Iraq Envoy to Be Chief of Intelligence

President Bush on Thursday nominated the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John D. Negroponte, to serve as the nation’s first director of national intelligence, selecting a veteran diplomat to oversee a historic restructuring of the U.S. intelligence community after a string of catastrophic failures.

If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte would be given sweeping new powers over an often fractious constellation of 15 spy agencies. But he also would be given the daunting responsibility of solving problems that contributed to the intelligence community’s failures to foresee the Sept. 11 attacks or accurately assess whether Iraq had illicit weapons programs before the U.S. launched a preemptive war.

Negroponte, 65, was something of a surprise pick. His name was not among more than half a dozen people who had been the focus of speculation since the job of intelligence director was created in landmark legislation last year. Negroponte has never held a high-level intelligence job or worked in any of the agencies he would supervise.

But Bush said Negroponte understood “America’s global intelligence needs because he spent the better part of his life in our foreign service.” He promised to give his nominee ample authority and backing.

Bush said Negroponte would “determine the annual budgets for all national intelligence agencies” and direct how those funds were spent. Bush also said that Negroponte would be his “primary briefer” and would have complete control over the extent to which the heads of the various intelligence agencies would have access to the Oval Office.

Bush’s comments were clearly intended to bolster the standing of a job that had gone unfilled for two months in part because of questions about the scope of its authority. His remarks also hinted at the magnitude of the changes in store, making it clear that the so-called DNI would be his principal intelligence advisor, ending an arrangement that has lasted more than 50 years in which the CIA director coordinated the activities of other spy agencies and was often part of the president’s innermost circle.

Despite Bush’s reassurances, officials and experts said ambiguities still existed that could undermine the director -- mainly questions over how readily he can move funds, equipment and personnel from one agency to another, or from one intelligence target to another. But lawmakers from both parties said Bush’s comments sent a strong signal.

“If there was any concern about the authority of the DNI, the president put it to rest,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Roberts said his committee would hold hearings on Negroponte as soon as the ambassador completed his duties in Iraq, which could be within weeks.

Bush also nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, 59, to serve as Negroponte’s deputy. Hayden is head of the National Security Agency, the nation’s largest spy service, which is responsible for intercepting and analyzing global electronic communications.

Bush did not indicate when he would fill the crucial post of U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Senators urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a hearing Thursday to ensure that the administration moved quickly to replace Negroponte. At least one name has surfaced -- that of Negroponte’s deputy, William Taylor, who oversees Iraqi reconstruction. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said Taylor could “step in and do the job” of ambassador.

Before Negroponte’s nomination as ambassador to Iraq last year, Bush also reportedly was considering Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, former U.N. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering and former National Security Council aide Robert D. Blackwill.

Negroponte’s nomination as intelligence director fulfills the principal recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. The panel called for the creation of a national intelligence director to end confusion among the various agencies, make sure each was focused on the most important targets and ensure that they communicated with one another.

In condemning the structure of the intelligence community, the commission concluded that three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, “a question remains: Who is in charge of intelligence?”

In a statement Thursday, the co-chairmen of the Sept. 11 commission, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, and former Indiana Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, a Democrat, called the appointment “a step forward in enhancing the security of the American people.”

The CIA and other agencies came in for blistering criticism when it became clear that their prewar assessments that Iraq had stockpiles of banned weapons were wrong. In a report last year, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the CIA had no human sources in Iraq on weapons programs, and that “groupthink” among analysts had led to faulty conclusions.

Negroponte, speaking to the news media at the White House, said the job would “no doubt be the most challenging assignment” he had “undertaken in more than 40 years of government service.”

Several others who had been approached about the job, including former CIA Director Robert M. Gates, declined the position.

The son of a Greek tycoon, Negroponte entered the foreign service in 1960, and went on to hold a string of high-level posts. Before being named the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq last year, he served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In the 1970s, he handled secret negotiations with the Vietnamese under President Nixon, and a decade later served amid controversy as ambassador to Honduras in the Reagan administration.

