Thursday, July 29, 2010
Los Angeles Times: President Obama’s nominee to head the intelligence community appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee and made encouraging noises about maximizing his mandate and cooperating with Congress. Retired Air Force Gen. James R. Clapper, who would be the fourth director of national intelligence, insisted that he wouldn’t be a “titular figurehead or a hood ornament,” an implicit acknowledgment that his predecessor, Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, had been marginalized, losing turf wars to the CIA and the president’s in-house intelligence adviser.
Clapper’s assertiveness comports with Congress’ desire after 9/11 to designate an official who would coordinate 16 intelligence agencies and serve as the president’s principal adviser on intelligence matters. The problem is that Congress circumscribed the director’s authority over budgetary and personnel matters while leaving to the president, as it had to, the decision about whether to turn first to the director or to his own national security staff for day-to-day advice.
The big question is whether the president would allow Clapper, to the maximum extent possible, to manage the intelligence community, including the CIA, in the way the secretary of State manages her department. Congress is taking some modest steps to increase the director’s influence, but the best guarantor of that will be the president.
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