Q&A: John Negroponte
Another problem that was associated with that approach was that by sometimes trying to fit too many different projects into a budget and maybe low-balling the estimates of their costs, each of these efforts ran the risk of suffering because you didn't put enough investment in the project upfront to get these things off to a good start. So, that's probably been the thing I've insisted on the most and that resulted, in my initial year, in some decisions and trade-offs that we had to make with respects to imagery architecture. But we are certainly very, very committed to having a strong base capability in that area, and I believe that we certainly have a capacity in this world second to none, in terms of our imagery capabilities.
Do you foresee more battles like that for the 2008 budget?
Well, I wouldn't call them battles. I think that this is a dynamic process. They are not battles, but we're always going to have a lot of discussion about that because different people have different views as between various approaches to ensuring that we have the best possible intelligence coverage. I haven't seen the proposed '08 budget … but this is the first year that we will be in a position of building the budget from scratch. So, it will be a first, sort of complete test of the DNI's budget development authorities.
Your background, sir, was as a consumer of intelligence, for much of your career. Did anything particularly surprise you now that you're on the inside looking down at the entire complex?
You're right, my background was as a consumer of intelligence. But also, having been an ambassador five times, I've had five [CIA] stations and other elements of the intelligence community working with our embassies, so I actually have quite a bit of [experience]. The second thing–and a career foreign service officer can't resist saying this, since I was one for 37 years–I was a political reporting officer. So, I've generated a hell of a lot of political reports in my life.
You know something about collection.
That's exactly right. I generated a lot of political reports, so I felt a considerable familiarity with the work in the intel community. I wouldn't say there are any big surprises. What I would say is I'm very impressed by the work we do. I think the intel community can get a bum rap at times, and clearly one of the reasons is that you can't go out and broadcast your successes. There are things that are accomplished every day, in the interest of the security of our country, that people just can't talk about. So it's a little bit like having one arm tied behind your back, but that's the way it's got to be.
Some people have said that someone in your job probably needs to take a two-by-four to the agencies to force change. I think others were looking for some sort of big confrontation–some battle where you would test your authority. That doesn't appear to be your style. How would you describe your leadership style?
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