CIA, intel director locked in spy turf battle

[BlueJessamine]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's two intelligence chiefs are locked in a turf battle over overseas posts, forcing National Security Adviser James L. Jones to mediate, according to current and former government officials.

The jockeying between CIA Director Leon Panetta and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair centers on Blair's effort to choose his own representatives at U.S. embassies instead of relying only on CIA station chiefs. Current and former U.S. officials described the dispute on the condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of intelligence issues.

Blair's office was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to better coordinate intelligence gathering and make sure critical information isn't overlooked. But former and current CIA officials warn that his plan could do just the opposite — creating competing chains of command inside U.S. embassies and potentially fouling up intelligence operations. They also worry it could complicate the delicate relationships between U.S. and foreign intelligence services, and leave ambassadors confused about where to turn for intelligence advice.

CIA station chiefs posted in American embassies have handled the national intelligence role abroad for the last four years, but Blair wants the option of designating other intelligence specialists for the job. That prompted strong objections from Panetta.



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[EFerrari]

1. I told ya so about Blair. He's a cowboy and will continue to be a problem.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Cheney/Bush were so corrupt and incompetent with the tools they had, we now

have training wheels screaming for their own training wheels.

Listen to Panetta and fire Blair; he obviously doesn't know his job description.

[bertman]

3. Just what we need--TWO TOP-SECRET intelligence gathering agencies. Lord help us.

[24601]

4. ODNI is not an Agency - the O stands for Office

And the DNI is The CIA Director's boss. Pannetta said so in his confirmation hearing. There is no reason the CIA should have the monopoly on representing the DNI, especially if the DNI judges that someone from from one of the other 16 or so IC organizations should do it - after all , it the DNI's rep, not the CIA Director's rep.

[bertman]

5. Sorry, 24601, for the incorrect terminology. What I gleaned from this is there could

be two separate hierarchies--not agencies--that would have their own intelligence people operating for OUR government, and in many cases, duplicating efforts. So, in essence, we would be expanding the intelligence gathering capabilities that we currently have, if say, the DNI decided his operatives should be doing something other than what the CIA director might not approve of or even be privy to. This is not something I see as a good thing because we know that large bureaucracies often spawn rogue/dissident elements that start doing their own thing even though it's not supposed to be happening.

[24601]

6. ODNI has very few people of it's own. ODNI Centers, like

the National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) is staffed from people throughout the IC.* What this proposal means isn't about adding a structure but shifting the hat from CIA to the most appropriate person. It's a outdated drawback to the days when the CIA Director also headed up the IC as the Director of Central Intelligence.

An example should this go through (and it should if for no other reason it would show that the DNI at least has enough authority to name his own personal rep) is that when an Embassy has a senior CIA Rep and a Senior NSA Rep, the DNI could say that the predominance of our intel relationship with country X is SIGINT; therefore my personal rep is the NSA guy instead of the CIA toad. Or perhaps the only viable relationship is mil to mil so the DNI names the DIA rep as the DNI rep. It doesn't add anybody to the books and pisses off the CIA - a twofer! Count me in.

* Another example - the NRO is full of people and spends mega-bucks - but absolutely nobody gets a paycheck from NRO - only from their parent departments or agencies

[bertman]

7. Thanks for the explanation, but I'm having trouble with the acronyms that I can't decipher.

SIGINT? signal intelligence? NRO? No idea.

[24601]

8. Sorry, no intent to confuse - here is the explanation

SIGINT is Signals Intelligence - the interception of foreign signals by other than the intended recipient for the production of foreign intelligence (as opposed to wiretaps for law enforcement) NSA runs SIGINT and here's their URL; http://www.nsa.gov/

NRO is the National Reconnaissance Office. NRO launches and operates the satellites that carry intelligence systems. The NRO Director is an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. All the people assigned to the NRO are detailed from their parent agencies and nobody is paid, promoted, career-managed by the NRO. Their web site - http://www.nro.gov/

History trivia - when the NRO was being formed (Eisenhower years?) the CIA could have locked in the Director's job. They (the CIA) believed. however, that the NRO would fail and didn't want to get blamed, to the Air Force got the Director's job.