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2020-04-28 Government
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An intelligence community shakeup is returning assets to field, where they are welcomed
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[JustTheNews] Acting Director of National Intelligence is shrinking down his bureaucracy, and sending resources to other spy agencies.
No need to hire new people when borrowed staff can be sent back where they came from. And if some of them should be miffed and choose to retire instead, that’s the equivalent of two people downsized, one in each organization. When Ambassador Ric Grenell took over as America’s acting intelligence czar earlier this year, he inherited a Director of National Intelligence Office that had ballooned in both size and mission.
Created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to ensure better communication and coordination between the 17 main intelligence agencies, ODNI had swelled by this year to 1,800 employees — many with senior salaries — and a similar number of contractors.
And the mission of coordination had crept to include analysis and many other tasks normally reserved for the likes of the CIA, DIA, and FBI. In essence, ODNI started competing to perform the same jobs as other agencies it was supposed to supervise.
Grenell saw a bureaucracy with much duplication and cost. He wasn’t alone. Multiple reviews of the agency’s structure over the last 24 months had flagged the need for reforming and shrinking ODNI, but no one pitched the shovel into the dirt to get change started. Grenell did.
With little fanfare, the acting DNI and ambassador to Germany has undertaken a major shakeup of ODNI, shrinking down its size and sending many employees back to spy agencies on the front lines. He’s trying to finish the job before President Trump’s nominee, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), is confirmed.
The heads of the recipient agencies are welcoming the change, including Ellen McCarthy, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, whose INR office inside the State Department is getting additional resources.
"INR is one of the smallest members of the intelligence community, but it has long had an outsized impact in terms of its contributions to the analysis that informs policymakers," McCarthy said. "In fact, taking into account the relative size of intelligence agencies, INR contributes more per analyst to the President's Daily Brief than any other IC member, and our work provides a unique perspective for policymakers.
"But INR is under-resourced, and it desperately needs more people and budget," she added. "ADNI Ric Grenell has recognized this, and I applaud his efforts to reform ODNI to move more personnel to frontline agencies like INR that are doing the hard work of intelligence."
CIA is another agency set to get resources returned to it after years of chafing as ODNI duplicated some of its responsibilities and borrowed some of its officers.
"ODNI was not intended to collect and analyze intelligence, its function was to coordinate these activities among intelligence agencies," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the reorganization.
"You don't need thousands of people to do that," the official said. "ODNI absolutely needs to reassess how it is working with an eye towards shifting officers back to agencies like CIA and FBI." 
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Posted by trailing wife 2020-04-28 00:00||
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