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Sen jay calls intel czar negroponte sound choice

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   http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aW9rA2z46tDY&refer=top_world_news

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aW9rA2z46tDY&refer=top_world_news

Negroponte Named U.S. National Intelligence Director (Update5)

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, was picked by President George W. Bush to be the first director of national intelligence, a job created to improve the collection and sharing of information about terrorist threats.

Negroponte will lead 15 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community and personally brief the president, a role filled until now by Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter Goss. Goss will now focus exclusively on his agency.

``John will make sure that those whose duty it is to defend America will have the information they need to make the right decisions,'' Bush said in announcing the nomination today at the White House.

In picking Negroponte, Bush chose a veteran of some of the country's most difficult national-security issues: Vietnam in the 1960s, Central America in the 1980s, now Iraq. Supporters say he has the stature and skills that will be needed to establish the importance of the new post, which Congress didn't strictly define in the legislation creating it.

``He's intelligent, well-informed and tough,'' said Representative Rob Simmons, Republican of Connecticut who served as a CIA officer from 1969-1979. Simmons described Negroponte as an experienced statesman who had never ``shied away'' from a fight.

Lawmakers who praised the nomination emphasized Negroponte's toughness, a trait that may help as he carves out a new position with oversight authority of existing agencies.

Representative Christopher Cox, a California Republican who leads the House Homeland Security Committee, said Negroponte's ``toughness and experience make him the perfect choice.''

Career History

``He will have to assert himself against some powerful bureaucratic players,'' said Lee Hamilton, vice chairman of the federal commission that studied the Sept. 11 terror attacks and recommended creation of a national intelligence director. ``He's very tough-minded, and I think he'll have to be.''

Bush said Negroponte, 65, would make the ultimate decisions on annual budgets for intelligence agencies and ``direct how these funds are spent.''

Negroponte is a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2001 until last June, when he became the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War. He served in the embassy in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968 and accompanied Henry A. Kissinger, secretary of state under President Richard Nixon, to the Paris Peace Talks with North Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.

Senate Confirmation

He had two assignments on the president's National Security Council, the first from 1970 to 1973 working on the Vietnam War and the second as deputy director from 1987 to 1989.

Negroponte worked at the U.S. State Department for 37 years, including stints as U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines.

Bush announced that Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, 59, would serve as Negroponte's deputy. Since 1999, Hayden has led the National Security Agency, the agency responsible for government code- breaking and electronic eavesdropping.

The nominations of Negroponte and Hayden are subject to confirmation by the Senate. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised both choices and said his committee will hold hearings as soon as Negroponte's duties in Iraq are completed.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, promised to act quickly to replace Negroponte in Iraq.

Commission Recommendation

In May, the Senate voted 95-3 to confirm him as ambassador to Iraq. In casting one of the dissenting votes, Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said there are questions about whether he covered up human rights abuses while he was ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s during the administration of President Ronald Reagan.

At a 2001 confirmation hearing to be UN ambassador, Negroponte said he followed all ``applicable laws and policies'' while serving in Honduras.

Creating the position of national intelligence director was among the major recommendations of the commission that studied the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people.

The commission found that U.S. intelligence agencies ``struggled throughout the 1990s and up to Sept. 11 to collect intelligence on, and analyze, the phenomenon of transnational terrorism.'' It recommended appointing a national intelligence director to unify the U.S. intelligence community.

``If we're going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we must ensure that our intelligence agencies work as a single unified enterprise,'' Bush said at the press conference.

Two Months

In accepting the nomination, Negroponte told Bush changing the way agencies work to meet the nation's intelligence needs will be a priority.

``Providing timely and objective national intelligence to you, the Congress, the departments and agencies, and to our uniformed military services is a critical national task,'' Negroponte said.

It took Bush two months to announce his pick to fill the job. Yesterday, at a hearing on threats to the U.S., Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the intelligence panel, said it was ``unacceptable'' that the administration didn't act more quickly. Rockefeller applauded the nomination in a statement today, calling Negroponte ``a very sound choice.''

Bush signed legislation on Dec. 17 creating the position and enacting other commission recommendations, including the creation of a national counter-terrorism center.

Military Experience

Bush's long search to fill the position ``was a recognition that there are powerful interests in place who have resisted ceding authority to a director of national intelligence,'' said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former prosecutor who was a Democratic member of the Sept. 11 commission. He declined to offer an opinion on Bush's choice of Negroponte.

During congressional debate on the bill, lawmakers and Bush differed at times over how much authority the national intelligence director should wield over the CIA and, in particular, military intelligence offices.

In drafting the law, Congress also said it wanted either the director of national intelligence, or the director's principal deputy, be an active-duty commissioned military officer or ``have, by training or experience, an appreciation of military intelligence activities and requirements.''

Hayden's previous positions include commander of the Air Intelligence Agency and deputy chief of staff for the United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

Last Updated: February 17, 2005 17:01 EST



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