Intelligence Czar Returns to Diplomacy
After less than two years in a job that many in Washington considered thankless, John Negroponte, the nation's first director of national intelligence, will be returning to his longtime home in Foggy Bottom as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top deputy. The appointment of the veteran diplomat would fill a critical gap at the State Department, particularly with President Bush preparing to roll out a new Iraq strategy. Before becoming DNI, Negroponte served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
His removal as the DNI does cast some doubt over the Bush administration's efforts to reform the intelligence community. Negroponte, who will be replaced as DNI by former National Security Agency chief Mike McConnell, had received some criticism for his quiet, behind-the-scenes approach to the daunting task of unifying the massive, $44 billion intelligence community. But while the DNI was given only limited authority over the 16 disparate spy agencies, Negroponte had been charting an ambitious agenda that produced some early successes.
"He has done an excellent job as DNI," says a senior administration official. "He really helped establish the office and get it off the ground."
In the coming weeks, Negroponte is expected to exercise his most important lever of control over the intelligence community when he submits the 2008 intelligence budget, the first one prepared from scratch by the new DNI's office. But without a permanent deputy DNI, the office is suddenly facing a leadership gap and questions about whether the reforms underway will lose some momentum.
On many levels, Negroponte's move to the State Department appears to be something of a demotion, but the Bush administration is trying to portray his return to the world of diplomacy as Negroponte's choice.
"It's his passion," says a senior administration official. "What allowed this to happen was that we found the right person to replace him."
McConnell is a retired vice admiral who ran the NSA in the early 1990s. McConnell worked closely with Bush's new defense secretary, Robert Gates, when McConnell served as head of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Gen. Colin Powell during the 1991 Gulf War.
Negroponte could become an unusually influential deputy secretary of state. As DNI, he saw Bush almost every day when he delivered the President's Daily Brief, the top-secret compendium of the nation's best intelligence. Says one senior official, "He has the president's ear."
While Negroponte will likely be focusing on helping implement Bush's new Iraq policy, which could be announced next week, he will also work on a range of other issues in his new job. He is particularly concerned about the challenges facing many Muslim nations confronting extremism. In a recent interview with U.S. News, he addressed America's role in countering the ideology behind Islamic extremism. "You've got to deal with the people who are going to set off the bombs and shoot guns. But you also have to look at the root causes. That is a longer-term proposition, and it doesn't only involve us," Negroponte said. "The longer war on terrorism is going to depend, in large measure, on progress that these societies themselves make in dealing with those issues at home."
In the interview, Negroponte also offered his evaluation of how well the intelligence community has evolved.
"I do believe that if you do the balance sheet of how we're doing, how we've done since 9/11, we are today more vigilant, we're better prepared, [and] our intelligence has improved," Negroponte said. "But is there activity out there that we just simply don't know about? That's always a source of concern."
More on Negroponte's tenure, as well as a transcript of his interview and a full report on the status of intelligence reform efforts, is available at www.usnews.com/intelligence.
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