National Intelligence Director Proves to Be Difficult Post to Fill

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49845-2005Jan30.html

National Intelligence Director Proves to Be Difficult Post to Fill
Uncertainties Over Role, Authority Are Blamed for Delays

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 31, 2005; Page A04

Six weeks after President Bush signed the intelligence bill calling for a new director of national intelligence, the White House is still looking for what the president told reporters last week is "the right person to handle this very sensitive position."

Although names of several possible candidates have surfaced, officials say they do not believe the White House is close to making an appointment. Within the intelligence community and on Capitol Hill, officials say they believe the delay stems at least partly from continuing uncertainty over what real power and authority the new director will have.

"It is confounding and disturbing not to have someone on the job," Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said last week. She linked the delay to the "murkiness and ambiguities . . . directly related to compromises that had to be made in both houses" to get the intelligence reorganization bill passed.

The vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), acknowledged that the legislation left uncertainties about the role of the director of national intelligence (DNI) but said that "it was better to be a little vague" in writing such a law. "The person chosen to be DNI should be one of the five most powerful people in government and by his or her actions will eliminate the vagueness."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and a prime mover on the intelligence bill, said the White House "is really taking time in deciding" on a director. She recognized that one issue may be that the legislation "reflects compromises and may well need to be 'tweaked' " after a director is chosen. <snip>

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