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| CIA Station Chiefs Are Instructed to Include Negroponte in Reporting | |
| 2005-05-14 | |
| Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte sent a message to the CIA chiefs of station around the world last month telling them to report back to him when carrying out matters related to the overall U.S. intelligence community, according to senior intelligence officials. Some agency officials feared the cable could represent an invasion of the CIA's role and leadership, but others discounted such worries and viewed it as a logical move by Negroponte to establish his office.
Negroponte, whose position was created by Congress last year as part of the intelligence reorganization, is to oversee and coordinate efforts of the CIA and 14 other intelligence agencies. As a result, he has taken over some of the roles historically played by the CIA director, and the cable reflected that shift. As a practical matter, the CIA director will still see the station chiefs' communications to Negroponte, according to a former senior intelligence official who has looked into the matter. Some present and former CIA officials said yesterday the Negroponte cable made clear that the CIA station chiefs would be senior among other intelligence representatives in a country, such as FBI agents or Defense Intelligence Agency officers. Negroponte, Goss and their senior staffs are still working on how the new DNI structure will relate to the rest of the intelligence community, and in that climate even routine communications can come in for special scrutiny. Although some CIA officials said they worried the cable represented an attempt by Negroponte to bypass the agency, others disagreed. A senior CIA official, who like others would comment on the memo only anonymously because of the political sensitivities involved, said that "under the law, the DNI is head of [intelligence] community functions and the chiefs of station are his representatives out there, and that is all it is." Negroponte has also sent out a cable to intelligence officers who had represented the DCI at U.S. military headquarters commands around the world, saying they now represent the new DNI. Those CIA personnel essentially provide intelligence backup to the commanders and serve as a liaison with the agency. "That was just a name change," the CIA official said. One former senior CIA official said the new reporting directive showed the CIA chiefs of stations "now wear two hats in the field and thus report to two bosses" -- the DNI and the CIA director. That should not cause problems, he added, "unless it introduces ambiguities about who reports to whom or it gets into clandestine operations." The cable also illustrates one of the problems critics of the reorganization plan noted when the legislation was before Congress last year. The bill was sometimes ambiguous in laying out the authorities possessed by the DNI, and Congress left it to the new director to work them out. Negroponte's office refused to discuss the contents of the cable, whose existence was disclosed in the National Journal. The office released a statement that said, "The chiefs of station will serve as DNI representatives in carrying out overseas responsibilities and functions related to the intelligence community. At the same time, the chiefs of station will continue to serve and support the CIA through their already established CIA reporting channels." | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 Jack, what are you alking about? It already does look like a bowl of spaghetti. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2005-05-14 14:24 |
| #1 This is only the first blow of the hammer in building this bureaucracy. There are many more nails, blows, tearouts, rebuilds and redesigns to come. Also, you can expect strikes, slowdowns, lockouts, switching jobs, resignations, new hires, belly-up contracts (policy) and all the other constraints and restraints of design and construction. When it is all done I want it to look like something that makes sense, is substantive and effective and has durability to get the job done. But I have a feeling that unless we get better quality in the management and interagency coordination - this org is going to look like a bowl of spaghetti. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2005-05-14 14:16 |