of the CIA, doesn’t specifically address whether a new intelligence
director should have a Cabinet-level appointment. He does say, however, that “a close
relationship with the president is a NID/DCI’s lifeblood.”
Another former head of the CIA, John Deutch, says that a cabinet-level appointment for a
new national intelligence director “is no substitute for properly
aligning authority with responsibility.”
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card has said the chairmen of the 9/11 commission told
him that they did not mean they wanted a new intelligence czar to be a member of the Cabinet.
“They recommended that it be Cabinet-level pay,” CNN quotes him as saying.
In any case, our Nincompoop in Chief has already made it clear he has no intention
of making a Cabinet-level appointment. “Bush’s NID is strictly advisory in
nature, with no Cabinet slot, no office in the West Wing, no authority over priorities, personnel,
or budgets,” Fred Kaplan has pointed out in Slate. “It’s worse than useless; whoever takes the job
can expect nothing more than glorified paper-pushing.” But given the
nincompoop’s U-turns on just about every major decision he’s made so far, that may
not be the last word.