While in Honduras, Negroponte was accused of ignoring human rights abuses, including slayings by Honduran death squads, in order to allow the U.S. to continue using the country as a base for its covert campaign against the leftist government in neighboring Nicaragua.

Negroponte denies the accusations, but his nomination renewed criticism from human rights groups and others.

Retired Navy Adm. Stansfield Turner, who served as CIA director under former President Carter, said Negroponte could be a good candidate for the job because he was “not a partisan politician,” and because he had “a wealth of background in the government and foreign affairs.”

But, Turner said, “On the negative side, the area of his greatest controversy is in human rights, and the CIA is already under criticism in that area, as to whether they stretch the rules in interrogating people.”

The agency has launched an internal investigation into alleged abuses of detainees, and has been accused of transferring prisoners to other countries that engage in torture.

Even so, lawmakers from both parties praised Negroponte’s nomination, and said they did not expect him to face serious difficulty in winning confirmation from the Senate. His nomination as U.N. ambassador in 2001 languished for months because of the human rights concerns relating to his time in Honduras.

As intelligence director, Negroponte would be in charge of an empire with a $40-billion annual budget and 200,000 employees. But the authority of the job was eroded somewhat by a series of compromises in Congress. And many current and former intelligence officials continue to question whether creating a new bureaucratic layer can solve the intelligence community’s problems.

“The big question is: Can he make it work,” said Jeffrey H. Smith, former general counsel of the CIA. “The bill has given the DNI a lot of authorities, but it has not taken authority away from existing Cabinet officers.”

In particular, the intelligence reform bill was tailored to protect the interests of the Pentagon, which still controls 80% of the intelligence budget. It is also unclear how much power the DNI will have to hire and fire the heads of agencies. Bush said only that the CIA director would “report to” Negroponte.

Some experts say the ambiguities surrounding the job could work to Negroponte’s advantage, allowing him to define the role. Bush’s comments during the news conference Thursday indicated that the two had negotiated a number of crucial points.

Bush said Negroponte would have the ability to order agencies to mount new intelligence collection operations and share data. But Bush also made it clear that the most important source of Negroponte’s power in Washington would come from his control over intelligence budgets and access to the president.

“People that can control the money, people that have got access to the president, generally have a lot of influence,” Bush said. “And that’s why John Negroponte is going to have a lot of influence. He will set the budgets.”

Negroponte, Bush said, would also serve as gatekeeper.

“Everybody’s ideas will be given a chance to make it to John’s office,” Bush said. “And if he thinks it’s appropriate I see it, I’ll see it. And if he thinks it’s a waste of my time, I won’t see it.”

The official who perhaps has the most to lose in the reshuffling is CIA Director Porter J. Goss, who briefs Bush in person six days a week.

“John and I will work to determine how much exposure the CIA will have in the Oval Office,” Bush said. “I would hope more rather than less.”

Goss, who took over as CIA director in September, has already taken a number of steps “to get things in place so that a DNI could hit the ground running,” said a CIA spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The steps range from assembling agency budgets to setting up the National Counterterrorism Center in suburban Virginia -- a center created by the intelligence reform bill.

One open question is where Negroponte will set up offices for himself and the 500 staffers he is authorized to hire. On an interim basis, he could be based at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., but officials said the matter had not been decided. Bush said Negroponte would not be based in the White House, part of an effort to encourage independence and shield the intelligence chief from political pressures.

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Times staff writer Bob Drogin contributed to this report.

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(Begin text of infobox)

John Dimitri Negroponte

Age: 65

Education: Bachelor of arts, Yale University, 1960.

Experience: Ambassador to Iraq, 2004-present; ambassador to the United Nations, 2001-2004; executive vice president, McGraw-Hill Cos., 1997-2001; ambassador to the Philippines, 1993-96; ambassador to Mexico, 1989-93; deputy national security advisor, 1987-89; assistant secretary of State on oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, 1985-1987; ambassador to Honduras, 1981-85; deputy assistant secretary of State, East Asian and Pacific affairs, 1980-81; deputy assistant secretary of State, oceans and fisheries, 1977-79.

Family: Wife, Diana; five children.

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Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times