Posted by
on Saturday, January 06, 2007 2:37:54 AM
On Thursday I posted up a story about John Negroponte exitting the DNI position to take a deputy secretary's job at State. And I'll be the first to admit that I was pretty harsh in my criticism of Negroponte's job as DNI. My primary gribe was his foot-dragging over the Iraqi documents that we seized when we invaded. And I think I'm pretty spot on with that gripe. All those documents available, and none of them classified as secret. At that time, we were covering the butts of France, Germany, and Russia because of some of the things the documents have revealed. Big deal. We all knew they were complicit in helping Saddam revitalize aspects of his military and the weapons they used. That wasn't a secret as we already had proof of that.
However the rest of my rant (and believe me it was) was unjustified. I held Negroponte completely accountable when, in fact, it wasn't his fault. This isn't a reversal, mind you. This is more of a correction. I still hold Negroponte responsible for some of his mistakes. However, as my uncle AND Captain Edpointed out yesterday ( I talked to my uncle on the phone) I can't hold him responsible for all of it. Captain Ed wrote, in part:
As I warned when President Bush caved into pressure from the 9/11 Commission to create the DNI in the manner he did, this would only result in a larger bureaucracy and only limited success in the kind of interagency cooperation needed. The change only succeeded in creating a new bureaucracy to sit on top of all of the old ones, and left Negroponte with only limited power to enforce policy changes in any of the subordinate agencies. In fact, when he first arrived as DNI, the directorate comprised a few hundred employees, mostly pulled from those component agencies with their extreme displeasure.
Negroponte can't be held responsible for the infighting from the other intelligence agencies in the US's arsenal. We are all well aware of the turf disputes between the FBI and CIA, and such a battle was pointed out by Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower. Our intelligence agencies don't like to work with another, and they have an even bigger problem with sharing.
This is another problem I've tackled, in terms of brainstorming solutions. I've got a couple ideas, but their ability to fly has about as good a chance at being accepted as alternatives as a penguin taking flight tomorrow would. In other words, the ideas, while nice and look good on paper, would likely never be accepted.
That aside, the idea the 9-11 Commission had regarding a DNI is a dog idea. It was one of the ideas we weren't too hip on to begin with, but we were willing to give it a shot. We now know that without some sort of reform regarding its mission, and garnering full cooperation with our intelligence agencies, the entire position should be scrapped. It's a dog, and as the new dog on the block, the others got jealous and nasty. Negroponte was nullified by the same people he was supposed to be working with. Some people haven't learned the definition of "team mate" yet.
If we are to truly get every agency on the same page, the DNI is going to have to be given some power to exercise to accomplish his job. He can't go running to the president every time a team member takes his bat and ball away, or won't play with him at all. And with a new DNI coming up in Admiral McConnell coming up, Captain Ed points out that the Democrats are already accusing the president of militarizing the post, and saying that it looks like he is trying to give all the intel positions to the military.
Frankly, I could care less if it's military or not. I want someone in the position who knows intelligence, knows how to handle it, analyze, and act pro-actively on it. I don't care if the huy is a serving or retired military officer. And it's not like the military doesn't have it's advantages. We'll recall that our Spec-Ops troops are encouraged to set up their own lines of gathering intelligence int he field. I'd rather have hard, solid intelligence from the field than from some guy in a cubicle at CIA about two days or two weeks too late.
Let's face it, part of the breakdown that led to 11 September was a failure on the part of our intel agencies not talking and not sharing what they had. They didn't work together. To solve this, the 9-11 Commission called for a Director of National Intelligence. Unfortunately, he was left out to dry to hold the bag when everything started falling apart. Rather than be held as a scapegoat, Negroponte decided to move on. I can't blame him. But with the spot now vacant, before Admiral McConnell takes that post, there needs to some sort of reform to the position. Give it the ability to force the other agencies to cough up what they have that's relevant, or something.
Or you scrap it. Personally, I wouldnt mind scrappeing the position, and ending the bureaucracy before it gets really out of control. In 2004, the DNI was created, and in 2006, part of it's funding was withheld as Democrats demanded to know why they needed so much money for 700 employees. As of right now, it has double that amount. At a growth of 700 a year, it'll rapidly become one of the biggest moneysuckers of the budget. Remember, we have to be right 100% of the time to ensure we don't get hit again. So, what's that level of security worth to you, the taxpayer?
I say get rid of it. Make those agency heads report directly to the National Security Council. But the DNI will never receive what he needs to be effective. The president, who is the chair of the NSC, will be effective, or someone's losing their job. Save the taxpayers some bucks, tell the 0-11 Commission to get stuffed (and that goes double for the idiot Democrats in the House proclaiming they'll get all the recommendations passed through in this session), and do what you have to do to get these agencies to work together.
Publius II