Veteran diplomat Negroponte tapped for top intelligence slot

President Bush has nominated John Negroponte, a career diplomat and the current U.S. ambassador to Iraq, as the first director of national intelligence, a position created last year to manage the vast and often unwieldy federal intelligence apparatus, which includes 15 different agencies.

At the White House Thursday morning, Bush laid out his expectations for the nation's new intelligence chief. "John will make sure that those whose duty it is to defend America have the information we need to make the right decisions," he said.

Bush said Negroponte's long tenure in the Foreign Service and his current "sensitive post" in Iraq mean he "understands America's global intelligence needs."

"Intelligence is our first line of defense," Bush said. "If we're going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we must ensure that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise."

Negroponte, in a brief statement, said he was "honored" by the president's nomination and said his new job would "no doubt be the most challenging assignment I have undertaken in more than 40 years of government service."

"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 told Bush. "Equally important will be the reform of the intelligence community in ways designed to best meet the intelligence needs of the 21st century."

But just how much authority the recently enacted reform law gives the new director is a subject of some debate.

If confirmed, Negroponte will become the president's chief intelligence adviser, a position of considerable influence, particularly in the Bush White House, where the president has been briefed on a daily basis by the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Under the new rules, CIA director Porter Goss would report directly to Negroponte.

However, Negroponte's ability to shape a unified national intelligence budget could be hampered by other officials in the intelligence chain of command, chief among them the Defense secretary. The national intelligence director, according to the law, will provide "guidance for developing the National Intelligence Program budget," and will "develop and determine an annual consolidated" budget.

But the director will not determine budgets for most Defense intelligence activities, which constitute the bulk of annual intelligence spending. Instead, the new intelligence chief will "participate in [their] development" with the Defense secretary, the law states.

"John Negroponte is going to have a lot of influence," Bush insisted at a press briefing Thursday morning. "He will set the budgets." When a reporter asked if the president would "back [Negroponte] if he goes up against Don Rumsfeld," Bush replied, "I don't think it necessarily works-I know that's how the press sometimes likes to play discussions inside the White House-X versus Y, and butting of heads and sharp elbows. Generally, it works a little more civilly than that. People make their case, there's a discussion, but ultimately John will make the decisions on the budget."

Negroponte's prior diplomatic service is storied and atypical. A 37-year member of the Foreign Service, Negroponte served in eight different posts in Asia, Europe and Latin America from 1960 to 1997, when he left government for a brief stint in the private sector. In 2001, Bush nominated him to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a position he held until last May, when he became the ambassador to Iraq.

As a career officer, Negroponte held three different ambassadorships, a record of service almost unheard of in the diplomatic corps. Most Foreign Service officers consider themselves fortunate to obtain an ambassadorship once.

Negroponte's nomination was greeted enthusiastically by some members of Congress and members of the 9/11 Commission, the panel that investigated the intelligence lapses preceding the attacks and whose recommendations formed the core of the reform law.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a key architect of the reforms, called Negroponte a "dedicated public servant" who "has loyally served his government in multiple countries around the world."

Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, the former chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, said, "[Negroponte's] extraordinary knowledge of foreign policy and intelligence issues will serve him well in his new capacity."

Former officials also praised Negroponte's credentials. "His vast experience with foreign affairs will bring a new perspective to the position, which I think will be helpful," said former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, who served with Negroponte in the Reagan administration. At the time, Negroponte was the U.S. ambassador to Honduras. "He comes from the 'demand side' of the [intelligence] equation," Poindexter said, referring to the fact that, as a Foreign Service officer, Negroponte was a consumer of intelligence for many years.

James Simon, the former assistant director of Central Intelligence for administration at the CIA, called Negroponte "an excellent choice; an experienced player, a man of intellect, initiative and integrity, and a proven ability to attract good people. He'll need all that and more as he struggles with too little authority" provided in the intelligence law, Simon said.

But some family members of 9/11 victims questioned whether Negroponte's extensive diplomatic career has provided him with intelligence expertise and the management skills necessary to control a bureaucracy.

The organization September 11th Advocates released a statement challenging Bush's assertion that Negroponte was qualified because he'd received "an unvarnished and up-close look at a deadly enemy" in Iraq.

"Respectfully, Iraq is far from an intelligence success," the family members said. "While Mr. Negroponte served on the National Security Council during the late '80s, threats to national security have evolved and transformed since that time."

At least one lawmaker expressed reservations about Negroponte's nomination. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said, "It is vitally important that he be an honest broker and always report the facts [to Congress]. In my opinion, if he becomes merely a mouthpiece for the administration, he will have failed in his duties to the American people."

When Negroponte stood for nomination as U.N. ambassador in 2001, Dodd and others questioned Negroponte's role in the Reagan administration's policies in Central America. Specifically, Dodd and others said that not enough was known about Negroponte's knowledge of paramilitary activities by rebel groups in Nicaragua when he served in neighboring Honduras. Lawmakers also questioned whether Negroponte or other officials turned a blind eye to rebel activities that later were discovered to have included kidnappings, torture and murder.

Insights into how Negroponte will attempt to run the intelligence agencies may be found in the president's selection of Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, who currently runs the National Security Agency, to be principal deputy director of national intelligence.

A widely admired military officer, Hayden also is regarded as a keen and effective manager, and he has won praise for helping NSA, the government's chief eavesdropper, evolve into an information-age organization by upgrading its computer systems and hiring new experts on various countries.

Lieberman said he was "heartened" by Hayden's nomination. The senator called him "a first-rate head of NSA [who has] played a critical role in advising Congress on the need for and direction of intelligence reform…"

In a brief statement, an NSA spokeswoman said, "General Hayden is honored that the president has asked him to be the deputy director of national intelligence, and he looks forward to serving under Ambassador Negroponte." She had no additional information on who might be named to replace Hayden if he is confirmed by the Senate.