9/11 Commissioner Criticizes Negroponte

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WASHINGTON - The new National Intelligence Director, John Negroponte, is not yet heeding a top recommendation of the Sept. 11 Commission to tear down barriers that divided U.S. spy agencies, one of the panel's Republican commissioners said Monday.

As part of a panel discussion about the progress of intelligence changes, former Navy Secretary John Lehman said Negroponte has two other full-time jobs: serving as the president's chief intelligence adviser and managing the 15 U.S. intelligence agencies.

"So far, it's still early days, but the job that we on the 9/11 Commission were most concerned about — we really didn't care about the first two so much — has not yet been addressed," Lehman said, referring to the commission's recommendations that focused on breaking down the divisions between spy agencies and "building a new culture."

Lehman asked other panelists how Negroponte, just seven weeks on the job, should divide his time. A former head of the National Security Agency, retired Adm. William O. Studeman, said Negroponte's first job has to be leading and transforming the intelligence community. "It was a failure of leadership that got us here," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/sept_11_commission&printer=1