Poker-Faced Diplomat, Negroponte Is Poised for Role as Spy Chief -NYT

[Rose Siding]

When Duane R. Clarridge visited John D. Negroponte last summer in his barricaded compound in Baghdad, Mr. Negroponte, then the American ambassador, surprised his visitor by greeting him as "Mr. Marone."

That was Mr. Clarridge's alias 20 years ago when they last met. He was running the Central Intelligence Agency's covert war against communism in Central America from Honduras, where Mr. Negroponte was in his first ambassadorial post.

The greeting was a reminder that in a four-decade diplomatic career, Mr. Negroponte, 65, has often operated on the fringes of the secret world of intelligence.

Now, as the United States fights another borderless war against a different enemy, terrorism, he is about to move to the center of that world, as the first director of national intelligence. His task will be to coordinate 15 spy agencies so that the United States is never again surprised as it was on Sept. 11, 2001, nor as ill-informed as it was about Iraq's weapons programs.

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/29/politics/29negroponte.html

[Tamyrlin79]

1. So. The Cabal takes more power.

Negroponte is definitely someone not to be trusted as a leader of such an organization.

[bemildred]

2. The NYT fellates Mr Negroponte. What a pantload. nt